Director of Engineering, Data Platform

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.

This position is based in San Francisco.

We are seeking an experienced leader to join and lead our Data Platform function. In this role, you'll set the strategic direction and oversee the development of Discord's data infrastructure, tools, and applications. You will lead the teams responsible for designing, scaling, and maintaining the systems that enable data-driven decision-making across the company.

In this leadership role, you will combine technical leadership with organizational strategy to ensure our data platform empowers every part of Discord - from product innovation to operational excellence. This is a unique opportunity to define and own the vision for Discord's data ecosystem while building, growing, and leading a high performance engineering team.

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

• Lead the strategic vision and technical roadmap for the Data Platform function by working with your leads, the broader Data+ML org, and executive partners across the company.
• Build and lead a high-performing engineering team, providing mentorship, fostering growth, and promoting a culture of collaboration and curiosity.
• Drive technical excellence and innovation, championing best practices in software development, data architecture, and system reliability.
• Collaborate with Core Technology, Product Engineering, and ML Platform teams to make sound, first-principle decisions.
• Leverage your technical expertise to continually improve the team and ensure Data Platform achieves extraordinary results.

What you should have

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with 6+ years in a technical leadership or management role.
• 3+ years of experience managing other managers.
• Demonstrated success in building and leading teams responsible for large-scale data platforms and infrastructure.
• Proven experience managing high-performing engineering teams and growing engineers up to and through the senior staff level.
• Strong expertise in distributed systems, data infrastructure, modern data technologies (e.g., Kafka, Spark, BigQuery), and cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Azure).
• Solid understanding of data governance, privacy, and compliance principles.
• Exceptional strategic thinking with the ability to align technical solutions with organizational goals.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate across all levels of the company.

Bonus Points

• Experience as a senior engineering leader or head of data platform in a high-scale, consumer-focused organization.
• Experience with Machine Learning infrastructure and tools.
• Experience hiring for rapidly growing startups.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $400,000 to $450,000 + 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!

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