Senior AI Data Engineer at Scribd in San Francisco, CA

Scribd, Inc. is on a mission to advance human understanding. Our four products — Scribd®, Slideshare®, Everand™, and Fable — help billions of people across the globe move beyond access and into insight, application, and expertise. CULTURE AT SCRIBD, INC. We support a culture where our employees can be real and be bold; where we debate and commit as we embrace plot twists; and where every employee is empowered to take action as we prioritize the customer. We believe the best work happens when individual flexibility is balanced with meaningful community connection. Scribd Flex empowers employees to choose the workstyle and location that support their best performance, while committing to intentional in-person moments that strengthen collaboration and culture. Occasional in-person attendance is required for all Scribd, Inc. employees, regardless of location. So what are we looking for in new team members? At Scribd, Inc., we hire for “GRIT.” Traditionally defined as the intersection of passion and perseverance toward long-term goals, GRIT reflects the mindset we expect from every employee. For us, it also serves as a practical framework for how we work: setting and achieving Goals, delivering Results within your role, contributing Innovative ideas and solutions, and strengthening the broader Team through collaboration and attitude. This posting reflects an approved, open position within the organization. About the Team The Data Platform team sits within Scribd's Infrastructure organization and is responsible for the data infrastructure, governance, and enablement that powers the entire company. We own the foundational layers that make trusted data accessible — from our Medallion Architecture and Unity Catalog in Databricks, to the semantic and AI layers that sit on top. This is a high-impact team at the center of Scribd's AI adoption push. We move fast, we set standards, and we care deeply about making data work for everyone — engineers, analysts, and business users alike. About the Role We're looking for a Senior AI Data Engineer to lead the AI engineering workstreams on the Data Platform team. This role has three distinct dimensions: building the data infrastructure that enables AI use cases across the company (AI in the data layer), supporting platform stakeholders in building and shipping data products faster with AI (AI in the data platform), and helping our own team accelerate development through AI tooling (AI in the development lifecycle). What You'll Do - Own the deployment path for Databricks Apps — creating the infrastructure and guardrails that let non-technical users bring their AI applications to production safely and consistently - Build the AI layer on top of Scribd's Medallion Architecture and Semantic Layer — connecting AI agents and agentic workflows to governed data, and enabling non-technical users to get self-service answers on top of it - Build AI skills and agents on top of our existing declarative tooling — giving platform stakeholders the interfaces they need to ship pipelines faster without deep expertise in every layer of the stack - Partner with teams across the organization to identify the right AI tools, frameworks, and agentic patterns that accelerate data product development and broader AI adoption - Identify and embed AI tools into how the Data Platform team writes, tests, and ships code — making AI-assisted development a standard part of our engineering workflow - Establish guardrails to ensure AI-generated code, queries, and pipelines are correct, consistent, and production-ready - Help define and evolve data modeling and metadata patterns required to support AI use cases (e.g., context, documentation, discoverability) - Mentor other engineers and help define what great AI data engineering looks like at Scribd Tech Stack We use a range of tools across the platform. The ones you'll work with most regularly: Python, SQL, Databricks (Unity Catalog, Databricks Apps, Databricks SQL, DABs, Genie Spaces), Apache Airflow, Spark, Terraform/Spacelift, and AWS. You Have - 5+ years of data engineering experience, with at least 1 year focused on AI/ML infrastructure or LLM-powered applications - Strong proficiency in Python and SQL; comfort working across the full data stack from ingestion to serving - Hands-on experience with Databricks and cloud data platforms (Unity Catalog experience a strong plus) - Experience building or integrating NLP/LLM-based systems — RAG pipelines, semantic search, agent frameworks, or natural language interfaces - Working knowledge of how modern LLMs are trained, aligned and evaluated (RLHF, fine-tuning, prompt engineering, retrieval patterns) and the judgment to know when each approach is the right tool - A solid understanding of data governance, access control, and what it means to build on top of trusted data - A security-first mindset when building AI surfaces, including secret management, encryption at rest and in transit, and responsible handling of sensitive and PII data across AI pipelines and workflows. - The ability to work autonomously on ambiguous problems and drive them to production - Strong communication skills — you can explain complex systems to technical and non-technical audiences alike Nice to Have - Familiarity with metrics-as-code frameworks or semantic layer tooling (e.g., Statsig, dbt Semantic Layer) - Prior experience in a platform or infrastructure team serving internal stakeholders - Experience evaluating AI model outputs, including building eval harnesses, defining quality metrics, and catching regressions before they reach production - Working knowledge of terraform, or strong systems thinking to reason confidently about infrastructure changes without necessarily owning the code. ---- At Scribd, Inc., your base pay is one part of your total compensation package and is determined within a range. Our pay ranges are based on the local cost of labor benchmarks for each specific role, level, and geographic location. San Francisco is our highest geographic market in the United States. In the state of California, the reasonably expected salary range is between $155,000 [minimum salary in our lowest geographic market within California] to $241,500 [maximum salary in our highest geographic market within California]. In the United States, outside of California, the reasonably expected salary range is between $127,500 [minimum salary in our lowest US geographic market outside of California] to $229,000 [maximum salary in our highest US geographic market outside of California]. In Canada, the reasonably expected salary range is between $162,000 CAD[minimum salary in our lowest geographic market] to $206,500 CAD[maximum salary in our highest geographic market]. We carefully consider a wide range of factors when determining compensation, including but not limited to experience; job-related skill sets; relevant education or training; and other business and organizational needs. The salary range listed is for the level at which this job has been scoped. In the event that you are considered for a different level, a higher or lower pay range would apply. This position is also eligible for a competitive equity ownership, and a comprehensive and generous benefits package. WORKING AT SCRIBD, INC. Are you currently based in a location where Scribd, Inc. can employ you? Employees must have their primary residence in or near one of the following cities. This includes surrounding metro areas or locations within a typical commuting distance: United States: Atlanta | Austin | Boston | Dallas | Denver | Chicago | Houston | Jacksonville | Los Angeles | Miami | New York City | Phoenix | Portland | Sacramento | Salt Lake City | San Diego | San Francisco | Seattle | Washington D.C. Canada: Ottawa | Toronto | Vancouver Mexico: Mexico City Benefits at Scribd, Inc. - Scribd Flex (flexible work model) - Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage - Mental health support and disability coverage - Generous paid time off, including vacation, sick time, holidays, winter break, volunteer time, and sabbaticals - Paid parental leave and family support benefits - Retirement matching and employee equity - Learning and development programs and professional growth opportunities - Wellness and home office stipends - Complimentary access to the Scribd, Inc. suite of products - Enterprise access to leading AI tools Get to Know Scribd, Inc. About Scribd, Inc. https://www.scribdinc.com/about Life at Scribd, Inc. https://bit.ly/ScribdonLinkedin We want our interview process to be accessible to everyone. You can inform us of any reasonable adjustments we can make to better accommodate your needs by emailing accommodations@scribd.com about the need for adjustments at any point in the interview process. Scribd, Inc. is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage people of all backgrounds to apply, and believe that a diversity of perspectives and experiences create a foundation for the best ideas. Come join us in building something meaningful.