Staff Software Engineer (Data Platform)

Location: 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). Position is based in the San Francisco office.

Salary: $248,000 – $279,000 + equity

Company

Discord is a multiplatform communication app used by over 200 million people monthly, primarily serving gaming communities.

What you will do

• Lead the technical direction of major Data Platform initiatives such as GRC, scaling, and stream processing.
• Act as a force multiplier by building reusable primitives and raising the quality bar across the team.
• Write high-quality production code while mentoring other engineers.
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to translate business problems into technical strategies.
• Champion technical debates and drive robust solutions using 80/20 thinking.

Requirements

• 7+ years of software engineering experience with a track record of driving large, ambiguous initiatives end-to-end.
• Expertise in distributed systems and data infrastructure at massive scale.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through architectural thought leadership, design reviews, and mentorship.
• Strong technical judgment regarding build vs. integrate decisions and delivery speed.
• Ability to drive alignment across engineering, product, and business teams without relying on authority.

Nice to have

• Passion for Discord and the gaming industry.
• Experience with data governance, privacy compliance, or real-time analytics infrastructure.
• Experience with cost optimization in large-scale data environments.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive base salary and equity package.
• Relocation assistance may be available.
• Inclusive work environment with reasonable accommodations during the interview process.
• Opportunity to impact a platform used by hundreds of millions of users worldwide.