The Role
Lead the design and evolution of Quizlet's database systems, ensuring performance and scalability while mentoring engineering teams and contributing to architecture reviews.
Summary Generated by Built In
About Quizlet:
At Quizlet, our mission is to help every learner achieve their outcomes in the most effective and delightful way. Our $1B+ learning platform serves tens of millions of students every month, including two-thirds of U.S. high schoolers and half of U.S. college students, powering over 2 billion learning interactions monthly.
We blend cognitive science with machine learning to personalize and enhance the learning experience for students, professionals, and lifelong learners alike. We’re energized by the potential to power more learners through multiple approaches and various tools.
Let’s Build the Future of Learning
Join us to design and deliver AI-powered learning tools that scale across the world and unlock human potential.
About the Role:
We’re hiring a Senior Staff Platform Engineer – Database Systems to lead the design, strategy, and evolution of Quizlet’s database and data infrastructure. You’ll architect large-scale systems that power Quizlet’s most critical services — ensuring reliability, performance, and scalability across millions of global learners. You’ll partner closely with other platform and product engineering teams, setting the technical direction for database systems, caching, and data access layers across the company.
This role reports to the Senior Director of Technical Infrastructure and is an onsite position in our San Francisco office. To help foster team collaboration, we require that employees be in the office a minimum of three days per week: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and as needed by your manager or the company. We believe that this working environment facilitates increased work efficiency, team partnership, and supports growth as an employee and organization.
In this role, you will
- Architect and evolve Quizlet’s database ecosystem, including Cloud Spanner, PlanetScale MySQL, BigQuery, and Redis, ensuring low latency, strong consistency, and high availability
- Set technical direction for database reliability, observability, and disaster recovery patterns across all product teams
- Lead large-scale modernization initiatives, including performance tuning, connection management optimization, and query efficiency improvements
- Drive platform-wide resilience, building self-healing, automated systems that maintain 99.95% availability across critical services
- Mentor and guide engineers in best practices for database design, caching, and operational excellence
- Partner with leadership to define SLOs, shape roadmap priorities, and align platform strategy with Quizlet’s product and AI initiatives
- Contribute to architecture reviews and company-wide infrastructure standards for data storage, access, and security
What you bring to the table:
- 10+ years of backend or platform engineering experience, with 5+ focused on large-scale database systems
- Proven experience architecting high-throughput, low-latency database infrastructures in production environments
- Deep expertise in MySQL and PlanetScale; strong proficiency with Cloud Spanner, Postgres, or BigQuery.
- Experience building and leading platform-level automation and self-service tooling using Terraform, Kubernetes (GKE), and Python or Go
- Expertise in observability, monitoring, and incident management for distributed data systems
- Ability to collaborate cross-functionally with engineering, SRE, and product leadership
- Passion for building systems that are secure, resilient, and developer-friendly
Bonus points if you have:
- Experience running multi-tenant or hybrid database architectures at global scale
- Knowledge of Vitess, Kafka, or Pub/Sub for distributed data access
- Familiarity with service mesh (Istio) or database proxy management
Compensation, Benefits & Perks
- Quizlet is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Salary transparency helps to mitigate unfair hiring practices when it comes to discrimination and pay gaps. Total compensation for this role is market competitive, including a starting base salary of $230,240 – $314,300, depending on location and experience, as well as company stock options
- Collaborate with your manager and team to create a healthy work-life balance
- 20 vacation days that we expect you to take!
- Competitive health, dental, and vision insurance (100% employee and 75% dependent PPO, Dental, VSP Choice)
- Employer-sponsored 401(k) plan with company match
- Access to LinkedIn Learning and other resources to support professional growth
- Paid Family Leave, FSA, HSA, Commuter benefits, and Wellness benefits
- 40 hours of annual paid time off to participate in volunteer programs of choice
Why Join Quizlet?
🌎 Massive reach: 60M+ users, 1B+ interactions per week
🧠 Cutting-edge tech: Generative AI, adaptive learning, cognitive science
📈 Strong momentum: Top-tier investors, sustainable business, real traction
🎯 Mission-first: Work that makes a difference in people’s lives
🤝 Inclusive culture: Committed to equity, diversity, and belonging
We strive to make everyone feel comfortable and welcome!
We work to create a holistic interview process, where both Quizlet and candidates have an opportunity to view what it would be like to work together, in exploring a mutually beneficial partnership.
We provide a transparent setting that gives a comprehensive view of who we are!
In Closing:
At Quizlet, we’re excited about passionate people joining our team—even if you don’t check every box on the requirements list. We value unique perspectives and believe everyone has something meaningful to contribute. Our culture is all about taking initiative, learning through challenges, and striving for high-quality work while staying curious and open to new ideas. We believe in honest, respectful communication, thoughtful collaboration, and creating a supportive space where everyone can grow and succeed together.”
Quizlet’s success as an online learning community depends on a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
As an equal opportunity employer and a tech company committed to societal change, we welcome applicants from all backgrounds. Women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply. Come join us!
To All Recruiters and Placement Agencies:
At this time, Quizlet does not accept unsolicited agency resumes and/or profiles.
Please do not forward unsolicited agency resumes to our website or to any Quizlet employee. Quizlet will not pay fees to any third-party agency or firm nor will it be responsible for any agency fees associated with unsolicited resumes. All unsolicited resumes received will be considered the property of Quizlet.
#LI-FT
Top Skills
BigQuery
Cloud Spanner
Go
Istio
Kafka
Kubernetes
MySQL
Planetscale
Postgres
Pub/Sub
Python
Redis
Terraform
Vitess
Am I A Good Fit?
Get Personalized Job Insights.
Our AI-powered fit analysis compares your resume with a job listing so you know if your skills & experience align.
Success! Refresh the page to see how your skills align with this role.
The Company
What We Do
Quizlet is a leading consumer learning brand that builds learning tools to inspire and empower students and teachers. Our team is already supporting a user base of over 60 million active users a month. We're also among the top 20 U.S. websites and top education apps for iOS and Android - and it's only the beginning. We’re a fast-growing Series C startup, valued at $1 Billion and backed by Union Square Ventures, Costanoa Venture Capital, Icon Ventures, Owl Ventures, Altos Ventures and General Atlantic.
With our massive reach and focus on delivering high-quality innovative learning tools, we're having a major global impact on education.
