Staff Software Engineer, Discord

ML Platform

$246-270.4k

+ Equity

Kubernetes
Kafka
Airflow
Spark
Flink
Senior and Expert level
Remote in US
San Francisco Bay Area
Discord

Voice, video and text communication platform

Open for applications

Discord

Voice, video and text communication platform

1001+ employees

B2CGamingCommunicationSocialSocial MediaCommunity

Open for applications

$246-270.4k

+ Equity

Kubernetes
Kafka
Airflow
Spark
Flink
Senior and Expert level
Remote in US
San Francisco Bay Area

1001+ employees

B2CGamingCommunicationSocialSocial MediaCommunity

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 working as a software engineer in data or backend with exposure to large datasets or distributed systems
  • 4+ years working on platforms or infrastructure
  • 2+ years working on machine learning platforms
  • Know-how with orchestration systems (such as Airflow, Dagster, or Argo)
  • You've put machine learning models into production

Desirable

  • Experience with real-time data processing (Spark, Flink, Dataflow, Kafka, Pulsar, etc.)
  • Experience debugging and maintaining live production systems on Kubernetes
  • Experience building ML models using modern frameworks

What the job involves

  • The Machine Learning Platform (MLP) at Discord is responsible for the end-to-end model lifecycle across all ML applications
  • We sit at the intersection of machine learning engineers (MLEs), core infrastructure, and ML consumers to provide tools, capabilities, and services that make machine learning easy, safe, and widely accessible
  • In this role, you will work on everything from feature stores, real-time data processing, LLM tooling, and model serving at scale
  • You will lead projects and work directly with ML practitioners as well as other staff+ engineers to shape the landscape of Discords backend data systems
  • You will report to the Senior Engineering Manager of the ML Platform team
  • Design and build the platform ML engineers and data scientists use to understand and delight Discord's users and keep them safe
  • Evaluate and integrate new machine learning frameworks and tools to ensure that Discord keeps up with the fast moving world of ML, including LLMs and generative AI
  • Collaborate with model builders to ensure we have a smooth path from idea to production
  • Set best practices in machine learning at Discord
  • Create foundational datasets and models

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 headshot

Steph

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Insights

Top investors

Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

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

Leadership

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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