Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Monetization & Decision Systems

Quizlet; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 274,500; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

20 vacation days

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Employer-sponsored 401k plan

Access to LinkedIn Learning

Job summary

A leading educational technology platform located in San Francisco is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to enhance their AI-powered tools. The role involves designing predictive models that drive learner engagement and optimizing decision-making processes within their product. Candidates should have over 8 years of ML experience, strong Python skills, and a proven history of integrating ML systems. This onsite position fosters collaboration while working towards impactful educational outcomes.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of applied ML or ML-heavy engineering experience, with a track record of shipping production models.
• Deep expertise in classical ML techniques such as boosted trees, GLMs, survival models.
• Strong engineering skills with Python and common ML frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of predictive and prescriptive models across learner-facing decisions.
• Evaluate approaches connecting offline modeling metrics to online experimental outcomes.
• Define and negotiate clean integration boundaries with engineering teams.

Skills

Applied ML or ML-heavy engineering experience

Classical ML techniques

Python and ML frameworks

Integration of ML systems

Experimentation design

Education

8+ years of experience in ML

Tools

scikit-learn

PyTorch

XGBoost

LightGBM

Job description

Overview

About Quizlet 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. 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.

About The Team

The Personalization & Recommendations ML Engineering team builds the core intelligence behind how Quizlet matches learners with content, activities, and user experiences that best fit their goals, while optimizing for business metrics that support long-term sustainability. We power recommendation and search systems across multiple surfaces, such as the home feed, search results, and adaptive study modes, as well as decision systems in ads and notifications that determine timing and nature of key interventions.

Within this organization, this role is responsible for the predictive and decisioning models that drive monetization, retention, activation and goal-aligned study guidance. These systems balance immediate impact with long-term user value and must integrate seamlessly into Quizlet’s product architecture.

As a Staff Machine Learning Engineer on the Personalization & Recommendations team, you will lead both the modeling efforts and the technical integration work required to bring complex ML systems into production. This includes designing predictive and prescriptive models (such as conversion propensity, churn risk, LTV, sequential decisioning, and timing optimization) and collaborating closely with product and infrastructure engineering to ensure these models can be safely and cleanly embedded into existing product workflows. A major part of this role involves identifying dependencies within the product codebase, defining integration contracts with cross-functional partners, and shaping technical solutions that allow ML-driven decisioning to operate reliably, efficiently, and maintainably at scale. You’ll work closely with product managers, data scientists, platform engineers, backend engineers, and fellow ML engineers to deliver ML-driven experiences that drive engagement, satisfaction, and measurable business outcomes.

About The Role

Role focus As a Staff Machine Learning Engineer on the Personalization & Recommendations team, you will lead the development of ML systems that decide what action Quizlet should take for a learner, when that action should occur, and under what constraints. This role focuses on action selection and policy design rather than content ranking alone, and requires deep ownership of both modeling and production integration.

You will own the full lifecycle of these systems (from problem framing and model development to integration, deployment, and long-term reliability), working closely with product, infrastructure, and backend engineering partners. A core responsibility is embedding model-driven decisions into Quizlet’s product in a way that is safe, observable, and maintainable, including identifying dependencies, defining clean interfaces, and ensuring robust fallback behavior.

Your work will directly influence monetization, retention, activation and goal-aligned study guidance, requiring you to balance short-term business impact with long-term learner value and product integrity.

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. This working environment facilitates increased work efficiency, team partnership, and supports growth as an employee and organization.

