Software Engineer- Database Infrastructure

Discord; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading gaming communication platform is seeking an experienced backend engineer to build and operate large-scale data systems. Your role will involve collaborating with product teams and delivering high-impact solutions. We're looking for candidates with 2-4 years of backend infrastructure experience and proficiency in Rust or similar languages. The position offers a competitive salary range of $160,000 to $180,000 plus equity and benefits. Join us to shape the future of gaming communication!

Qualifications

• 2-4 years of experience with building backend infrastructure.
• Ability to troubleshoot, debug, and test complex systems in a live, production environment.
• Strong operating systems, distributed systems, and concurrency control fundamentals.
• Proficiency with at least one statically-typed programming language.

Responsibilities

• Build and operate large-scale, reliable data systems.
• Collaborate with product and infrastructure teams to develop storage primitives.
• Deliver what matters most to users through first principles thinking.

Skills

Backend infrastructure building

Troubleshooting complex systems

Operating systems fundamentals

Distributed systems knowledge

Concurrency control fundamentals

Programming in statically typed languages

Tools

ScyllaDB

PostgreSQL

ElasticSearch

Rust

Linux

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.

The Database Infrastructure team develops and operates all of Discord’s databases and data services. Those systems store the data of Discord's 200M+ monthly active users—including trillions of messages! We work across multiple areas: databases, disk storage and Rust-based data access services. We're a small team whose work has a huge impact on our company's success and ability to grow!

Some blog posts from the team:

• How Discord Indexes Trillions of Messages
• How Discord Stores Trillions of Messages
• How Discord Supercharges Network Disks for Extreme Low Lagest

You will:

• Build and operate large-scale, reliable and performant data systems with ScyllaDB, PostgreSQL, ElasticSearch, Linux and Rust.
• Collaborate with product and infrastructure teams to develop storage primitives enabling all of Discord.
• Exercise "First Principles Thinking" to always deliver what matters most to our users.
• Work with a talented team of engineers who have built one of the largest communication platforms in the world.

You have:

• 2-4 years of experience with building backend infrastructure
• Ability to troubleshoot, debug, and test complex systems in a live, production environment
• Strong operating systems, distributed systems, and concurrency control fundamentals
• Proficiency with at least one statically-typed programming language: e.g. Rust, Go, Java, C, C++
• Comfortable working in fast paced environments

Bonus Points:

• Experience with highly-available and distributed databases: e.g. ScyllaDB, Cassandra, Vitess, Postgres w/HA, etc.
• Experience with Rust
• Knowledge of DevOps tools like Salt, Terraform or Kubernetes

More things that might interest you:

• We've tackled a lot of fascinating technical challenges over the years, and blogged about it regularly:
  • How Discord Stores Trillions of Messages
  • 25% or 6 to 4: The 11/6/23 Authentication Outage
  • How Discord Supercharges Network Disks for Extreme Low Latency
  • Why Discord is switching from Go to Rust
  • How Discord Indexes Billions of Messages
  • How Discord Stores Billions of Messages
  • How Discord Indexes Trillions of Messages
• One of our team members even wrote a book on ScyllaDB
• We present at conferences:
  • How Discord Indexes Trillions of Messages by Vicki Niu
  • How Discord Performs Database Upgrades at Scale by Ethan Donowitz

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $160,000 to $180,000 + 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. 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.

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