Senior Software Engineer, Discord
Safety Backend
$196-220.5k
Plus equity
More information about location
2+ days a week in office
Voice, video and text communication platform
Open for applications
Voice, video and text communication platform
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$196-220.5k
Plus equity
More information about location
2+ days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help friends and communities come together to hang out and explore their interests.
Role
Who you are
- 5+ years of professional software engineering experience focused on backend services and/or infrastructure
- Strong programming skills in Python; we work occasionally in Rust and TypeScript as well
- Experience building and operating distributed systems and production services at scale such as GCP or AWS
- Strong debugging skills and ability to navigate complex, multi-service codebases
- Excellent collaboration and communication skills, including experience working with cross-functional partners
- A quality-centered mindset with attention to the right details at every stage of development
Desirable
- Experience with content moderation, trust & safety, or related problem domains
- Experience with ML/LLM integration
- Experience with observability tooling, metrics, and monitoring systems at scale
- A strong passion for Discord and making online communities safer
What the job involves
- We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer who thrives on complex, ambiguous problems and can take full ownership of critical infrastructure from design through post-launch iteration
- Own complex safety infrastructure projects end-to-end, from initial design through post-launch monitoring and iteration
- Build and maintain production systems that operate at massive scale, participating in on-call rotations
- Apply an adversarial mindset to your work — thinking through security, abuse scenarios, edge cases, and scalability concerns
- Collaborate closely with Trust & Safety, ML, Policy, and product teams to understand requirements and deliver effective solutions
- Break down large, multi-milestone projects into prioritized work streams while managing stakeholders and dependencies across teams
- Contribute to technical design discussions and write RFCs; help establish best practices and maintain a high quality bar through code reviews and mentorship
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 90M daily 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, isn't without obstacles. The company faces competition from deep-pocketed rivals such as Meta and ongoing scrutiny over moderation and user safety. Despite this, Discord has continued to strengthen its platform through investments in privacy and accessibility, including the rollout of end-to-end encrypted voice and video calls for all users and the launch of a native Windows on ARM app to improve performance on next-generation devices. Alongside acquisitions such as Sentropy and Gas, these developments show just how hard Discord is pushing beyond its gaming roots.
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
- Discord HQ: At Discord, we believe great work can happen anywhere, whether in person or virtually. Our flexible work model empowers our people to choose where they work best: at home, in one of our offices like our San Francisco HQ, or a mix of both.
- Grow together: Look forward to developing both professionally and personally alongside your colleagues at Discord. All of our managers go through a leadership program, and we offer enriching trainings for everyone. No matter what your interests or skills are, there's a place on our platform for you to find and build belonging.
- Money matters: Discord strives to offer fair and competitive compensation packages, including equity. You'll have room to grow and be rewarded based on your contributions and impact at the company. Take advantage of our retirement offerings (including 401k matching in the US) to meet your financial goals.
- Health benefits; At Discord, we health-care about you! We offer medical, dental, vision, reproductive, gender-affirming, and mental healthcare to our employees.
- Family support: Spend some quality time with the next generation with 12+ weeks parental leave, as well as fertility, adoption, and surrogacy benefits.
- R&R: Stay refreshed with four weeks of PTO, 16 paid holidays each year including a week off for the winter holidays, and flexible sick time (which includes mental health days).
- Wellness on us: Take advantage of a $375 quarterly stipend for your gym membership or other activities to keep you feeling great.
- Giving back: Whatever social cause you're passionate about, take a day (or two) off to make an impact. While you're at it, take advantage of $1,000/year in donation matching to charitable organizations!
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, they were the Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy & Talent Officer at Activision Blizzard as well as the CFO/President at King. They also spent 8 years at McKinsey & Company as a Partner.
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