Staff Software Engineer - Search & Discovery
Quizlet
Software Engineering
San Francisco, CA, USA
Posted on Nov 21, 2025
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 Team
You will be joining a fast-moving and rapidly growing team dedicated to reimagining how students interact with Quizlet and its products. Our primary goal is to encourage users to return more frequently for longer study sessions, ultimately helping them achieve academic success.
To meet these objectives, you'll collaborate closely with a cutting-edge engineering team that leverages the latest AI methodologies for Quizlet’s search and recommendations system.
Our team is dynamic and agile, designed to quickly adapt to user feedback as we push forward with major product innovations. Together, we are committed to delivering a transformative learning experience for students everywhere.
About the Role:
This position is for a Staff Software Engineer who brings expertise in reliability, performance, scalability, and software engineering best practices. You will leverage your experience to help solve some of our hardest problems, model best practices, and drive learning and improvement across engineering teams while contributing to broader software development initiatives. You will collaborate with product and platform teams to build robust, scalable, and high-performing systems that support our products and services.Our colocation work model supports employees both remotely and onsite each week. Employees are required to be in the office on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and as needed by their manager or the company. This hybrid working environment facilitates collaboration, increases work efficiency, and enhances employee growth.
In this role, you will
- Drive the evolution of our systems by identifying areas for improvement, setting technical direction, and leading architectural decisions to align with business objectives
- Work closely with engineering, product, and infrastructure teams to build robust, scalable applications
- Act as a technical mentor by guiding engineers in system design, best practices, and career growth, while fostering a culture of collaboration and learning
- Lead by example in writing clean, efficient, and well-documented code
- Shape the strategy for our search infrastructure, driving innovations in indexing, query performance, and scalability to support business needs
- Facilitate knowledge-sharing sessions, tech talks, and code reviews to elevate engineering excellence
What you bring to the table
- 8+ years of experience in software engineering, with a track record of delivering reliable and scalable systems
- Deep expertise in distributed systems and data-intensive architectures, with strong fundamentals in system design, performance optimization, and debugging at scale
- Proficiency in modern backend languages (e.g., Go, PHP, Python) and experience building robust APIs and server-side logic
- Strong knowledge of relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL) and experience with schema design, indexing, and query performance tuningInterest and experience in search infrastructure, you’re excited to design, scale, and operate the systems that power search and discovery for millions of users.
- You have (or are eager to build) expertise in technologies such as Elasticsearch or Solr/ OpenSearch, and understand concepts like indexing strategies, query optimization, sharding, replication, and caching.
- You approach search infrastructure with a performance mindset—comfortable with load testing, benchmarking, and failure simulations to ensure scalability and reliability.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to explain complex concepts clearly
Bonus points if you have
- Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Terraform, ArgoCD, GitHub Actions, or similar tooling
- Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (Google Cloud, AWS, etc.) and modern DevOps practices
- Experience working with vector-based search applications
- Experience building or integrating Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) applications
- Understanding of mobile app architecture or experience optimizing APIs for mobile clients
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 $220,700 – $268,100, 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
