Sr. Software Engineer, Payments

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’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.

About the Role:

As a Sr. Software Engineer on the Payments team, you will play a key role in building and optimizing Quizlet’s payments infrastructure. You’ll work across both backend systems that handle payments and subscriptions at scale, as well as contribute to front-end projects that enhance user payment flows and subscription management. This role offers the opportunity to lead technical execution on key projects, ensuring our systems are performant, reliable, and aligned with business goals.

Collaborating with cross-functional teams, including product managers and UX designers, you will take ownership of backend services while also building user-facing features that provide seamless payment experiences. With significant room for growth and innovation in the payments space, your work will have a direct impact on Quizlet’s expanding subscription services. 

This is a hybrid role based out of our San Francisco office hub.

In this role, you will:

• Design, build, and maintain backend services that handle payments and subscriptions for millions of users, ensuring they are scalable and reliable
• Contribute to Quizlet’s payments strategy by identifying and implementing improvements to support system scalability and efficiency
• Develop user-facing components and UI features that provide seamless 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 smooth integration and performance in all payment flows
• Build reusable UI components and abstractions that improve development speed and ensure consistency in payment-related interfaces
• Help ensure the reliability and uptime of the system through thoughtful design, code quality, and incident response when necessary
• Provide guidance and mentorship to junior engineers, helping to grow their technical skills and contributions to the team
• Implement monitoring, logging, and alerting solutions to support system health and operational excellence
• Stay current with industry trends in payments technology, applying new techniques and tools to enhance system efficiency and reduce costs where possible

What you bring to the table:

• 5+ years of experience in backend development with a focus on building reliable and scalable distributed systems
• Familiarity with modern front-end technologies (e.g., React, NextJS) and the ability to contribute to building and maintaining user-facing component
• Experience with modern backend frameworks (e.g., Go, Node.js, Python) and relational databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL)
• Strong understanding of building and scaling APIs, with some experience in the payments or subscription space being a plus
• Solid system architecture and design skills, with a focus on scalability, reliability, and performance optimization
• Proven ability to contribute to technical projects from design through deployment, including collaboration with cross-functional teams
• Strong interest in solving complex engineering challenges, particularly in payments, financial systems, and transactional workflows

Bonus points if you have:

• Experience working with global payment providers and handling multi-currency transactions is a plus
• Exposure to both backend and frontend development, with an interest in integrating the two seamlessly
• Familiarity with tax engines, financial reconciliation processes, or billing systems is advantageous
• Basic DevOps knowledge, including some experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP) and containerization tools like Kubernetes
• Experience working in a subscription-based or SaaS company is a plus
• Passion for learning and growing within the fintech/payments space, with an eagerness to explore new technologies and improve existing systems

Compensation, Benefits & Perks:

• Quizlet is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Total compensation for this role is market competitive, including a starting base salary of $160,000 - $185,000, 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, Wellness benefits
• 40 hours of annual paid time off to participate in volunteer programs of your choice

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!

To All Recruiters and Placement Agencies:

At this time Quizlet does not accept unsolicited agency resumes and/or profiles. 

Please do not forward unsolicited agency resumes to our website or to any Quizlet employee. Quizlet will not pay fees to any third-party agency or firm nor will it be responsible for any agency fees associated with unsolicited resumes. All unsolicited resumes received will be considered the property of Quizlet.