Engineering Manager - Notifications
$248k - $310k+ Equity
Senior
Remote in USA
Remote
Engineering ManagementEngineering Leadership
About the job
Requirements
- At least 5 years of experience as a software engineer, including significant experience building and operating backend or infrastructure systems at scale.
- At least 2 years of experience as an engineering manager.
- Comfort owning production systems built with technologies such as Elixir, Python, pub/sub or streaming pipelines, and Kubernetes, with strong intuition for reliability, throughput, and cost at scale.
- Experience collaborating closely with product managers, designers, data scientists, and other engineers to define and ship solutions.
- A track record of growing engineers and helping team members succeed.
- Strong ownership mindset, staying close to the team's technical decisions and discussing them in depth.
- Ability to drive a culture of 80/20 thinking, fast iteration, and high-quality delivery.
Responsibilities
- Lead a team of full-stack engineers building and operating the notifications platform, including Elixir services, Python backends, pub/sub pipelines, and underlying Kubernetes infrastructure.
- Set technical direction for notifications infrastructure and ensure systems scale reliably as volume and complexity grow.
- Partner with Product, Design, Data Science, and Marketing to define and execute the notifications roadmap.
- Use experimentation and metrics to improve notification engagement, retention, and long-term user trust.
- Build a high-performing team through hiring, coaching, and instilling engineering best practices.
- Partner with platform consumers across Discord to evolve the primitives other teams depend on to reach users.
- Partner with engineering leadership on strategic planning and organizational improvement.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience leading teams that own shared platforms or primitives consumed by other engineering teams.
- Experience shipping push notifications or other re-engagement systems at consumer scale, including familiarity with deliverability, throttling, and policy considerations.
- Full-stack experience across both frontend and backend development.
- A strong track record of driving measurable impact through experimentation and data-driven decision-making.
- Demonstrated success driving engagement and long-term retention through messaging or re-engagement surfaces.
- Understanding of the gaming industry.
- Experience as a Discord user and understanding of Discord's core features and communications flow.
About the company
Discord runs a voice, video, and text chat platform where friends and gaming communities spend time together before, during, and after play. Its drop-in voice channels let people join an ongoing conversation without placing a call, while screen sharing lets a group watch games and other media together. Users create shared spaces for their communities, exchange messages, customize profiles, and stay connected across computers, phones, and consoles. The basic service is free, with paid Nitro subscriptions for enhanced streaming and customization, plus advertising campaigns that reward users for engaging with brands. Discord launched in 2015 and is headquartered in San Francisco.
Company Size
501-1,000
Company Stage
Series H
Total Funding
$979.3M
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Founded
2015
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Advertising is widening: September 2026 brought Discord Ads Manager to selected advertisers, ahead of broader access.
- Desktop app revenue increases Discord's cut: fees rise from 15% to 30% after a developer team's $1 million.
- Founding roles bring broad ownership: Discord's first Lisbon IT hire will build employee technology operations across EMEA.
What critics are saying
- Mobile community purchases get pricier: Discord normally adds Apple's 30% first-year iOS server subscription fee to purchaser prices.
- Lisbon IT work restricts flexibility: Discord's founding role requires five office days weekly and on-call rotations.
- Safety changes face court deadlines: July 2026's Texas injunction gave Discord 90 days to extend age assurance.
What makes Discord unique
- Discord reaches gamers specifically: its survey says over 90% of users play video games.
- Discord extends beyond chat rooms: its integration toolkit embeds free voice and text directly into eligible games.
- Game purchases stay social: Marvel Rivals players buy and gift in-game items through Discord.
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Benefits
- Stay healthy - We take care of our team with comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision plans.
- Parental perks - Spend some quality time with the next generation with parental leave, fertility, adoption, and surrogacy benefits.
- Kick back - Stay refreshed with over 19 paid holidays, use-what-you-need sick days, and four weeks of PTO.
- Commute easy - In a non-COVID world, get up to $270 per month for your commuting and parking needs.
- The loadout - When we're back in the office, enjoy daily catered lunches and snacks, a desk fund to make your space yours, and whatever you need for your computer setup, including a headphone allowance.
- Wellness on us - Take advantage of a quarterly wellness allowance for your gym membership or other wellness activities. Virtual yoga every week!
- Transgender benefits - Discord will reimburse up to $20,000 for any procedure related to transition.
- Discord HQ - Our office is located in Potrero Hill, a little neighborhood in San Francisco near awesome coffee and food.
- Relocation - Excellent relocation bonuses for new hires moving to San Francisco (once it's safe to return).