Principal Software Architect

About Quizlet:
Inspired by our belief that anyone can learn anything and powered by our own curiosity, we build the smartest tools we can imagine to help students learn.
Quizlet is the popular, global learning platform and app that millions of students, teachers and everyday people use to study any subject imaginable for school, work or as part of their personal interests - including two-thirds of high school students and half of all college students in the US. Combining cognitive science and machine learning, Quizlet guides students through adaptive study activities to confidently reach their learning goals. We’re on track to become the undisputed leader in user-generated learning content and engagement, at the scale of YouTube.
Valued at $1 billion, Quizlet has raised over $60 million in venture capital from investors including Icon Ventures, Union Square Ventures, General Atlantic, Costanoa Ventures, Owl Ventures, and Altos Ventures.
To serve our global community of learners, our teams tackle lofty technical challenges and design for use cases across cultures and languages. We work hard, act like owners, and collaborate every chance we get. We’re energized by the potential to power more learners through multiple approaches and various tools.
About the Team:
Quizlet provides ML- and AI-driven learning tools focused on high school and college students worldwide. With over 60M monthly active users and hundreds of millions of Study Sets created, the scale of the platform and user interactions is significant. With a talented and diverse team of engineers, we are proud of our inclusive culture, deep customer focus, and technical excellence.
About the Role:
In this architecture leadership position, you join Quizlet’s engineering leadership team, reporting to the Head of Engineering. You’ll identify important architectural challenges and opportunities for Quizlet, prioritizing in alignment with company strategy, defining success measures, outcomes, and architectural options. You’ll influence, align, and lead technical teams as well as other stakeholders across the business to evolve architecture and design effective solutions. Your role will grow to lead a small team of architects. You’ll also guide technology selection and mentor engineers across the company.
This is a hybrid role based out of our San Francisco office.

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:
We hope you are excited about everything you read so far. We highly encourage you to apply for this position, even if you feel you do not meet all the requirements. Quizlet is always looking for amazing folks that believe in our mission and can contribute to our team in various ways - not merely candidates that fit a certain mold.
We have a bias for action, take initiative, and take pride in delivering results. We make informed decisions whenever possible but are unafraid to take calculated risks on great ideas to promote learning. We embrace challenges and see effort as the path to mastery. We’re constantly seeking opportunities to learn and we embrace curiosity. Quality matters at Quizlet, and we hold the bar high on everything we do.
We treat each other with honesty and respect, encourage vigorous debate, and seek critical feedback. We value diversity, humility, transparency, and collaboration as the best paths to our success — as individuals, as a team, and as a company.
Quizlet’s success as an online learning community depends on a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are actively working to build a team that is representative of the diverse communities we serve, and an open, inclusive work environment where all employees can thrive. 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!

• Report to SVPE and contribute as a key member of the engineering leadership team
• Identify important architectural challenges and opportunities for Quizlet, prioritizing them in alignment with company and engineering strategy, defining success measures, outcomes, and requirements
• Listen to, influence, align, and lead technical teams to evolve architecture and design long-term sustainable solutions
• Lead a small team of architects and/or staff engineers on high-leverage areas, potentially with long-term ownership of some critical tools or frameworks
• Drive overall target architecture, aligning with leaders and stakeholders across the team
• Guide the evolution of our business continuity plan
• Champion strong fundamentals (reliability, resiliency, availability, cost efficiency, data privacy, security, compliance)
• Guide technology selection process
• Tie-break important technical decisions
• Champion effective design documentation culture & tech leadership forums
• Guide key microservices refactoring efforts
• Guide improvement of our behavioral data & experimentation architecture