Senior Software Engineer, Safety Backend

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Senior Software Engineer, Safety Backend

San Francisco Bay Area or Los Angeles Area

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.

Keeping our platform safe requires infrastructure that is accurate, scalable, and fair and the engineering challenges that come with that are genuinely hard. Our Safety Engineering teams build and operate the systems that power content moderation, enforcement, and safety signal processing at scale.

Our team developed Osprey, the open-source investigation and incident response tool that allows safety teams to understand what is happening on their platforms and take actions at scale. Osprey has since been open-sourced and donated to ROOST, reflecting our commitment to industry-wide safety improvements.

We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer who thrives on complex, ambiguous problems and can take full ownership of critical infrastructure from design through post-launch iteration.

What You'll Be Doing

Own complex safety infrastructure projects end-to-end, from initial design through post-launch monitoring and iteration

Build and maintain production systems that operate at massive scale, participating in on-call rotations

Apply an adversarial mindset to your work — thinking through security, abuse scenarios, edge cases, and scalability concerns

Collaborate closely with Trust & Safety, ML, Policy, and product teams to understand requirements and deliver effective solutions

Break down large, multi-milestone projects into prioritized work streams while managing stakeholders and dependencies across teams

Contribute to technical design discussions and write RFCs; help establish best practices and maintain a high quality bar through code reviews and mentorship

What You Should Have

5+ years of professional software engineering experience focused on backend services and/or infrastructure

Strong programming skills in Python; we work occasionally in Rust and TypeScript as well

Experience building and operating distributed systems and production services at scale such as GCP or AWS

Strong debugging skills and ability to navigate complex, multi-service codebases

Excellent collaboration and communication skills, including experience working with cross-functional partners

A quality-centered mindset with attention to the right details at every stage of development

Bonus Points

Experience with content moderation, trust & safety, or related problem domains

Experience with ML/LLM integration

Experience with observability tooling, metrics, and monitoring systems at scale

A strong passion for Discord and making online communities safer

This position is US-based only. We are seeking candidates located in the Los Angeles or San Francisco Bay Areas. Candidates in the Los Angeles area can work remotely. Candidates in the San Francisco area are required to be in the office 2 days per week. Relocation assistance may be available to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Candidates must be located within one of the following counties:

Los Angeles area: (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, or Ventura Counties)

San Francisco Bay Area: (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties)

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, 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.

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.

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244 results found

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For government reporting purposes (EEO-1), we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Discord is required to file annual demographic reports with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Your responses help us meet this obligation. Each question below includes an “I don’t wish to answer” option. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

Additionally, we also have [optional] questions. These help us understand the composition of our broader applicant pool and have no impact on your application or hiring decisions. Your answers are kept secure, pseudonymized, and separate from your application and personal data. By answering, you consent to our use of your responses for the reasons above. If you change your mind later about sharing this information, you can withdraw consent anytime by reaching out to us at privacy@discordapp.com.

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.

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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.

Keeping our platform safe requires infrastructure that is accurate, scalable, and fair and the engineering challenges that come with that are genuinely hard. Our Safety Engineering teams build and operate the systems that power content moderation, enforcement, and safety signal processing at scale.

Our team developed Osprey, the open-source investigation and incident response tool that allows safety teams to understand what is happening on their platforms and take actions at scale. Osprey has since been open-sourced and donated to ROOST, reflecting our commitment to industry-wide safety improvements.

We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer who thrives on complex, ambiguous problems and can take full ownership of critical infrastructure from design through post-launch iteration.

What You'll Be Doing

Own complex safety infrastructure projects end-to-end, from initial design through post-launch monitoring and iteration

Build and maintain production systems that operate at massive scale, participating in on-call rotations

Apply an adversarial mindset to your work — thinking through security, abuse scenarios, edge cases, and scalability concerns

Collaborate closely with Trust & Safety, ML, Policy, and product teams to understand requirements and deliver effective solutions

Break down large, multi-milestone projects into prioritized work streams while managing stakeholders and dependencies across teams

Contribute to technical design discussions and write RFCs; help establish best practices and maintain a high quality bar through code reviews and mentorship

What You Should Have

5+ years of professional software engineering experience focused on backend services and/or infrastructure

Strong programming skills in Python; we work occasionally in Rust and TypeScript as well

Experience building and operating distributed systems and production services at scale such as GCP or AWS

Strong debugging skills and ability to navigate complex, multi-service codebases

Excellent collaboration and communication skills, including experience working with cross-functional partners

A quality-centered mindset with attention to the right details at every stage of development

Bonus Points

Experience with content moderation, trust & safety, or related problem domains

Experience with ML/LLM integration

Experience with observability tooling, metrics, and monitoring systems at scale

A strong passion for Discord and making online communities safer

This position is US-based only. We are seeking candidates located in the Los Angeles or San Francisco Bay Areas. Candidates in the Los Angeles area can work remotely. Candidates in the San Francisco area are required to be in the office 2 days per week. Relocation assistance may be available to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Candidates must be located within one of the following counties:

Los Angeles area: (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, or Ventura Counties)

San Francisco Bay Area: (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties)

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, 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.

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.

244 results found

No results found

Afghanistan+93

Åland Islands+358

Albania+355

Algeria+213

American Samoa+1

Andorra+376

Angola+244

Anguilla+1

Antigua & Barbuda+1

Argentina+54

Armenia+374

Aruba+297

Ascension Island+247

Australia+61

Austria+43

Azerbaijan+994

Bahamas+1

Bahrain+973

Bangladesh+880

Barbados+1

Belarus+375

Belgium+32

Belize+501

Benin+229

Bermuda+1

Bhutan+975

Bolivia+591

Bosnia & Herzegovina+387

Botswana+267

Brazil+55

British Indian Ocean Territory+246

British Virgin Islands+1

Brunei+673

Bulgaria+359

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Burundi+257

Cambodia+855

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Canada+1

Cape Verde+238

Caribbean Netherlands+599

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Central African Republic+236

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Chile+56

China+86

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Congo - Kinshasa+243

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French Polynesia+689

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