Staff Software Engineer, Trust & Safety

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 Trust & Safety team at Quizlet is dedicated to protecting our users, platform, and business from harm while delivering safe, seamless, and delightful experiences. We craft and implement strategies and solutions to maintain user safety, enhance trust, and prevent fraud across all areas of Quizlet. By building innovative tools, modernizing existing systems, and leveraging industry-leading technologies, we ensure scalable and effective protections. This team works collaboratively across Engineering, Product, Policy, Operations, and other functions, playing a central role in safeguarding Quizlet’s global learning community.

Key areas of focus include:

• Content Safety: Proactively protecting against harmful user-generated and AI-generated content while efficiently managing user reports and moderation workflows.
• Fraud Prevention and Bad Actor Protections: Safeguarding customers and the business from bad actors while minimizing friction for legitimate users.
• User Trust and Reputation: Establishing systems that enhance trust, balance product access, and provide a safe user experience.

About the Role: 

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Trust & Safety team, you will take a leading role in designing and building systems that ensure the safety and trustworthiness of the Quizlet platform. This is a highly impactful role where you will drive technical projects, build reliable systems, and work cross-functionally to address challenges at scale. You will be instrumental in building the foundation of Trust & Safety at Quizlet, helping shape the team’s practices and ensuring we deliver safe and seamless experiences for our users.

Our colocation work model supports employees both remotely and onsite each week.  Employees are required to be in the office on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and as needed by their manager or the company. This hybrid working environment facilitates collaboration, increases work efficiency, and enhances employee growth.

In this role, you will:

• Design, build, and maintain scalable systems to detect and mitigate harmful content, fraud, and abuse on the platform
• Develop tools and frameworks to enhance moderation workflows and automate repetitive tasks.
• Implement reputation systems and trust models that balance user access with safety.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including Product, Data Science, and Policy, to define requirements and deliver impactful solutions
• Conduct incident investigations and lead postmortems, driving long-term improvements to system reliability and security
• Stay ahead of emerging trends and technologies in Trust & Safety and apply them to solve challenges at Quizlet
• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to more junior team members

What you bring to the table:

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with strong backend or full-stack development skills
• Expertise in Trust & Safety domains, such as content moderation, abuse detection, or fraud prevention
• Proficiency in modern programming languages (e.g., Go, Python, PHP, JavaScript) and experience with distributed systems
• Strong problem-solving skills and a track record of delivering high-quality solutions in complex environments
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across teams and stakeholders
• A passion for building safe and trusted online experiences

Bonus points if you have:

• Experience with machine learning models in Trust & Safety applications
• Familiarity with regulatory and compliance considerations related to content and user safety
• Familiarity with some or all of the following: Kubernetes, GitHub, CircleCI, ArgoCD, Google Cloud, Terraform, Jira, Confluence, Slack

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 $184,000 - $230,000, 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 choice