Director of Corporate Development, Discord
$280-315k
+ Equity
Voice, video and text communication platform
Be an early applicant
Voice, video and text communication platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$280-315k
+ Equity
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help friends and communities come together to hang out and explore their interests.
Role
Who you are
- 10-12+ years of experience in investment banking (TMT/gaming coverage), venture capital, private equity, or corporate development at high-growth tech/media companies
- 5+ years people management experience
- Proven deal closer: Led or co-led 5+ M&A transactions from thesis through close, including at least 2 deals >$50M
- Full-stack M&A expertise: Sourcing, valuation, diligence, negotiation, and integration
- Financial modeling mastery: DCF, LBO, accretion/dilution analysis, and returns evaluation
- Gaming or digital media fluency: Understanding of business models, unit economics, and value drivers
- Executive presence: Can present effectively with C-suite executives, founders, and board members
What the job involves
- As Director of Corporate Development, you'll lead Discord's M&A engine—sourcing, structuring, closing, and integrating strategic acquisitions that accelerate our growth
- Reporting to the VP of Corporate Strategy and working directly with our C-suite and product teams, you'll drive deals from thesis through integration while contributing to the strategic thinking that shapes our pipeline
- Source and maintain active pipeline of strategic acquisition targets across our business priorities
- Lead end-to-end deal execution from initial outreach through diligence, negotiation, and closing
- Develop comprehensive deal theses that secure C-suite conviction for transactions
- Structure deals that balance strategic value, financial returns, and integration complexity—from capability tuck-ins to transformative acquisitions
- Direct technical, commercial, financial, and strategic diligence workstreams
- Negotiate term sheets and definitive agreements with target companies and advisors
- Partner with Product and Engineering to drive successful post-acquisition integration
- Build and refine repeatable M&A playbooks, templates, and processes
- Provide M&A perspective on strategic questions and build-vs-buy decisions
- Contribute to market analyses that inform acquisition pipeline development
- Support quarterly strategic reviews, annual planning, and long-range financial planning
- Maintain pulse on M&A landscape, competitive dynamics, and emerging opportunities
- Advise on complex partnership structures with M&A-like characteristics
- Provide deal structuring expertise on equity investments, joint ventures, and strategic alliances
- Help evaluate acquire-vs-partner trade-offs on strategic opportunities
Our take
Discord is an industry giant in the chat app space. The free platform has rapidly become one of the most popular services in the sector since being founded in 2015. It counts over 200M active users in 19M communities, successfully expanding beyond its original focus on video game players to become a broader social networking app and public forum.
Discord's userbase has grown rapidly as remote work has become the norm and a new generation of internet users has come online, attracted to its youthful presentation and plethora of gaming and social tools. It has since fended off takeover bids from Microsoft and interest from other giants such as Amazon and X, and has grown into a profitable company, funded by optional subscription fees and commissions from sales through the platform.
Discord’s remarkable growth, however, is not without obstacles. The company faces competition from deep-pocketed giants like Facebook, and regulatory concerns from those worried about the platform’s relatively light chat moderation. However, the company has the resources and expertise to adapt. For example, the acquisition of harassment detection software company Sentropy will go a long way towards placating the concerns of critics, as will the 2024 acquisition of teen app Gas used to give anonymous compliments to friends. All of these purchases are part of Discord's move to expand out of its mostly gaming-focused customer base.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
28% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 9 rounds)
Sep 2021
$500m
SERIES H
Dec 2020
$100m
SERIES H
Total funding: $979.3m
Company HQ
Potrero Hill, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Stanislav Vishnevskiy
(Co-Founder & CTO)Previously worked as a Software Engineer at Casamba and then Kabam. Also worked as a Lead Software Engineer at GREE International, and founded social network Guildwork.com in 2009.
Humam Sakhnini
(CEO)Humam joined the Discord team in 2025 as CEO. Prior to this, he was the VIce Chairman and Chief Strategy & Talent Officer at Activision Blizzard as well as the CFO/President at King. He also spent 8 years at McKinsey & Company as a Partner.
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