Senior Engineering Manager, Payments & Billing

**About Scribd:** Scribd is a digital reading subscription service with over 2 million paying subscribers, serving as one of the pioneering YC startups since 2006. We operate a massive Ruby on Rails platform that reaches 200 million unique visitors monthly. Our mission is to democratize knowledge by connecting storytellers with audiences through our three products: Scribd, Everand, and Slideshare. We foster a people-first culture built on "Grit" (passion and perseverance), offering competitive compensation and flexible work arrangements with occasional in-person requirements. Our infrastructure team, as highlighted in our tech blog featuring cloud-native data ingestion with AWS Aurora and Delta Lake, is committed to building scalable systems that power our global subscription business. This role is pivotal in shaping our payments infrastructure, which handles millions of monthly transactions across diverse geographies and payment methods. We're seeking a technical leader to own the architecture and execution of our global payments and billing platform, ensuring it is extensible, compliant, and optimized for performance, cost-efficiency, and business agility.

**Key Responsibilities:** 
- Lead the engineering strategy and execution for Scribd's payments and billing platform, spanning subscription lifecycle management, payment orchestration, fraud prevention, compliance, and observability.
- Build and manage a high-performing team of backend engineers, providing mentorship and career development support.
- Partner closely with Product Management to translate vision into technical execution, collaborating on roadmaps and prioritizing investments.
- Use data as a first-class input by analyzing performance trends, investigating anomalies, and championing instrumentation for precise operations.
- Foster a culture of technical excellence, operational rigor, and continuous improvement, empowering the team to navigate ambiguity and ship impactful work with speed and confidence.

**Requirements:**
- 7+ years of engineering experience, including 3-5+ years in engineering management leading backend teams through high-impact systems development.
- Deep domain expertise in payments, including implementation of payment systems in B2C subscription spaces and integration with payment service providers.
- Strong technical foundation with architectural depth and practical experience designing complex software systems.
- Cross-functional agility demonstrated by close collaboration with Product, Analytics, Finance, and vendors.
- Execution excellence in fast-paced environments, balancing velocity with quality and long-term sustainability.
- People-first leadership skills, growing, coaching, and retaining strong engineering teams.

**Bonus Qualifications:**
- Knowledge of recurring billing architectures, local payment methods, global transaction processing, fraud prevention, or chargeback workflows.
- Experience building systems for international subscription products, handling regional pricing, tax, and payment nuances.
- Exposure to compliance frameworks like PCI-DSS and best practices in secure payments infrastructure.

**Compensation:**
The estimated pay range for this role is $157,500 - $264,500 (outside California) or $178,500 - $278,500 (in California). This role is eligible for equity and a comprehensive benefits package including healthcare coverage, parental leave, disability plans, and more.