Principal Engineer – User Identity, Messaging & Trust Infrastructure

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.

We’re seeking a Principal Engineer to architect the future of identity, account management, user communication infrastructure, and trust & safety systems s high-impact role will help shape Quizlet into the most secure, intelligent, and trusted learning platform on the internet.

You’ll be the hands-on technical leader driving the evolution of our core user platform, guiding strategic investments in authentication, consent frameworks, martech, and safety tooling — all while partnering closely with product, marketing, legal, and data/ML teams.

We’re happy to share that this is an onsite position in our San Francisco office. To help foster team collaboration, we require that employees be in the office a minimum of three days per week:
Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and as needed by your manager or the company. We believe that this working environment facilitates increased work efficiency, team partnership, and supports growth as an employee and organization.

• Identity & Access Architecture:
  Define and evolve our authentication and authorization architecture (e.g., OAuth 2.0, SSO, MFA)
• Account Lifecycle Management:
  Own core services powering sign-up, login, recovery, and settings
• Messaging Platform:
  Architect a scalable, consent-aware system for in-app, push, email and external comms; partner with Braze and marketing teams to drive intelligent engagement
• Trust & Safety Systems:
  Build infrastructure to support abuse detection, content moderation, and policy enforcement
• Privacy and Consent Frameworks:
  Ensure platform-wide compliance with data protection regulations (e.g., COPPA, GDPR, FERPA)
• Cross-Org
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Influence engineering and legal peers on data minimization, secure defaults, and safety practices

• 10+ years of backend/platform engineering experience, with 5+ years in identity, messaging, or trust systems
• Experience in modernizing legacy account systems and building privacy-centric user platforms
• Significant hands-on experience in security, compliance, and messaging infrastructure (e.g., rate limiting, consent management, opt-in flows)
• Hands-on experience with Node.js, Go, Python, or Type Script
• Familiarity with tools like Braze, Segment, or equivalent martech stacks
• Passion for building platforms that enable scale, intelligence, and trust
• Fluency with platform security, privacy, and system design
• Proven ability to lead architectural transformation while shipping continuously
• Strength in cross-functional collaboration, especially with legal, marketing, and product

• 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 $276,700 - $323,000, 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 401k plan with company match
• Access to Linked In Learning and other resources to support professional growth
• Paid Family Leave, FSA, HSA, Commuter benefits, and…