Staff Software Engineer – Audio/Video Infrastructure

📍 San Francisco Bay Area | 💼 Full-Time | Hybrid (Onsite 1+ day/week)

💰 $248,000 – $279,000 base salary + equity + benefits

About Discord

Used by over 200 million people every month, Discord is where communities connect, especially around gaming. With over 1.5 billion hours spent on games monthly, Discord is at the heart of real-time communication for the next generation of gamers and creators. Our mission: to make it easier and more fun to hang out before, during, and after playing.

The Role: Staff Software Engineer, Audio/Video Infrastructure

We’re seeking a Staff Engineer who’s passionate about building large-scale, high-performance real-time Audio and Video systems. You'll join our A/V Infrastructure team, maintaining and evolving our WebRTC stack and driving improvements to quality, scalability, and reliability.

Your work will directly impact millions of users across the world, ensuring voice and video experiences on Discord remain smooth, stable, and lightning-fast.

What You’ll Do

• 🔧 Build and scale Discord’s real-time Audio/Video infrastructure for millions of users
• 🚀 Optimize system performance, reliability, and quality, with a focus on ultra-low latency
• 🌐 Deploy on the edge to bring services closer to users and reduce lag
• 🤝 Collaborate across teams to introduce new features and improve existing capabilities
• 🧠 Tackle hard technical problems with a team that’s built one of the world’s largest communication platforms

What You Bring

• ✅ 5+ years of experience in video infrastructure engineering
• ✅ Proven success with WebRTC, HLS, or DASH
• ✅ Experience with large-scale systems and distributed architectures
• ✅ Proficiency in building observable, monitorable systems
• ✅ Comfort navigating large codebases and undefined technical environments
• ✅ Strong debugging and system design skills

Bonus Points For:

• 🟣 Experience with Elixir
• 🎥 Familiarity with video codecs like H.264, HEVC, AV1
• 🌐 Knowledge of network protocols like RTMP, HTTP, UDP, QUIC
• 💻 Contributions to open-source A/V projects

Compensation & Perks

• 💰 Salary Range: $248,000–$279,000
• 📈 Equity Grants
• 🏥 Top-tier Benefits: Health, dental, vision, mental wellness, paid time off
• 🌱 Growth Opportunities in one of the fastest-growing platforms in the world
• 🧑‍💻 Onsite Work: Minimum 1 day/week in our SF HQ

Why Discord?

At Discord, you’ll help shape the future of multiplayer communication. Whether it's building low-latency streaming pipelines or enhancing how users connect in real time, your work here will support global friendships and shared experiences across generations.

🎧 Build the future of real-time communication.

👉 Apply Now to join Discord as a Staff Software Engineer – Audio/Video Infrastructure and help shape the future of connection, one frame at a time.