Director of Machine Learning, Discord
Safety
$342-376.1k
+ Equity
Voice, video and text communication platform
Open for applications
Voice, video and text communication platform
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$342-376.1k
+ Equity
1001+ employees
Company mission
Discord's mission is to help friends and communities come together to hang out and explore their interests.
Role
Who you are
- 8+ years of experience in machine learning, data science, or related technical field
- 5+ years of experience leading teams building ML products at scale
- Demonstrated success driving Trust & Safety, Fraud Prevention, or Content Moderation initiatives
- Strong track record of applying ML techniques to consumer-facing problems
- Experience collaborating with Policy, Legal, and Trust & Safety teams
- Ability to balance technical excellence with practical business impact
- Experience scaling and organizing technical teams
What the job involves
- Discord is about giving people the power to create space to find belonging in their lives. As communities grow on our platform, we're committed to keeping our users safe by leveraging effective machine learning
- We're seeking a Director of Machine Learning for Trust & Safety who will lead our efforts in protecting millions of users through state-of-the-art ML technologies
- The Trust & Safety ML organization at Discord is responsible for helping reduce harm on the platform using machine learning, from proactive detection of harmful content to building scalable reactive systems for reported content
- In this role, you'll lead a high-performing team of ML scientists and engineers while collaborating extensively with Trust & Safety, Legal, Policy, and Adaptive Data teams. At the same time, we’re looking to expand into using ML for fraud prevention and security detection and response in further efforts to keep Discord users safe
- This role reports to our Senior Director of AI and Machine Learning and will be critical to this expansion
- Drive the technical vision and execution of Discord's Safety ML stack, emphasizing SOTA ML technologies
- Scale and organize teams across key functional areas including Trust & Safety, Fraud Prevention, and Content Moderation
- Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to drive safety initiatives and demonstrate ML's impact on user safety
- Lead innovation in creative data sourcing and model development to move key safety metrics
- Guide technical decision-making around ML architecture and infrastructure choices
- Mentor and grow technical leaders within the Safety ML organization
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 150 million active users in 19 million 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 Twitter, 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 benefits
- Comprehensive medical insurance including Health, Dental and Vision
- Mental health resources and quarterly wellness stipends
- 16+ paid holidays, 4 weeks of PTO + use-what-you-need sick days
- Paid parental leave (plus fertility, adoption and other family planning benefits)
- Flexible long-term work options (remote and hybrid)
- Volunteer time off
- A diverse slate of Employee Resource Groups
- Plus commuter contributions and other perks for office-based employees
Company values
- Autonomy
- Mastery
- Purpose
- Compassion
Company HQ
Potrero Hill, San Francisco, CA
Articles
Leadership
Jason Citron
(CEO)Started out as a programmer at Papaya Studio, Stormfront Studios and Doublefine Productions. Also founded OpenFeint, a global mobile social gaming company.
Worked as a Software Engineer at Casamba and then Kabam. Was Lead Software Engineer at GREE International, and founded social network Guildwork.com in 2009.
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