Senior Software Engineer, Descript
Core
$190-245k
AI video & podcast editor
Open for applications
AI video & podcast editor
101-200 employees
Open for applications
$190-245k
101-200 employees
Company mission
To make it easy for anyone o record, edit, and share any video.
Role
Who you are
- 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 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
Desirable
- 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
What the job involves
- 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, in particular around Identity (auth, permissions, team management) and Plans & Payments (usage tracking, paywalls, payments)
- We are looking for a full-stack Software Engineer to help us evolve our Identity model to meet the growing needs of our customers
- Own technical design, implementation, and delivery of features across all levels of the stack (frontend and backend), in particular on the Identity surface (auth, permissions, team management)
- Write high-quality testable code that's functional, long term maintainable and performant
- Drive exploration, alignment and cross-team collaboration for owned projects and surfaces
- Prioritize the highest impact work by balancing Engineering interests with business outcomes and product/design requirements
- Proactively improve the tech stack with tooling, abstractions, and test infrastructure
- Provide knowledge transfers, pairing time and mentorship for other Engineers
- Give constructive feedback in retros, RFCs, and PRs. Conversely, receive feedback and turn it into positive change
Our take
The rise of digital content has made video and audio creation more important than ever, but producing polished media can still be quite complex. Descript makes editing accessible to anyone, simplifying recording, editing, and publishing. And its platform empowers over 7M users to bring ideas to life without needing advanced technical skills.
Descript's standout feature is its AI co-editor, Underlord, which lets users create and edit videos just by describing what they want,. It can generate rough cuts, add visuals and B-roll, apply AI effects, and format content for social media. While many creators are still wary of AI in content creation, Descript has built its tools to augment human creativity, giving users control while handling the heavy lifting.
Serving millions of creators and businesses worldwide, Descript keeps innovating with AI features that learn from user input. By combining intuitive tools with responsible AI, the platform is helping content creators work faster and smarter, reshaping video and audio production while keeping the creative vision firmly in human hands.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
30% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Oct 2022
$50m
SERIES C
Jan 2021
$30m
SERIES B
Total funding: $100m
Company benefits
- Health: We’ve got you covered with medical, dental, and vision benefits for all employees and their dependents. These include HMO and PPO healthcare plans
- Time off: Paid holidays are a given, but you can also expect flexible time off. Feel comfortable to take the time you need, when you need it.
- Parental leave: New parents receive paid parental leave to spend quality time with their expanding families.
- Home-office stipend: Get your work-from-home setup ready with our home-office stipend.
- Retirement: We offer a variety of retirement plans, including employer matching.
- Free food & refreshments: Come say hey! Visit our office for free lunch, snacks, and drinks.
- Destination off-sites: No matter where you work, you’ll get to know your team. We host two annual gatherings: a company-wide off-site and a team-specific off-site.
Company HQ
Civic Center, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Laura Burkhauser
(CEO)Laura joined Descript in 2023 as a VP of Product and became CEO in 2025. Prior to this, she was a Director of Product Management at Twitter and Rent The Runway.
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