Staff Software Engineer, Core

Who we are

We are building the next-generation AI-powered platform and web application for easy and fast creation of audio and video content. Growing this revolutionary product involves unique technical challenges and requires solving hard and complex problems. The Core Team builds features to help our users find each other and use Descript to create and communicate their ideas with the world. We own critical systems ancillary to the business, such as access control, team management, project organization, usage tracking, payments, and more.

We are looking for a Staff full-stack Software Engineer to help us expand these foundational systems.

What you’ll do:

• Take point on critical surface areas and help scale them to the next level
• Own building and shipping features across all levels of the stack (frontend and backend)
• Write high-quality testable code that's functional, long term maintainable and performant
• Collaborate with EPD on crafting great user experiences
• Integrate systems to power Descript in smart ways

What you bring:

• Full-stack product engineer. It’s ok if you don’t love CSS, but you should be comfortable integrating and debugging functionality and logic end to end and think about systems holistically.
• Well versed in web development and associated devtools
• Technologies: Typescript, REST API development, relational DBs
• Track record evolving and re-architecting complex systems to accommodate growth while maintaining stability
• Comfortable walking off the beaten path, at the edge of systems
• Competent thinking about security risks & mitigations
• Experience integrating 3rd party services
• Strong at testing and debugging
• Solid collaboration and communication
• Growth mindset

Nice to have:

• AI curious: You've explored AI tools, recognize them as useful for specific situations, and know how to use them effectively while acknowledging their limitations
• Experience building account management features such as
  • Invite flows, domain discovery, team management
  • Enterprise features like audit logs, SSO and SCIM
• Opinions/experience with authz at scale: roles, permissions, RBAC, FGA

At our current size and stage, we embrace a flat organizational structure and value the expertise and contributions of every team member. As such, we have a unified job title for our engineering roles where everyone, including those with Staff-level scope, is considered a Software Engineer internally. 

The base salary range for this role is $215,000-$270,000/year. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, location, and may vary from the amount above.

About Descript

Descript is building a simple, intuitive, fully-powered editing tool for video and audio — an editing tool built for the age of AI. We are a team of 150 and the backing of some of the world's greatest investors (OpenAI, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital). 

Descript is the special company that's in possession of both product market fit and the raw materials (passionate user community, great product, large market) for growth, but is still early enough that each new employee has a measurable influence on the direction of the company.

Benefits include a generous healthcare package, 401k matching program, catered lunches, and flexible vacation time. Our headquarters are located in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA. We're hiring for a mix of remote roles and hybrid roles.  For those who are remote, we have a handful of opportunities throughout the year for in person collaboration.  For our hybrid roles, we're flexible, and you're an adult—we don't expect or mandate that you're in the office every day. We do believe there are valuable and serendipitous moments of discovery and collaboration that come from working together in person. 

Descript is an equal opportunity workplace—we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. We believe in actively building a team rich in diverse backgrounds, experiences, and opinions to better allow our employees, products, and community to thrive.