Director, product discovery )
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about the company
at scribd (pronounced "scribbed"), our mission is to spark human curiosity.
our four products – everand, scribd, slideshare, and fable – democratize the exchange of ideas and information and empower collective expertise.
we support a culture where employees can be real and bold, debate and commit, and embrace plot twists.
we prioritize intentional in-person moments for collaboration, culture, and connection; occasional in-person attendance is required for all employees regardless of location.
we hire for "grit" – goals, results, innovative ideas, and team collaboration – to pursue long-term objectives with passion and perseverance.
about the team and role
we are building a new discovery product organization at
this founding director of product will lead strategy and execution across recommendations, search, ranking, and discovery experiences.
our corpus spans hundreds of millions of documents; we aim to help people find files and discover knowledge.
you will define how to evolve from traditional search to a real-time, llm-augmented discovery system that understands intent and returns trustworthy, explainable results.
this role is both strategic and operational.
you will manage and mentor pm leaders, partner with engineering, machine learning, applied research, design, content, and data science, and shape the discovery roadmap for long-term engagement, retention, and subscription growth.
about you
you are a product leader at the intersection of user problems, ml systems, and business outcomes.
you have built or led teams that own discovery, personalization, or search at meaningful scale, and you are comfortable shaping long-term vision while shipping iterative value.
you can discuss embeddings and llm architectures with engineers and frame strategy for executives in terms of learner outcomes and subscription value.
excitement about turning a massive ugc corpus into a trusted, intelligent learning companion is essential.
you will
set the multi-year discovery strategy.
define and drive the long-term vision for scribd's discovery ecosystem, including recommendations, search, ranking, and semantic content understanding.
articulate the transition from document-level retrieval to knowledge-level discovery using foundational models and llms.
align vision with company priorities in engagement, retention, and subscription growth, balancing foundational ml investments with high-impact product improvements.
serve as the founding product leader for the discovery group, managing, mentoring, and inspiring a team of product managers across discovery surfaces and platforms.
recruit and develop top pm talent, set a high bar for product craft, and build a culture combining deep technical curiosity with strong user empathy.
establish durable cross-functional operating rhythms with engineering, ml, data science, design, content, and trust & safety.
oversee the evolution of scribd's personalization and retrieval stack, combining semantic embeddings, behavioral signals, hybrid retrieval, and llm-powered reasoning.
partner with ml engineering and applied research to design and ship real-time systems for retrieval, ranking, and evaluation that operate at global scale under tight latency budgets.
lead the development of generative recommendation experiences that help users understand why content is relevant and what they might learn from it.
drive real-time intent modeling and personalization that react to user behavior within and across sessions.
own end-to-end discovery journeys, from homepage and feeds to search results and document detail pages, ensuring users find the right content quickly.
introduce ai overviews and conversational, question-aware interfaces that help users ask richer questions and receive synthesized, sourced answers grounded in our corpus.
define metrics for long-term subscription value, discovery satisfaction, and content health across
lead a robust experimentation agenda with clear hypotheses, guardrails, and data-driven decision making across discovery surfaces.
ensure llm and ml-driven features ship with clear hypotheses, guardrails, and monitoring, including trust, safety, and quality considerations.
develop executive-level narratives that articulate strategy, roadmap, progress, and impact for the discovery organization.
build trusted, collaborative partnerships across global teams and guide multi-quarter and multi-year roadmaps across time zones and functional groups.
communicate tradeoffs and decisions clearly to partners at all levels, from engineers and researchers to executive leadership.
you have
10+ years of product management experience, including 5+ years managing pm teams or leading multi-disciplinary product groups.
demonstrated success owning discovery, personalization, search, or ranking experiences at scale in a consumer technology environment.
deep technical fluency in modern ml and ai systems, including retrieval and ranking, semantic embeddings, llms, retrieval-augmented generation, feature stores, model evaluation, and real-time personalization.
a strong track record of translating user needs, data insights, and competitive trends into breakthrough discovery features, ideally including ml or llm-powered experiences.
proven ability to lead through ambiguity, make strategic tradeoffs, and balance long-term platform investments with near-term business results.
exceptional written, visual, and verbal communication skills, including experience presenting to executives and cross-functional partners.
experience running large-scale a/b tests, user research, and multi-surface experimentation programs.
bachelor's degree in a technical or related field (computer science, engineering, mathematics, hci) or equivalent experience.
ideally you have
experience building or leading llm-powered products, such as ai search, conversational assistants, generative recommendations, or ai overviews.
background in information retrieval, recommender systems, or nlp, either in industry or academic research.
experience with large ugc ecosystems, marketplaces, or platforms where content quality and trust are central to discovery.
experience standing up or scaling a new product group or charter, including hiring and mentoring senior pms.
compensation
base pay is part of a total compensation package and is determined within a range.
in san francisco, the salary range is $173,000 – $275,000.
outside california, the range is $142,500 – $266,250.
in canada, the range is $181,000 cad – $249,250 cad.
the position is eligible for competitive equity ownership and a comprehensive benefits package.
working at scribd, inc.
location
employees must have their primary residence in or near one of the following cities (including surrounding metro areas):
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, perks, and wellbeing
healthcare insurance coverage (medical/dental/vision): 100% paid for employees.
12 weeks paid parental leave.
short-term and long-term disability plans.
401(k)/rsp matching.
onboarding stipend for home office peripherals and accessories.
learning & development allowance and programs.
quarterly stipend for wellness, wifi, etc.
mental health support and resources.
free subscription to the scribd inc. suite of products.
referral bonuses.
book benefit.
sabbaticals.
company-wide events.
team engagement budgets.
vacation & personal days.
paid holidays (+ winter break).
flexible sick time.
volunteer day.
company-wide employee resource groups and programs fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace.
access to ai tools: free access to best-in-class ai tools to boost productivity, streamline workflows, and accelerate innovation.
equal employment opportunity
scribd 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 creates a foundation for the best ideas.
we want our interview process to be accessible to everyone.
please inform us of any reasonable adjustments we can make to better accommodate your needs by emailing * at any point in the interview process.
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