Engineering Manager (Notifications)

careers.bitkraft.vc - Jobboard; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 248,000 - 279,000; Full time

Job summary

Discord is hiring an Engineering Manager to lead the Notifications team focused on backend infrastructure. The role involves managing a team that builds and operates crucial notification systems using technologies like Elixir, Python, and Kubernetes. Ideal candidates will have at least 5 years in software engineering and 2 years in a managerial role. The position offers a base salary ranging from $248,000 to $279,000, plus equity and benefits, and is based in San Francisco, California.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience as a Software Engineer with a focus on backend or infrastructure systems.
• 2+ years of experience as an Engineering Manager.
• Comfort with Elixir, Python, and Kubernetes for production systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team building and operating notifications platform with Elixir and Python.
• Set technical direction and ensure reliable scaling of systems.
• Collaborate with Product and Design to define notifications roadmap.

Skills

Backend systems

Infrastructure systems

Elixir

Python

Kubernetes

Team leadership

Collaboration

Job description

Discord is used by over 200 million people every month for many different reasons, but there’s one thing that nearly everyone does on our platform: play video games. Over 90% of our users play games, spending a combined 1.5 billion hours playing thousands of unique titles on Discord each month. Discord plays a uniquely important role in the future of gaming. We are focused on making it easier and more fun for people to talk and hang out before, during, and after playing games.

We're looking for a technical, hands‑on, and infrastructure‑minded Engineering Manager to lead our Notifications team within the Growth organization. Notifications is a full‑stack team owning the platform and infrastructure that powers every notification Discord sends, the orchestration layer that optimizes notifications globally across types, the in‑app notifications center, and the user‑facing settings and client experience. You will lead a team of full‑stack engineers operating business‑critical systems that fan out to hundreds of millions of users while shipping the re‑engagement surfaces that bring them back.

This role reports to the Senior Engineering Manager of Growth.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead a team of full‑stack engineers building and operating the notifications platform — Elixir services, Python backends, pubsub pipelines, and the Kubernetes infrastructure underneath them
• Set technical direction for notifications infrastructure and ensure systems scale reliably as volume and complexity grow
• Partner with Product, Design, Data Science, and Marketing to define and execute the notifications roadmap
• Use experimentation and metrics to drive continuous improvement in notification engagement, retention, and long‑term user trust
• Build a high‑performing team through hiring, coaching, and instilling engineering best practices
• Partner with platform consumers across Discord to evolve the primitives other teams depend on to reach our users
• Partner with engineering leadership on strategic planning and organizational improvement

What you should have

• 5+ years of experience as a Software Engineer, with significant time building and operating backend or infrastructure systems at scale
• 2+ years of experience as an Engineering Manager
• Comfort owning production systems built on technologies like Elixir, Python, pubsub/streaming pipelines, and Kubernetes, with strong intuition for reliability, throughput, and cost at scale
• Experience collaborating closely with product managers, designers, data scientists, and other engineers to define and ship solutions
• A track record of growing engineers and helping team members succeed
• Strong ownership mindset — you stay close to the technical decisions your team makes and can discuss them in depth with anyone at Discord
• Ability to drive a culture of 80/20 thinking, fast iteration, and high‑quality delivery

Bonus points

• Experience leading teams that own shared platforms or primitives consumed by other engineering teams
• Experience shipping push notifications or other re‑engagement systems at consumer scale, including familiarity with deliverability, throttling, and policy considerations
• Full‑stack experience across both frontend and backend development
• Strong track record of driving measurable impact through experimentation and data‑driven decision making
• Demonstrated success driving engagement and long‑term retention through messaging or re‑engagement surfaces
• You understand the gaming industry
• You're a Discord user and understand the core features and flow of Discord communications

The US base salary range for this full‑time position is $248,000 to $279,000 + 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.

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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