--- title: 'Engineering Manager, Machine Learning (Safety) at Discord' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-manager-machine-learning-safety-discord-san-francisco-crmhrc88sf7a' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-09' --- # Engineering Manager, Machine Learning (Safety) at Discord - **Company:** Discord - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Posted:** 2026-08-20 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/discord/jobs/8722538002 ## Job description 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. Discord's Safety ML team builds the machine learning systems that protect 200M+ users. The team's mission is to make Discord a place where people can build genuine friendships without exposure to harm, at a scale where manual review alone can never keep up. We're looking for a highly technical, hands-on, and mission-driven Engineering Manager to lead our Safety ML team. As the manager responsible for Safety ML, you will own the detection systems that sit between attackers and our users; real-time and batch models for content understanding, account integrity, and platform abuse. ## What You'll Be Doing - Build and lead an exceptional team of highly-engaged ML engineers by hiring, coaching, and instilling a sense of ownership and impact. - Drive the technical vision and roadmap for Safety ML by collaborating with your team and partners across Trust & Safety, Product, Policy, Legal, and Data Science. - Own the end-to-end lifecycle of production safety models: defining new capabilities, measuring performance, and monitoring the operational health of systems that make millions of enforcement decisions per day. - Manage processes and leverage your technical expertise to continually raise the bar and ensure your team delivers extraordinary results. - Partner with Trust & Safety on label quality, golden sets, and automating manual investigations. - Work with other Engineering Managers to continuously improve the Engineering organization and uphold our [workplace philosophy](https://blog.discordapp.com/the-four-values-of-working-at-discord-90d5b5102cbc). ## What you should have - You have 5+ years of experience as a Machine Learning Engineer, Data Scientist, or Applied Scientist. - You have 3+ years of experience as an Engineering Manager and successfully managed a team of 5+ engineers. - You have hands-on depth in at least one of: abuse/fraud detection, content classification, behavioral modeling, graph-based modeling, or LLM-based classification systems. - You have strong communication skills and the ability to work well cross-functionally. - You thrive in ambiguous environments and get excited about figuring out solutions to complex problems, and then executing on them. - You are a first principles thinker that can work with others to come up with pragmatic solutions. - You have a proven record of shipping ML systems to production at scale. - You are passionate about coaching and leading other engineers, but can roll up your sleeves and get elbow deep in code when needed. - You keep up with the industry trends and continuously identify new technologies to leverage to solve technical problems The US base salary range for this full-time position is $272,000 to $306,000 + 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. 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.](https://discord.com/terms/applicant-candidate-privacy-policy) ## About Discord ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Discord is a voice, video, and text communication platform designed to help friends and communities hang out and play games together. - **Entity Type**: Private (funding stage not disclosed in available sources) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA - **Founded**: 2015 - **Founders**: Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Gaming communication and social platform - **Target customers**: B2C – gamers, gaming communities, and friends; also B2B via in-game chat integrations - **Mission or purpose**: To be the best place to talk before, during, and after playing games, enabling meaningful connections around the joy of gaming. ## Products & Services - **Discord Platform (Voice, Video, Text)**: A free-to-use app for 1:1 DMs, group DMs, and Servers where users can communicate in real-time. Features include high-quality streaming, in-game overlay, Soundboard, Voice Messages, and Activities (playable games inside Discord). - **Discord API & SDK**: Allows developers to build bots, integrations, and in-game chat powered by Discord (e.g., used by Pax Dei and Omega Strikers). - **Discord App Launcher**: Lets users enjoy Activities and apps directly within Discord. - **Rich Presence API**: Enables games to display player activity on Discord profiles. