Senior Data Science Manager, Developer Platform

Discord; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 342,000 - 380,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Discord is seeking a Senior Data Science Manager to lead the Developer Platform's data science efforts, including SDKs, identity systems, and developer tools that connect games with players. You will guide a mission-driven team and shape data-driven decisions across the platform to create value for developers and Discord users.

You will partner with Product, Engineering, and Business Development, develop metrics, run experiments, and ensure responsible data use while advancing platform adoption

Qualifications

• 8+ years of applied data science and analytics experience, including consumer and platform contexts.
• 3+ years in people management leading data scientists and raising team bar.
• Strong expertise in experimentation and causal inference with quasi-experimental methods.
• Experience designing interpretable metrics and measurement systems for product areas.
• Proficiency in SQL and Python or R.
• Strong communication to translate technical work to executives and engineers.
• Experience with gaming platforms, developer-facing products, and external partners' data.
• Experience building customer-facing data products like dashboards or benchmarking tools.
• Familiarity with advertising signal ecosystems and ML for signal enrichment/forecasting.
• Experience with cloud data platforms like BigQuery and BI tools (Hex/Mode/Looker/Tableau).
• Understanding of data governance and privacy for signals across product/revenue.
• Interest in Discord, gaming and communities.

Responsibilities

• Manage, mentor, and develop a mission-driven team of Data Scientists across identity, signals, and developer tools.
• Own the vision and roadmap for data-driven decision-making across the Developer Platform and Discord.
• Shape developer-facing data products, including metric definitions, benchmarking, and insights quality.
• Partner with Ads, Engagement, and Growth to identify, validate, and productize platform-derived signals and measure value via experiments.
• Drive platform adoption by partnering with Product, Engineering, and Business Development to measure integration health and forecast growth.
• Collaborate on joint studies with partner data science teams to uncover business value from the developer tech stack.
• Coordinate data governance with Data Engineering, Product, and Legal to ensure signals are documented and governed.

Skills

Experimentation & causal inference

SQL

Python or R

Data storytelling

Cross-functional collaboration

Gaming industry knowledge

Tools

BigQuery

Hex

Mode

Looker

Tableau

Job description

Senior Data Science Manager, Developer Platform

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 is where the world's gamers hang out, and increasingly, it's the platform game developers build on. We're seeking a Senior Data Science Manager to lead Data Science for our Developer Platform: the SDKs, identity systems, and developer tools that connect games and their players to Discord.

What makes this role distinctive is the two-sided value equation at the heart of the platform. For game developers, we build tools that help studios grow player engagement and revenue, including data products that give them deeper insight into their players and communities. For players, we use signals from those same tools to make it easier to play and hang out with friends, deepen engagement across Discord, and deliver more relevant ads.

Your team's job is to make both sides of that exchange demonstrably valuable. That means proving the platform's worth to developers with rigorous evidence, and ensuring the signals it generates create outsized, responsible value for Discord users.

If helping make Discord an even better place to hang out with your friends and communities sounds like an exciting challenge - we'd love to chat with you!

What you’ll be doing

• Manage, mentor, and develop a mission-driven team of Data Scientists embedded across the Developer Platform's core areas: identity, signals, and developer tools.
• Own the vision and roadmap for data-driven decision-making across the Developer Platform org, and shape company strategy on how the platform creates value for both developers and Discord.
• Strengthen the developer side of the value equation by shaping developer-facing data products, including metric definitions, benchmarking methodologies, and insight quality.
• Strengthen the Discord side of the value equation by partnering with Ads, Engagement, and Growth to identify, validate, and productize platform-derived signals, and by measuring their incremental value through experimentation.
• Drive platform adoption by partnering with Product, Engineering, and Business Development to measure integration health, forecast growth, and surface insights that help the org land and deepen integrations with the world's largest game developers.
• Serve as a trusted analytical partner to top game developers, designing joint studies with partner data science teams to uncover business value from the developer tech stack.
• Partner with Data Engineering, Product, and Legal on data governance: ensure platform signals are documented, discoverable, and governed well across Discord.
• Set clear priorities and nimble operating models, and build a team known for rigorous methods and decision-ready work. Partner with other Data leaders to shape the direction and culture of Discord's Data organization..

What you should have

• 8+ years of experience in applied data science and advanced analytics, ideally including both consumer product and B2B or platform contexts.
• 3+ years managing and developing teams of Data Scientists, with a track record of growing ICs and raising the team's technical bar.
• Strong expertise in experimentation and causal inference, including quasi-experimental methods (propensity matching, synthetic controls, diff-in-diff) for settings where randomized experiments aren't feasible.
• Experience designing novel, interpretable metrics for a new or fast-evolving product area, and building the measurement systems around them.
• Proficiency in SQL and at least one data programming language (Python or R).
• Clear communication and influence. You can translate complex technical work into crisp narratives for executives, engineers, and external partners, and use data to shape strategy and roadmaps alongside Product and Engineering leadership.
• Experience with gaming, game platforms, or developer-facing (B2B2C) products, especially working directly with external partners' data or analytics teams.
• Experience building or shaping customer-facing data products such as analytics dashboards, benchmarking tools, or measurement offerings.
• Familiarity with advertising signal ecosystems (event pipelines, identity resolution, targeting and measurement, lookalike modeling) and with ML applications for signal enrichment, forecasting, or personalization.
• Experience with cloud data platforms like BigQuery, very large datasets, and modern BI tools (e.g., Hex, Mode, Looker, Tableau).
• Understanding of data governance, privacy, and responsible data use, particularly for signals shared across product and revenue systems.
• Interest in Discord, gaming, and the communities we serve.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $342,000 to $380,000 + 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 accommodations, please let your recruiter know.

Discord is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, disability, medical condition, genetic information, military or veteran status, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including hiring, promotion, compensation, discipline, termination, and access to benefits and training.