Engineering Manager, Machine Learning (Safety)

Discord Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 272,000 - 340,000; Full time

Job summary

Discord is seeking a highly technical Engineering Manager for the Safety ML team. You will own detection systems for content understanding, account integrity, and platform abuse, and lead a team of ML engineers through end-to-end model lifecycles.

You will drive the technical vision, collaborate with Trust & Safety, Product, Policy, Legal, and Data Science, and ensure scalable, production-grade ML systems that make millions of enforcement decisions daily.

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, modeling, or LLM-based systems.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a team of ML engineers with ownership and impact.
• Define and execute the Safety ML technical vision and roadmap.
• Own end-to-end lifecycle of production safety models and monitor system health.
• Improve processes and raise performance while delivering exceptional results.
• Collaborate with Trust & Safety, Product, Policy, Legal, and Data Science.
• Work with other EMs to improve the Engineering organization.

Skills

ML Engineer

Engineering Manager

Abuse/Fraud Detection

Cross-functional Communication

First Principles Thinking

Production ML Delivery

Mentoring Engineers

Tech Scouting

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.

Base Salary

$272,000 – $340,000 USD

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.

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.

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