Staff Software Engineer, Quizlet

Payments

$185-215k

+ Stock options

React
AWS
Kubernetes
GCP
Python
Go
Node.js
Postgres
MySQL
Next.js
Senior and Expert level
San Francisco Bay Area
Quizlet

Learning tools for students and teachers

Open for applications

Quizlet

Learning tools for students and teachers

201-500 employees

B2CArtificial IntelligenceEducationLearningSaaS

Open for applications

$185-215k

+ Stock options

React
AWS
Kubernetes
GCP
Python
Go
Node.js
Postgres
MySQL
Next.js
Senior and Expert level
San Francisco Bay Area

201-500 employees

B2CArtificial IntelligenceEducationLearningSaaS

Company mission

Quizlet's mission is to give every student the tools and confidence to succeed, no matter their motivation or what they’re striving to achieve.

Role

Who you are

  • 8+ years of experience in backend development with a strong emphasis on building large-scale distributed systems
  • Familiarity with modern front-end technologies (e.g., React, NextJS) and the ability to build and maintain user-facing components, though deep UI expertise is not required
  • Experience with modern backend frameworks (e.g., Go, Node.js, Python) and relational databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL)
  • Expertise in building and scaling APIs, especially in the payments and subscription space
  • Strong system architecture and design skills with a focus on scalability, reliability, and performance optimization
  • Proven ability to lead technical projects from inception to completion and mentor other engineers
  • Strong interest in solving complex engineering problems, with a focus on payments, financial systems, and transactional workflows

Desirable

  • Experience in working with global payment providers and handling multi-currency, multi-jurisdictional payments
  • Experience in both backend and frontend development, with a particular emphasis on seamless integration between the two
  • Familiarity with tax engines, financial reconciliation processes, or billing systems
  • Strong DevOps skills, including experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP) and containerization tools like Kubernetes
  • Experience working in a subscription-based or SaaS company
  • Passion for learning and growing in the fintech/payments space

What the job involves

  • Quizlet’s Payments team plays a critical role in ensuring seamless financial transactions, subscription lifecycles, and payment flows for our users globally
  • With millions of users interacting with our platform, we focus on building reliable, scalable, and secure infrastructure that supports our high volume of payments and subscription services
  • This is a high-impact area, with a lot of opportunities to innovate, optimize, and expand the scope of payments at Quizlet
  • We are at the intersection of engineering, business, and compliance, which means you’ll have the chance to shape the future of payments and drive key business outcomes
  • As a Staff Software Engineer on the Payments team, you will play a pivotal role in shaping and executing the technical vision for Quizlet’s payments infrastructure
  • This role offers a unique opportunity to drive innovation across both backend systems and user-facing payment flows
  • You will be instrumental in defining the overall payments strategy, working closely with cross-functional teams to ensure alignment with business goals
  • With significant opportunities for growth and innovation in the payments space, your contributions will have a direct impact on the expansion of Quizlet’s subscription business
  • While primarily focused on backend development, you will also contribute to building and optimizing user-facing features related to payment flows and subscription management, ensuring seamless, intuitive, and performant experiences
  • You will lead technical projects, mentor engineers, and ensure that our services are reliable, scalable, and performant
  • Design, build, and maintain large-scale backend services that handle payments and subscriptions for millions of users
  • Play an active role in defining Quizlet’s overall payments strategy, driving innovation and ensuring scalability
  • Develop user-facing components and UI features that provide intuitive payment and subscription experiences, using modern front-end technologies such as React
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including product managers, UX/UI designers, and frontend engineers, to ensure a seamless user experience in all payment flows
  • Build reusable UI components and abstractions to improve development speed and consistency in payment-related user interfaces
  • Ensure the system's reliability and uptime through robust architecture, system design, and incident response
  • Provide mentorship to junior and mid-level engineers and contribute to the technical growth of the team
  • Implement monitoring and alerting solutions to ensure operational excellence and resiliency
  • Stay ahead of industry trends in payments technology and incorporate new solutions to improve efficiency and reduce costs

Our take

Quizlet has built a large-scale business around simple-to-share and simple-to-use products. Its free flashcard maker helps students prepare for exams. Those insights fuel Quizlet Plus, the startup’s subscription product that charges an annual fee for access to more features, including tutoring services.

After a long period of runaway growth, during which the company achieved a $1 billion valuation, Quizlet has been somewhat buffered by the general market downturn affecting the tech sector in 2022, which hit EdTech particularly heavily. It has responded by a shakeup of its leadership team, appointing AirBnB and Starship Technologies veteran Lex Bayer.

With an entrepreneurial management team and a strong user base of over 60 million students and teachers, Quizlet seems likely to weather the current economic situation and resume its growth in the near future.

Freddie headshot

Freddie

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Insights

Top investors

Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

75% employee growth in 12 months

Company

Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)

May 2020

$30m

SERIES C

Feb 2018

$20m

SERIES B

Total funding: $62m

Company benefits

  • Comprehensive health, dental, vision and disability plans for you and your family. 100% paid premiums for employees, 75% for dependents
  • 20 days of PTO, 10 paid holidays, and 5 volunteer days
  • Generous family leave plan
  • $1,000 stipend each year for professional development
  • $100/month reimbursement towards wellness, plus memberships to physical & mental health resources
  • Stock options
  • 401k match
  • Free lunch and dinner, healthy snacks & drinks daily
  • Commuter Benefits - we'll help cover 50% of your public commuter & parking costs, plus pre-tax FSA.

Company values

  • Help students learn
  • Be curious
  • Move with purpose
  • Be an owner
  • Be tough on ideas

Company HQ

China Basin, San Francisco, CA

Leadership

Dave Margulius

(Board Member)

Currently Advisor at Law Students for Climate Accountability. Previously on the Board of Directors at Churchill Club and Founder at Enterprise Insight.

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