Director of Data Infrastructure

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 Role:
We’re hiring a Director of Data Infrastructure to lead a newly formed, high-caliber pillar focused on Data Infrastructure, Databases, Tooling, DataOps, and Cost Optimization. This team owns all the data and is the bedrock for data engineering excellence at Quizlet and will play a critical role in shaping how our product engineers, data engineers, and data scientists build and ship the future of learning—faster, safer, and smarter.
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.

In this role, you will:

• Lead a small, senior team of Database Engineers, Data Engineers, DataOps, and Tooling, driving all data persistence and core data infrastructure for analytics. The goal is to improve data quality, timeliness of data availability, data categorization, and cost management. To raise production excellence, engineering excellence, and developer productivity
• Modernize our data infrastructure, ensuring a unified schema, and improve data security
• Define and implement data retention policies in partnership with the Product Engineers, Data Scientists, Machine Learning Engineers, and Finance teams
• Build and scale DataOps capabilities, improving data pipelines, observability, and automation for our ML and analytics platforms
• Scale our data stores, ensuring they can support the growing traffic and are highly available
• Drive engineering excellence by putting in place tolling & data access patterns
• Drive cost efficiency in partnership with Finance
• Manage enterprise tooling and licensing 

What you bring to the table:

• Proven leadership in Data Engineering, Databases, or DevX, ideally in a growth-stage or scaled tech environment
• Experience running or building teams across Data Engineering, Databases, Developer Productivity, or DataOps disciplines
• Passion for developer productivity and a strong systems-thinking mindset
• Experience driving org-wide initiatives in automation, observability, or platform modernization
• Comfortable with ambiguity and excited to build in a fast-moving, high-impact environment
• Experience leading a similar pillar—or you’re ready to step into it with the right support

Why Join Quizlet Now:

• 🌎 Massive reach: 60M+ users, 1B+ interactions per week
•  🧠 Cutting-edge tech: Generative AI, adaptive learning, cognitive science
•  📈 Strong momentum: Top-tier investors, sustainable business, real traction
•  🎯 Mission-first: Work that makes a difference in people’s lives
•  🤝 Inclusive culture: Committed to equity, diversity, and belonging

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 $230,000 - $300,000, 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