Engineering Manager, Machine Learning (Safety)

EngineersOfAI; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 272,000 - 306,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Discord is seeking an Engineering Manager for Safety ML in the United States to lead a high-impact ML engineering team responsible for detection systems across content understanding, account integrity, and platform abuse. You will own production models, define capabilities, measure performance, and ensure healthy operations at scale.

The role requires deep ML expertise, 3+ years in management, and a track record of shipping ML systems.

Qualifications

• 5+ years as ML Engineer, Data Scientist, or Applied Scientist.
• 3+ years as Engineering Manager leading 5+ engineers.
• Hands-on depth in abuse/fraud detection, content classification, behavioral modeling, graph-based modeling, or LLM-based classification systems.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work cross-functionally.
• Proven record of shipping ML systems to production at scale.
• Passion for coaching and leading other engineers.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead an exceptional team of ML engineers by hiring, coaching, and instilling ownership and impact.
• Drive the technical vision and roadmap for Safety ML with partners across Trust & Safety, Product, Policy, Legal, and Data Science.
• Own end-to-end lifecycle of production safety models: capabilities, performance, and operational health.
• Manage processes and raise the bar to deliver extraordinary results.
• Partner with Trust & Safety on label quality, golden sets, and automating investigations.
• Collaborate with other Engineering Managers to improve the Engineering organization and workplace philosophy.

Skills

ML Engineering

Engineering management

Cross-functional communication

Problem solving

First principles thinking

Production ML systems

Mentoring/Coaching

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's Safety ML team builds the machine learning systems that protect 200M+ users. The team's mission is to make Discord a place where people can build genuine friendships without exposure to harm, at a scale where manual review alone can never keep up.

We're looking for a highly technical, hands-on, and mission-driven Engineering Manager to lead our Safety ML team. As the manager responsible for Safety ML, you will own the detection systems that sit between attackers and our users; real-time and batch models for content understanding, account integrity, and platform abuse.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Build and lead an exceptional team of highly-engaged ML engineers by hiring, coaching, and instilling a sense of ownership and impact.
• Drive the technical vision and roadmap for Safety ML by collaborating with your team and partners across Trust & Safety, Product, Policy, Legal, and Data Science.
• Own the end-to-end lifecycle of production safety models: defining new capabilities, measuring performance, and monitoring the operational health of systems that make millions of enforcement decisions per day.
• Manage processes and leverage your technical expertise to continually raise the bar and ensure your team delivers extraordinary results.
• Partner with Trust & Safety on label quality, golden sets, and automating manual investigations.
• Work with other Engineering Managers to continuously improve the Engineering organization and uphold our workplace philosophy.

What you should have

• You have 5+ years of experience as a Machine Learning Engineer, Data Scientist, or Applied Scientist.
• You have 3+ years of experience as an Engineering Manager and successfully managed a team of 5+ engineers.
• You have hands-on depth in at least one of: abuse/fraud detection, content classification, behavioral modeling, graph-based modeling, or LLM-based classification systems.
• You have strong communication skills and the ability to work well cross-functionally.
• You thrive in ambiguous environments and get excited about figuring out solutions to complex problems, and then executing on them.
• You are a first principles thinker that can work with others to come up with pragmatic solutions.
• You have a proven record of shipping ML systems to production at scale.
• You are passionate about coaching and leading other engineers, but can roll up your sleeves and get elbow deep in code when needed.
• You keep up with the industry trends and continuously identify new technologies to leverage to solve technical problems

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $272,000 to $306,000 + equity + benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role and level. Within the range, individual pay is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include equity, or benefits.

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 accommo