Senior Software Engineer - API Platform

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.

Our Platform Infrastructure teams are responsible for building and maintaining the critical systems that power Discord's core services. These systems handle hundreds of thousands of requests per second, process tens of billions of transactions daily, and enable millions of users to connect seamlessly. Through developing and operating foundational platform components, our work allows internal developers to rapidly and safely deliver new features to production while ensuring Discord remains reliable, efficient, and scalable.

As a Senior Software Engineer on these teams, you will continuously improve our codebase, processes, and infrastructure - affecting nearly every interaction users have on Discord!

What You'll Be Doing:

• Ensure the reliable and efficient operation of critical systems that serve millions of users daily.
• Design, develop, and scale distributed systems from the ground up.
• Write code and manage infrastructure to support high-performance services.
• Enable dozens of teams to deploy code to production quickly and safely.
• Use and enhance observability tools to troubleshoot complex issues.
• Instrument services to establish robust data collection and monitoring pipelines.
• Coach and mentor other engineers, enabling their development.
• Become a vital part of a small team of talented engineers passionate about keeping Discord running smoothly.

What you have:

• 5+ years of experience designing and developing backend systems.
• Experience scaling distributed systems.
• Experience operating complex services in a production environment.
• Familiarity with open source software, and the ability to dig into a library's source code to find the answer you're looking for.
• Confidence in making tradeoffs when leading projects to ensure constant progress.

Bonus Points:

• Experience with Python or Rust.
• Experience deploying and managing containerized applications with Kubernetes.
• Experience with Google Pub/Sub or other message queue systems.
• A deep understanding of Python runtime internals or the gevent library.
• Experience utilizing AI tools like Claude Code and Cursor to supercharge dev workflows
• You have built or contributed to open source projects.
• You are a Discord power user and have built bots or apps interacting with our platform.

Candidates 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). Relocation assistance may be available.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $196,000 to $245,000 + 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, 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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