Senior Recruiter - Lisbon

Discord; Lisboa; Hybrid; EUR 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Discord is opening its first engineering office in Lisbon to house Core Tech teams focused on infrastructure, audio/video, performance, and security. We seek the founding recruiter on the ground to build the local recruiting foundation as we grow to ~30 engineers by 2027.

You will own full-cycle recruiting, partner with US-based teams, and shape Lisbon-specific processes, offers, and candidate experiences. You’ll be the first recruiter in Portugal with real influence over hiring in Lisbon and

Qualifications

• Several years of full-cycle recruiting experience, ideally in-house at a high-growth technology company.
• Track record hiring senior and staff software or infrastructure engineers in a competitive market.
• Deep, current knowledge of the Lisbon engineering talent market.
• Ability to work independently across time zones with ambiguity and build roadmaps.
• Fluent English plus Portuguese or proven recruitment experience in Portugal.
• Strong communication skills to represent Discord and close candidates.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting for Core Tech engineering and supporting roles in Lisbon, including sourcing, screening, interview coordination, and closing senior and staff engineers.
• Be the local face of Discord recruiting: build employer brand in Lisbon via meetups, universities, agencies, and events.
• Adapt our hiring process for the Portuguese market, offers, interview loop, and candidate experience with cross-functional partners.
• Act as a trusted talent partner to hiring managers; bring market data and calibrate hiring standards.
• Build foundations for repeatable recruiting: Greenhouse hygiene, pipeline reporting, sourcing ops, market intelligence.
• Independently track and report pipeline health and hiring pace to stakeholders and leadership.

Skills

Full-cycle recruiting

Hiring senior engineers

Lisbon market knowledge

Independent across time zones

Fluent English

Portuguese language ability

Tools

Greenhouse

AI sourcing tools

Job description

Discord has a highly engaged community of millions of daily active users who use the platform for many different reasons, but there's one thing that nearly everyone does: play video games. Discord plays a uniquely important role in the future of gaming, and we are focused on making it easier and more fun for people to hang out before, during, and after playing games.

Discord is opening its first engineering office in Lisbon, which will be home to brand new, stand-alone Core Tech teams working on the infrastructure, audio/video, performance, and security systems that keep Discord running at scale. We're looking for the founding recruiter on the ground: the person who personally hires the engineers who make this office real and builds the local recruiting foundation as we grow from a small founding group to around 30 engineers by the end of 2027. That's the first milestone, not the end state.

You’ll be part of Discord’s centralized, US-based recruiting team and the only recruiter in Lisbon for a while. You’ll have an established team and hiring process behind you, but you’ll need to set your own priorities, make calls on the ground, and build what’s missing. You’ll keep a daily overlap window with the US team and Bay Area hiring managers, typically late afternoon Lisbon time; the rest of your schedule is yours.

The zero-to-one opportunity

There is no local playbook yet. You’ll write it while running searches. You’ll be one of the very first Discord employees in Portugal, with real influence over who we hire, how we hire, and how Discord shows up in the Lisbon market.

What you’ll do

• Own full-cycle recruiting for Core Tech engineering and supporting roles in Lisbon which includes sourcing, screening, interview coordination, and closing senior and staff engineers in a competitive market.
• Be the local face of Discord recruiting: build our employer brand in Lisbon through meetups, community events, university and agency relationships, and moments like Web Summit.
• Adapt our hiring process for the Portuguese market, offer structure, interview loop, candidate experience while partnering closely with People, Legal, and Compensation.
• Act as a trusted talent partner to hiring managers and Lisbon site leadership; bring market data, set a high and calibrated bar, and push back when needed.
• Build the foundations that make recruiting repeatable including Greenhouse (ATS) hygiene, pipeline reporting, sourcing operations, market intelligence.
• Independently track and report pipeline health and hiring pace [to stakeholders, Recruiting Leadership and/or Core Tech leadership] on a regular cadence.
• Help decide what recruiting support Lisbon needs as volume grows, whether that’s agencies, contract sourcing, or additional hires.

What success looks like (first 6–12 months)

• A localized, compliant, candidate-friendly offer and interview process for Portugal is up and running.
• Real pipeline and employer-brand presence in Lisbon which could include agency, community, and university partnerships established, and events and conferences rhythm that turn into actual candidates.
• You've personally signed the founding cohort of Core Tech engineers and are tracking to the 2027 hiring plan.
• Hiring managers in Lisbon and SF see you as the person who knows this market.
• Systems and reporting are in place to scale recruiting without starting over.

What you should have

• Several years of full-cycle recruiting experience, ideally in-house at a high-growth technology company.
• A track record hiring senior and staff software or infrastructure engineers in a competitive market.
• Deep, current knowledge of the Lisbon engineering talent market.
• Comfort operating on your own, across time zones, with ambiguity - you build the roadmap rather than wait for one.
• Fluent English plus one of the following: fluent Portuguese, or a track record of successfully recruiting for a technology company in Portugal without it - meaning you already have the relationships, agency network and working knowledge of Portuguese hiring norms this role will need.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to represent Discord and close candidates.

Bonus points

• Experience standing up recruiting for a new office, market, or team from scratch.
• Experience recruiting for a US-headquartered company, ideally Bay Area. You know where US tech culture and Portuguese working norms differ on pace, communication style, hours, hiring process, and pay structure, and you can translate in both directions.
• Existing relationships in the Portuguese tech ecosystem.
• Experience hiring infrastructure, audio/video, performance, or security engineers.
• Familiarity with Greenhouse and modern sourcing/AI tooling.
• You understand the gaming industry and are a Discord user.

Candidates must reside in or be willing to relocate to the Lisbon Area and attend the office 3 days a week.

Why Discord?

Discord plays a uniquely important role in the future of gaming. We're a multiplatform, multigenerational and multiplayer platform that helps people deepen their friendships around games and shared interests, and helps developers build and grow their businesses. We believe games give us a way to have fun with our favorite people, whether listening to music together or grinding in competitive matches for diamond rank.

Join us in our mission! Your future is just a click away!

Discord is committed to inclusion and providing reasonable accommodations during the interview process. We want you to feel set up for success, so if you are in need of reasonable accommodations, please let your recruiter know.

Please see our Applicant and Candidate Privacy Policy for details regarding Discord's collection and usage of personal information relating to the application and recruitment process by clicking HERE.