Quizlet · 1 month ago
Senior Staff Platform Engineer - Database Systems
San Francisco, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$258K/yr - $314K/yr
10+ years expQuizlet is a leading learning platform dedicated to helping learners achieve their outcomes. They are seeking a Senior Staff Platform Engineer – Database Systems to lead the design and evolution of their database infrastructure, ensuring reliability and scalability for millions of users.
E-LearningEdTechEducationInternetKnowledge Management
Responsibilities
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
Qualification
Required
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
Preferred
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
Benefits
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
Company
Quizlet
Quizlet is a learning platform that uses activities and games to help students practice and master what they’re learning.
201-500 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Quizlet has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (12)
2024 (10)
2023 (7)
2022 (9)
2021 (1)
2020 (8)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$62MKey Investors
General AtlanticIcon Ventures
2020-05-13Series C· $30M
2018-02-06Series B· $20M
2015-11-23Series A· $12M
Leadership Team
Kurt Beidler
Chief Executive Officer
David Margulius
Board Member and Co-Founder
Recent News
2025-10-31
South Africa Today
2025-09-12
Mark Cuban Foundation
2025-09-09
Company data provided by crunchbase