Staff Software Engineer, Discord
Player Experience
$248-279k
+ Equity
Voice, video and text communication platform
Be an early applicant
Voice, video and text communication platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$248-279k
+ Equity
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help friends and communities come together to hang out and explore their interests.
Role
Who you are
- You have 8+ years of experience as a software engineer
- You have experience with React/TS, Python or other modern programming languages
- You are comfortable switching between different technical stacks and learning new ones
- You enjoy collaborating with product, design and other stakeholders. We don’t operate in silos, and you’ll be working closely with cross-functional peers. You should be able to express opinions and stay aligned
- You take a holistic approach to problem solving. You believe in solving a problem from first principles rather than simply shipping a solution. You learn from your mistakes and work through obstacles with the rest of the team
- You have experience leading projects, gathering requirements, supporting partners and mentoring others. You believe in ‘lead by example’ with regards to ownership, autonomy, quality and impact, and no problem is “not my problem”
- You are a Discord user and want to make the product better!
Desirable
- Experience working on a mobile native stack (iOS / Obj-C / Swift), Android (Java, Kotlin)
- Experience integrating or deploying on Steam (or similar platforms)
- Experience using Epic Games Online Services, Steamworks API, Playfab
What the job involves
- People come to Discord before, during, and after gaming, and we want to make that experience even better
- Working directly with our developer partners and communities, we are building brand new ways for users on Discord to connect, engage and have a great time while gaming
- We believe that gaming is better when playing with friends, and aim to provide the features and tooling for developers to help us enrich those experiences
- Design, build, and maintain features that help users connect and make friends through gaming on our platform, across desktop and mobile
- Engage with developers, game studios and other partners to find opportunities and address challenges towards providing a more rich experience for players while gaming and engaging with online communities
- Collaborate with Engineers, Designers, Product Owners, and Data Scientists to build engaging, fun, and trusted experiences, while experimenting and iterating on ideas that enhance user interactions
- Partner with our Content, Marketing and ML teams to improve ranking and discovery systems, enabling users to find meaningful connections and relevant content
- Build innovative features that help users discover new friendships and deepen existing ones, creating a trusted and welcoming environment
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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