Staff Cloud Security Engineer

About Quizlet: At Quizlet, our mission is to help every learner achieve their outcomes in the most effective and delightful way. We’re a $1B+ learning platform used by two-thirds of U.S. high school students and half of college students, powering over 1 billion learning interactions each week.

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.

Why Join Quizlet? 🌎 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

About the Team: Security Engineering protects Quizlet's learners, employees, and systems. We build practical safeguards that help teams deliver products securely and confidently. We partner with engineering, infrastructure, trust & safety, and other teams to reduce risk while supporting a reliable experience for learners.

About the Role: As a Staff Cloud Security Engineer, you will set technical direction and deliver security improvements across our cloud infrastructure and public-facing services. Your primary focus will be Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), workload identity, infrastructure as code, and remediation. You will also improve edge defenses and turn data-protection requirements into technical controls, automated checks, and evidence that those controls work.

In this role, you will:

• Lead cloud and Kubernetes security improvements, including workload identity, organization policies, and network protections. Partner with Infrastructure and identity colleagues on design, implementation, and tested rollouts.

• Operate cloud security tooling, prioritize findings by risk, and work with engineers to remediate vulnerabilities and harden container images.

• Improve WAF rules, rate limits, bot defenses, and anomaly detection to catch malicious traffic while reducing disruption for legitimate users.

• Build maintainable security automation and review infrastructure as code so secure configurations are easier to adopt and sustain.

• Create self-service patterns for securely exposing new services and connecting AI tools and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations to approved data.

• Partner with engineering to implement agreed data-protection requirements through enforceable controls, CI checks, regression tests, and reliable evidence.

• Guide cross-team security decisions, mentor engineers, and support incident response and security on-call responsibilities.

What you bring to the table:

• As a rough guide, we’re looking for 8+ years working with public-cloud infrastructure, including 5+ years in cloud security engineering. These are guidelines rather than hard cutoffs; equivalent experience demonstrating the depth and Staff-level impact described here is welcome.

• Experience securing GCP and GKE environments.

• Deep hands-on experience securing production cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes workloads, including identity and access, networking, Linux, and containers.

• Experience using infrastructure as code, such as Terraform, and programming languages such as Python or Go to build security controls and automation.

• Ability to translate security requirements into practical controls, automated tests, and evidence of effectiveness.

• A record of leading complex technical work across teams, making and explaining sound risk tradeoffs, and communicating clearly and respectfully.

Bonus points if you have:

• Experience designing and tuning WAF rules, rate limits, or bot defenses, with attention to detection quality and customer impact.

• Experience with Cloudflare and HUMAN/PerimeterX or comparable edge and bot-defense platforms.

• Experience operating Wiz or similar cloud security platforms and improving workload and container-image security.

• Experience securing AI or MCP integrations, or automating controls that support data-protection commitments and assurance frameworks.

Work Location We’re happy to share that this is a hybrid position in our San Francisco office. To support collaboration, we ask employees to be in the office at least two days a week: Wednesday and Thursday.

Compensation, Benefits & Perks:

• 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

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: At Quizlet, we’re excited about passionate people joining our team—even if you don’t check every box on the requirements list. We value unique perspectives and believe everyone has something meaningful to contribute. Our culture is all about taking initiative, learning through challenges, and striving for high-quality work while staying curious and open to new ideas. We believe in honest, respectful communication, thoughtful collaboration, and creating a supportive space where everyone can grow and succeed together.”

Quizlet’s success as an online learning community depends on a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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.

#LI-Onsite

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.