Senior Software Engineer, Data Platform

Discord; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 221,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Discord is building the next generation Data Platform to power decisions for millions of gamers. You will design and implement scalable data ingestion, transformation, and serving systems, shaping how data informs product decisions across the platform.

We seek a Software Engineer with 5+ years of experience and hands-on data infrastructure knowledge (BigQuery, Kafka, Spark, Flink, Airflow, Dagster). Relocation to the SF Bay Area is available.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience with strong programming skills.
• Hands-on experience building or operating data infrastructure at scale.
• Ability to collaborate across data scientists, engineers and product teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication; willingness to mentor others.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain data infrastructure processing petabytes of data across millions of users.
• Write clean, well-tested code for data ingestion, transformation, and serving systems.
• Own projects end-to-end from design through deployment and production support.
• Collaborate with data scientists, engineers, and product teams to deliver insights.
• Mentor teammates through code reviews and RFCs to raise team quality.

Skills

Python/Java/Rust/Go

Data infrastructure at scale

Cross‑team collaboration

Growth mindset

Tools

BigQuery

Kafka

Spark

Flink

Airflow

Dagster

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.

Every day, millions of gamers gather on Discord to hang out, strategize their next raid, celebrate tournament victories, and build communities around the games they love.

Behind every voice channel, every streamer Go Live, every Quest completed, there's data, petabytes of it, telling the story of how people connect through gaming.

We’re looking for someone who gets excited about building data infrastructure at massive scale and cares deeply about the gaming communities we serve. Someone with passion for building lovable products for Discord users and Discord engineers.

We’re building the next generation Data Platform that powers decisions for one of the most vibrant platforms in the world.

If you're the kind of Software Engineer who lights up when talking about distributed systems, cares deeply about user privacy, grounding decisions in data, and wants your work to directly impact millions of gamers worldwide, we want to talk to you.

To learn more about Discord’s Data Platform, read our engineering blog, including how we built our modern data stack leveraging open-source tools!

What You'll Be Doing

• Build and maintain data infrastructure processing petabytes of data across millions of users
• Write clean, well-tested code for data ingestion, transformation, and serving systems
• Own projects end-to-end. From design through deployment and production support
• Collaborate with data scientists, engineers, and product teams to deliver solutions that power Discord's insights
• Apply 80/20 thinking to challenge requirements, cut unnecessary complexity, and deliver the optimal solution at the right time
• Mentor teammates through code reviews, RFCs, and shared technical knowledge that makes the whole team better

What You Should Have

• 5+ years of software engineering experience with strong programming skills in Python, Java, Rust, Go, or similar
• Hands‑on experience building or operating data infrastructure like pipelines, streaming systems, orchestration, or data warehousing at scale (BigQuery, Kafka, Spark, Flink, Airflow, Dagster, or similar)
• Proven track record of delivering complex, multi-phase projects autonomously. You've owned the hard ones and handled edge cases, failure modes, and scale before they became problems.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, including with XFN partners. You write clear technical documents, drive alignment, and bring people along on technical decisions
• Growth mindset. You’ve failed, learned, and shipped something better because of it

Bonus Points

• Passion for Discord and gaming
• Familiarity with data governance, privacy compliance, or cost optimization in large-scale data environments

Candidates must reside in or be willing to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties). Relocation assistance may be available.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $220,500 to $269,500 + 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. 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.

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.

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.