Principal Engineer - Platform Architecture & Core Reliability at Quizlet

San Francisco, California, United States

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Not SpecifiedCompensation

Senior (5 to 8 years), Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level

Full TimeJob Type

UnknownVisa

EdTech, TechnologyIndustries

Requirements

Deep technical mastery and hands-on experience across three or more of the following high-leverage domains with 10+ years of experience in software development, site reliability engineering, or platform engineering
A proven track record of driving significant architectural outcomes as a Principal or Staff Engineer in a high-scale platform or infrastructure role
Global Scale & Resilience: A history of scaling consumer-facing systems that reliably handle tens of thousands of requests per second (RPS) and successfully achieving high-availability targets across multi-region cloud environments
Data Systems: Deep expertise in architecting and optimizing complex data backbones involving transactional, globally consistent (e.g., Cloud Spanner / PlanetScale), and analytical systems (BigQuery)
Container Orchestration & Networking: Strong operational knowledge of Kubernetes (GKE) orchestration layered with a Service Mesh (e.g., Istio)

Responsibilities

Platform Reliability (SLO Focus): Lead the strategy and implementation necessary to achieve and maintain 99.95% availability target, including evolving multi-region deployment strategy and optimizing for resilience under sustained, high-volume traffic
Data Backbone Scaling: Define the architectural approach for scaling core data systems, optimizing performance across Cloud Spanner, PlanetScale MySQL, and BigQuery
Compute & Service Mesh: Drive performance and efficiency improvements across managed compute environment, specifically optimizing Kubernetes (GKE) clusters and managing the performance and operational complexity of Istio
Developer Velocity & CI/CD: Architect high-leverage internal platforms, designing pipelines across tools like GitHub Actions, CircleCI, and ArgoCD, and driving organizational influence to standardize high-velocity, safe deployment practices
Incident & Learning Culture: Drive reliability change across the engineering organization by leveraging deep-dive analysis of incidents (Jeli) and proactive monitoring (Datadog), improving operational practices, and influencing architectural design decisions
Performance & Cost Engineering: Act as a technical owner for the cost-per-request metric, identifying and implementing architectural efficiencies (caching, connection pooling, resource utilization) that scale down infrastructure spend while maintaining service speed

Skills

Platform Architecture

Reliability Engineering

SLO

Multi-region Deployment

Scalability

Data Systems

Performance Optimization

High Availability

Resilience

Architectural Design

Quizlet

Develops educational tools for students and teachers

About Quizlet

Quizlet develops educational tools designed to inspire and empower students and teachers. It serves over 60 million active users each month and is recognized as one of the top education apps available on iOS and Android. Quizlet's products include various learning tools that help users study and retain information effectively. The platform offers both free and premium subscription services, allowing users to access additional features and resources. Unlike many competitors, Quizlet has a large user base and a strong presence in the education technology market, which enhances its community and resource sharing. The company's goal is to create a significant global impact in education by providing accessible and effective learning solutions.

San Francisco, CaliforniaHeadquarters

2005Year Founded

$60.3MTotal Funding

SERIES_CCompany Stage

Consumer Software, EducationIndustries

501-1,000Employees

Benefits

Shared financial success: Competitive salaries, stock options and a 401k that makes saving for retirement easy.

Competitive healthcare: Comprehensive health, dental, vision and disability plans for you and your family.

PTO and family benefits: Everyone gets four weeks of PTO. Our generous family leave plan has you covered when you welcome a new, little learner into your family.

Professional development: Learning never stops. Get reimbursed each year for professional development, and learn from the best with regular tech talks.

A welcoming workplace: Enjoy free lunch and dinner with great company. Benefit from adjustable desks and employee lounges while taking in amazing views of the Bay.

Commuter benefits: We don’t have a school bus, but we'll help cover your public transportation and parking. If you decide to work late, your ride home is on us as well.

Risks

Increased competition from AI-driven platforms like Khan Academy and Duolingo.

Recent U.S. outage may decrease user trust and retention.

New CEO's strategic shifts could disrupt operations or alienate existing users.

Differentiation

Quizlet offers AI-powered features like Magic Notes and Memory Score for personalized learning.

The platform's gamification strategy includes features like Quizlet Challenge and Quizlet Learn.

Quizlet's Q-Chat beta feature aligns with the trend of conversational AI in education.

Upsides

Quizlet's new CEO, Beidler, may drive fresh strategic direction and innovation.

Intentional slowing of AI adoption focuses on quality, ensuring sustainable long-term growth.

AI-powered features enhance user engagement, potentially increasing retention and user base.

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