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company) - **Key Metric**: 90+ million daily active users (DAU) as of Q4 2025 (internal data) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not detailed in provided sources; known from general knowledge includes Greylock, Index Ventures, Accel, and Tencent (but not cited here) - **Growth Signals**: - 90%+ of Discord users play video games; ~40% start a game within an hour of using Discord. - Expanded in-game voice chat support to PS5 and PC. - Launched in-game overlay, Soundboard, Voice Messages, and Activities. - New CEO Humam Sakhnini (former Activision Blizzard/King executive) appointed in Spring 2025. ## Competitive Advantages - **Gaming-first focus**: Deep integration with gaming ecosystems (console, PC, mobile) and features built specifically for gamers. - **Massive, engaged user base**: 90M+ DAU with high daily activity and strong community stickiness. - **Platform lock-in**: Users build social networks within Discord servers, making switching costly. - **Developer ecosystem**: API and SDK power hundreds of thousands of apps and in-game chat integrations. ## Strategic Focus - Continue making Discord the most reliable and feature-rich platform for gaming conversations. - Expand in-game voice/text chat partnerships (e.g., Pax Dei, Omega Strikers). - Invest in Safety platform (dedicated engineering teams, Safety Processing, Enforce, Experience). - Grow revenue through monetization features (Nitro subscriptions, game sales, and ads – hinted by job postings for "Revenue" teams). ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Emphasizes seven principles: Strive for Excellence, Cultivate Belonging, Deliver for Customers, Embrace the Brutal Facts, Progress Over Perfection, Debate/Decide/Commit, Surprise & Delight. Employees use Discord daily and share a passion for gaming. - **Work model**: Flexible – in-person at San Francisco HQ, remote, or hybrid. "Great work can happen anywhere." - **Benefits** (US full-time): - Competitive compensation with equity, 401k matching. - 4 weeks PTO, 16 paid holidays (including winter break), flexible sick time (including mental health days). - 12+ weeks parental leave, fertility/adoption/surrogacy benefits. - Medical, dental, vision, reproductive, gender-affirming, and mental healthcare. - $375 quarterly wellness stipend. - $1,000/year donation matching, 2 volunteer days off. - **Engineering culture**: Strong focus on data, safety, and infrastructure; managers go through leadership training; many open roles in Core Tech, Safety, Data, and Machine Learning. ## Sources 1. [discord.com/careers](https://discord.com/careers) 2. [discord.com/company](https://discord.com/company) 3. [discord.com/blog/the-seven-principles-of-working-at-discord](https://discord.com/blog/the-seven-principles-of-working-at-discord) 4. [job-boards.greenhouse.io/discord](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/discord) 5. [job-boards.greenhouse.io/discord/jobs/8350416002](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/discord/jobs/8350416002) ## Other roles at Discord - [Senior Platform Security Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-platform-security-engineer-discord-san-francisco-wmqhya88803p) — San Francisco, CA - [Payments & Fraud Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/payments-fraud-analyst-discord-san-francisco-9w61pwdn627j) — San Francisco, CA - [Senior Product Design Manager, Growth](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-design-manager-growth-discord-san-francisco-6gnbwh5csc1v) — San Francisco, CA - [Staff Software Engineer - Consumer Revenue](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-consumer-revenue-discord-san-francisco-8zpepm9x2hap) — San Francisco, CA - [Senior Stock Administrator](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-stock-administrator-discord-san-francisco-bay-area-or-wz6bvbjx5q8a) — San Francisco Bay Area OR, United States - [Staff Software Engineer, Safety Experience](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-safety-experience-discord-san-francisco-r9k25m01vcj9) — San Francisco, CA - [Senior Data Scientist, Causal Inference + Experimentation](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-scientist-causal-inference-experimentation-discord-san-francisco-j5jz1gd3jj4q) — San Francisco, CA - [Senior Product Designer, Consumer Revenue](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-designer-consumer-revenue-discord-san-francisco-7t59q3verpe0) — San Francisco, CA - [Staff Software Engineer, Experimentation Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-experimentation-platform-discord-united-states-gyzrhcktmjhk) — United States - [Staff Data Scientist, Causal Inference & Experimentation](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-data-scientist-causal-inference-experimentation-discord-san-francisco-chb6hzmag15z) — San Francisco, CA