Senior Software Engineer, Safety Backend

About the role

This role owns the backend systems that keep Discord safe for millions of gamers. The team designs, operates, and iterates on scalable safety infrastructure used for content moderation and safety signal processing. Success requires solving genuinely hard infrastructure problems with accuracy and fairness.

Software engineers turn product ideas into working code. Engineers work in small teams, review each other's work, and ship in small batches. Most teams follow agile practices such as sprints and daily standups. Engineers also write tests, fix bugs, and improve performance. The field values clear communication as much as technical skill. Engineers spend part of every week on planning, code review, and debugging, not just writing new code. The ability to explain a technical decision in plain words separates strong engineers from the rest.

Key facts

Location: USA

Engagement: Highly engaged community of millions of daily active users who play video games.

Team: Safety Engineering teams.

Years: 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.

Degree: Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.

Visa: US-based only; candidates in the Los Angeles area can work remotely, while candidates in the San Francisco area are required to be in the office 2 days per week.

Re

location: Relocation assistance may be available to the San Francisco Bay Area.

County locations: Los Angeles area includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, or Ventura Counties; San Francisco Bay Area includes Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma Counties.

Requirements

Professional software engineering experience focused on backend services and/or infrastructure spans 5+ years.

Strong programming skills in Python are required, with occasional work in Rust and TypeScript.

Experience building and operating distributed systems and production services at scale, such as on GCP or AWS, is necessary.

Debugging skills are strong, and the ability to navigate complex, multi-service codebases is required.

Collaboration and communication skills are excellent, including experience working with cross-functional partners.

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

Candidates must be located within Los Angeles area counties or San Francisco Bay Area counties.

Candidates in the Los Angeles area can work remotely, while 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.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $196,000 to $220,500 + equity + benefits.

Practical notes

This position is US-based only with a requirement that candidates be located within specified counties.

Typical interview steps

Hiring for engineering roles usually starts with a recruiter screen, followed by one or two technical rounds. Candidates often solve a coding problem, discuss past projects, and answer system design questions. Some loops include a take-home task. Final rounds typically cover team fit and give candidates a chance to ask questions. Interviewers look for how you break down an unfamiliar problem, not just whether you reach the answer. Practicing a few problems aloud and reviewing your own past projects are the best preparation.

Good to know

Safety backend work relies on accurate, scalable, and fair infrastructure.

The role uses backend services, distributed systems, and observability tooling at scale.

Engineering challenges for gaming platforms require an adversarial mindset and rigorous scalability thinking.

Career growth

Engineering careers usually progress from individual contributor to senior, staff, and principal levels. Some engineers move into management and lead teams of five to twenty people. Others stay on the technical track. Growth follows demonstrated impact, not tenure alone. A typical engineering ladder has clear levels with defined expectations for scope, quality, and mentorship. Moving up usually requires owning outcomes end to end rather than completing assigned tickets.

About the company

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.