In This Role You Will

• Lead the design and development of predictive and prescriptive models (e.g., conversion propensity, churn risk, LTV, uplift, sequential decisioning, and timing optimization) that drive learner-facing decisions across monetization, lifecycle, and study guidance surfaces
• Design and build decisioning and policy models that determine learner-facing actions across product surfaces, including monetization, lifecycle, and study guidance use cases. These systems operate under real-world product constraints and must optimize across multiple, sometimes competing objectives
• Work on problems such as: determining when and how to present paywalls, discounts, or value exchanges; selecting personalized study modes or interventions based on learner state and intent; triggering retention or churn-prevention actions at the right moment; balancing immediate conversion or revenue with long-term engagement and learning outcomes
• Emphasize multi-objective optimization across monetization, retention, and user experience, timing- and eligibility-aware decisioning rather than static predictions, and consistent action selection across sessions and surfaces
• Evaluate approaches that connect offline modeling metrics to online experimental outcomes
• Apply advanced techniques such as uplift modeling, survival analysis, sequential decisioning, and other policy-based approaches, bringing them into production in collaboration with cross-functional partners
• Lead the end-to-end productionization of ML systems, from modeling through integration, ensuring models can be safely, cleanly, and reliably embedded into existing product workflows
• Identify upstream and downstream dependencies within the product codebase and data ecosystem, and proactively address integration risks
• Define and negotiate clean integration boundaries, including API contracts, data interfaces, decision schemas, and fallback strategies, in collaboration with product and infrastructure engineering
• Partner with Infrastructure Engineering to design scalable, resilient, and observable model-serving paths that integrate with Quizlet’s application stack
• Embed model-driven decisioning logic into backend and product flows in ways that are maintainable, testable, and compatible with existing systems
• Build and maintain end-to-end pipelines for feature engineering, training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring, ensuring training–serving consistency
• Improve latency, throughput, reliability, and observability of real-time and near–real-time inference systems at scale
• Translate product goals (conversion, retention, revenue, engagement) into clear modeling objectives and technical specification
• Collaborate closely with product managers, backend engineers, and infrastructure partners to fit ML systems into the existing architecture without introducing brittle dependencies
• Develop evaluation frameworks that tie offline metrics to online A/B results, ensuring changes are measurable, interpretable, and aligned with product impact
• Clearly communicate assumptions, trade-offs, risks, and technical constraints to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Provide technical leadership for ML-driven decision systems, guiding the organization toward unified policy models and consistent action-selection frameworks across surfaces
• Mentor engineers and scientists, setting a high bar for modeling rigor, production quality, experimentation discipline, and responsible ML
• Shape long-term strategy for scalable, maintainable ML decisioning, bringing modern approaches—including sequential decisioning and RL-adjacent techniques—into production where appropriate

What You Bring To The Table

• 8+ years of applied ML or ML-heavy engineering experience, with a track record of shipping production models that drive measurable business impact
• Deep expertise in classical ML techniques (e.g., boosted trees, GLMs, survival models, uplift modeling)
• Experience with reinforcement learning, contextual bandits, or sequential decision-making
• Strong engineering skills with Python and common ML frameworks (scikit-learn, PyTorch, XGBoost, LightGBM, etc.)
• Demonstrated experience integrating ML systems into complex product architectures, ideally including monolithic applications
• Experience defining integration boundaries, solving backend/ML interface issues, and collaborating with infra teams on serving patterns
• Strong understanding of experimentation design, causal analysis, and the relationship between offline and online evaluation
• Excellent communication skills for conveying technical constraints and integration trade-offs
• A strong ownership mindset centered on reliability, maintainability, and long-term system health

Bonus Points If You Have

• Background in causal ML or uplift modeling
• Experience with paywall optimization, monetization systems, or churn modeling
• Knowledge of real-time inference architectures, feature stores, or streaming systems
• Publications or open-source contributions in ML, RL, causal inference, or system integration

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 $190,000 - $274,500, 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 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

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

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. Our culture is about initiative, learning through challenges, and striving for high-quality work while staying curious and open to new ideas. We value honest, respectful communication, thoughtful collaboration, and creating a supportive space where everyone can grow and succeed together.

Quizlet’s success depends on a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are an equal opportunity employer and 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

Quizlet does not accept unsolicited agency resumes and/or profiles. Please do not forward unsolicited 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. We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.