Staff Data Engineer

Discord; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 248,000 - 310,000; Full time

Job summary

Discord is seeking a Staff Data Engineer to lead data infrastructure for Consumer Revenue, guiding architecture for Nitro, Shop, monetization, and gifting data products. You’ll set technical direction, build reliable data foundations, and enable teams to measure performance and run experiments.

You’ll mentor engineers, partner with Data Science, Product, Finance, and Data Platform, and push for high-quality data models, tests, and self-serve analytics.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of production data pipelines and data products experience.
• Expert-level SQL and strong Python, with maintainable production code.
• Designed robust data models for analytics, reporting, and experiments.
• Led technical direction across complex projects used by multiple teams.
• Strong data quality practices with testing, monitoring, and docs.
• Experience with dbt, BigQuery, Dagster or equivalent and CI/CD.
• Ability to translate business questions into clear metric definitions.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction for Consumer Revenue data engineering and architectures.
• Design canonical data models for monetization, subscriptions, purchases, and Shop.
• Build and evolve production data pipelines with balance of freshness and cost.
• Define and operationalize business metrics across reporting and experimentation.
• Strengthen data foundations to support high-velocity product work and growth.
• Establish data quality, testing, monitoring, and documentation practices.
• Improve self-service analytics with semantic layer and reusable models.
• Collaborate with upstream/downstream partners on data contracts and interfaces.
• Mentor data engineers through design reviews and project ownership.

Skills

SQL

Python

Data modeling

Data pipelines

Cross-team collab

Mentoring

CI/CD

Tools

dbt

BigQuery

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.

Discord is looking for a Staff Data Engineer to join our Data Engineering team and partner with Consumer Revenue. Our mission is to make it easy for all users to discover, understand, buy, and keep Premium Products on Discord. In this role, you will set technical direction for the data systems that support Nitro, Shop, server monetization and gifting, and other consumer revenue experiences. You will build reliable data foundations that help teams understand performance, run experiments, and make better product and business decisions.

You’ll work closely with Data Science, Product, Finance, Data Platform, and engineering partners. If you’re excited to lead complex data engineering work, raise the quality of shared data products, and help a high-velocity consumer business grow, read on.

What You'll Be Doing

• Set technical direction for Consumer Revenue data engineering: identify foundational gaps, define scalable architectures and standards, and lead high-impact initiatives from design through adoption.
• Design and own canonical data models and datasets for consumer monetization, including subscriptions and subscriber states, purchases and payments, Shop, gifting, and Orbs. Make these assets reliable, well-documented, and useful across product analytics, financial reporting, experimentation, and decision-making.
• Build and evolve production data pipelines that transform source events and transactional data into accurate, trusted data products. Balance freshness, reliability, cost, and maintainability across batch and, where the use case calls for it, lower-latency processing.
• Partner with Data Science, Product, Finance, and engineering teams to define and operationalize important business metrics—including subscriber, revenue, booking, retention, and product usage measures—and ensure definitions are consistent across reporting and experimentation.
• Strengthen the data foundations behind high-velocity product work and revenue growth. Translate ambiguous questions into robust models, metrics, and analytical capabilities that help teams size opportunities, evaluate launches, and learn from experiments.
• Establish data quality, testing, monitoring, and documentation practices for the data assets you own. Pay particular attention to accuracy, freshness, auditability, and edge cases in subscription, payment, and commerce data.
• Improve self-service analytics by maintaining a discoverable semantic layer, reusable data models, and clear guidance that let partner teams answer common questions with less bespoke support. Contribute to AI-assisted analytics workflows where they can make data access more useful and dependable.
• Work closely with upstream Data Platform and downstream Data Science partners to align on interfaces, data contracts, and operational expectations; communicate trade-offs and risks clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Mentor data engineers through design and code reviews, technical guidance, and ownership of complex projects. Raise the bar for engineering quality and help teams adopt consistent data modeling and documentation practices.

What You Should Have

• 7+ years of experience building and operating production data pipelines and data products, including significant hands‑on ownership of architecture and implementation.
• Expert‑level SQL and strong Python skills, with experience writing maintainable, tested production code.
• A track record of designing robust data models from large‑scale event, product, or transactional data and making them usable for analytics, reporting, and experimentation.
• Experience setting technical direction across complex projects, identifying systemic data problems, and delivering solutions that multiple teams can rely on.
• Strong data quality instincts, including experience with testing, monitoring, data freshness, documentation, and the investigation of metric discrepancies.
• Experience with modern data engineering tools and workflows (for example, dbt, BigQuery, Dagster, or equivalent), version control, and CI/CD practices.
• Experience partnering with Data Science, Product, Finance, and Engineering to turn ambiguous business questions into clear metric definitions and dependable data products.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to build alignment, explain technical trade‑offs, and earn trust across teams.
• A desire to work with thoughtful, passionate people who care deeply about solving challenging problems to improve Discord.

Bonus Points:

• Passion for Discord or online communities
• Experience with subscription, payments, e‑commerce, virtual currency, or other consumer monetization data.
• Experience building data products for experimentation, causal measurement, or product launch evaluation.
• Experience developing a semantic layer, metrics store, or self‑service analytics platform.
• Experience with streaming or near‑real‑time data systems, or improving the reliability and observability of critical pipelines.
• Experience with AI‑assisted analytics or tools that help teams safely discover and use trusted data.
• Passion for Discord, gaming, or online communities.

The base salary range for this full‑time position is listed below. This position will also be eligible for equity and 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 role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include equity, or benefits.

$248,000 - $310,000 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. 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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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.