Principal Engineer - Partner Platform, APIs & Ecosystem Services

Quizlet•San Francisco, CA

57d•$276,000 - $323,000•Onsite

About The Position

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 hiring a Principal Engineer to lead the technical design of Quizlet's extensible learning ecosystem, including our Partner API platform, Connector services, and LearnOS plugin architecture. This is a pivotal role shaping Quizlet's AI-powered integration layer for both human and agentic users. You'll define and implement the secure, scalable infrastructure that enables seamless learning experiences on and off Quizlet, from LMS integrations and productivity tools to AI agents and autonomous workflows. 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.

Requirements

10+ years of engineering experience with large-scale, multi-tenant API or developer platforms
Strong track record designing extensible, secure APIs, SDKs, and plugin systems
Deep understanding of agent frameworks like MCP, protocol design, and AI/LLM interoperability
Significant experience building platform abstractions and developer enablement layers
Hands-on expertise with containerized services, OAuth 2.0, gRPC/REST, and event-driven systems
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

Responsibilities

API & Partner Platform Architecture: Own and evolve the external API gateway, SDKs, and developer tooling.
Connector Runtime & LearnOS: Design sandboxed plugin runtimes to support real-time learning triggers across platforms like Discord, Google Calendar, Grammarly
Model Context Protocol (MCP) Interoperability: Architect Quizlet's participation in agent-driven ecosystems, to integrate into AI services, like ChatGPT, Comet, Chrome
Agentic Enablement: Define APIs that allow external agents to create study sets, track progress, or initiate learning actions programmatically
Secure Developer Experience: Collaborate with Legal and T&S to implement audit, rate limiting, and permissions for third-party integrations
Data Exchange & Event Streams: Design publish-subscribe infrastructure for syncing learning activity across systems

Benefits

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 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

Stand Out From the Crowd

Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.

Upload and Match Resume