Staff Software Engineer, Safety Processing

Discord is a voice, video and text platform that helps friends come together to hang out, play games and have fun. Founded in 2015, Discord has grown to support millions of daily active users, with a focus on gaming and shared interests.

We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join our Safety Processing team. This team plays a crucial role in ensuring trust and safety across Discord, processing signals from user reports and automated systems to identify and remove harmful or illegal content. You will lead backend projects, provide architectural guidance, and help build scalable systems that protect our users.

• Lead, design, and build scalable backend systems for processing safety-related signals, primarily using Python.
• Guide and mentor the team through architectural and system design challenges, ensuring long-term scalability.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to build tools for content moderation and compliance efforts, including in-house solutions and vendors.
• Implement and enhance ML/AI models and automation to improve efficiency in content moderation and decision-making.
• Build solutions with an adversarial mindset, anticipating safety challenges such as malicious behavior and illegal content.
• Drive workstreams and provide leadership to the team, mobilizing others to deliver impactful outcomes.

• Python expertise: extensive experience developing and maintaining backend systems using Python.
• Architectural leadership: strong system design and architecture skills for scalable, reliable content moderation systems, with emphasis on large-scale projects measured in quarters or years.
• Leadership in execution: ability to define workstreams, lead projects, and guide engineers.
• Adversarial mindset: experience in trust, safety, security, or privacy domains.
• On-call experience: experience in a 24/7 on-call rotation for production systems.

• Experience with ML/AI models in content moderation.
• Familiarity with TypeScript/JavaScript/React and frontend technologies.
• Familiarity with Rust.
• Previous experience at companies with a strong focus on safety, security, or trust & safety.

Base salary range: $279,000—$341,000 USD. This position is also eligible for equity and benefits.

This position is US-based only. Candidates must be located in the Los Angeles area (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, or Ventura Counties) or the San Francisco Bay Area (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties). 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.

Apply through the provided Greenhouse job posting link.