Staff Software Engineer, Web Foundations

Company: Owl Ventures
Location: Seattle
Posted on: March 31, 2025

Job Description:

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.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:The Web Foundations team provides the tools, frameworks, and services that enable Quizlet's developers to deliver world-class learning experiences to millions of users. We are a team of problem-solvers dedicated to improving developer productivity and maintaining high standards for quality across the organization.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.We're happy to share that this is an onsite position. To help foster team collaboration, we require that employees be in the office at a minimum of three days a 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.In this role, you will:

• Design, build, and maintain scalable and reliable software systems across various product and infrastructure domains
• Drive initiatives that improve system performance, reliability, efficiency, and maintainability, ensuring high-quality user experiences
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including Product Engineering and Platform Infrastructure, to develop robust architectural solutions
• Implement best practices for observability, performance optimization, and incident response
• Develop automation frameworks, deployment processes, and tooling to enhance engineering efficiency
• Contribute to large-scale engineering efforts by providing technical guidance and mentorship
• Partner across Product teams to refine and improve service-level objectives (SLOs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor system health
• Advocate for best practices in system design, testing, and operational excellence
• Lead blameless postmortems and continuously improve incident management processesWhat you bring to the table:
  • 7+ years of experience in software engineering, with a track record of delivering reliable and scalable systems.
  • Strong coding proficiency in modern programming languages (e.g., Go, PHP, Python, JavaScript, Java, C#, etc.) and expertise in distributed systems.
  • Experience designing and operating high-availability, high-scale systems.
  • Familiarity with observability, incident response, and performance optimization techniques.
  • Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to design and implement end-to-end solutions.
  • Leadership and mentorship abilities to influence engineering teams and drive technical initiatives.
  • Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts to diverse audiences.Bonus points if you have:
    • Experience implementing SRE principles in a general software engineering environment.
    • Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Terraform, ArgoCD, GitHub Actions, or similar tooling.
    • Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (Google Cloud, AWS, etc.) and modern DevOps practices.
    • Background working in PHP and Go languages specifically.
    • Experience in large-scale distributed systems and event-driven architectures.
    • Passion for fostering a culture of reliability and continuous improvement.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 $185,000 - $225,000, 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 (and we expect you to take them!)
      • Competitive health, dental, and vision insurance (100% employee and 75% dependent PPO, HMO, VSP Choice)
      • Employer-sponsored 401k 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 choiceWe 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!
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Keywords: Owl Ventures, Seattle , Staff Software Engineer, Web Foundations, IT / Software / Systems , Seattle, Washington