Staff Software Engineer, Ads Infrastructure

Job Title: Staff Software Engineer, Ads Infrastructure

• Company: Discord
• Location: San Francisco, CA (Remote available)
• Employment Type: Full-time

About the Role

Discord is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to join their Ads Delivery team. This role will focus on building and maintaining scalable systems for ad delivery across Discord’s platform, with a specific emphasis on real-time systems and optimization. You will be working at the cutting edge of Discord’s strategy to establish a significant revenue stream through ads.

This position involves solving complex problems related to ad ranking, budget pacing, frequency capping, and auction-based ad marketplaces, making it a great opportunity to work with advanced technologies and systems that support millions of users.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and Build Scalable Systems: Develop systems for delivering effective ad experiences while balancing advertiser needs.
• Solve Complex Challenges: Work on high-volume data collection, ad ranking algorithms, and optimization techniques for budget pacing and frequency capping.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Partner with teams like Data Platform, Serving Infrastructure, and Persistence Infrastructure to meet technical requirements.
• Ownership of Projects: Take end-to-end ownership of projects from design to implementation, collaborating with Product and technical teams to refine requirements and oversee launches.
• Build High-Scale Infrastructure: Work with a select group of teams to create solutions for scalable, reliable, and observable systems for ads delivery.
• Data Validation and Algorithm Optimization: Leverage insights from large datasets to improve algorithms and system designs.

What You Should Have

• 8+ years of professional experience, particularly in backend software engineering.
• Expertise in Python, Rust, and Elixir (with a focus on large-scale system design, database design, and data caching).
• Experience with cloud environments and observability tools (e.g., Datadog).
• Technical leadership experience (at least 2 years leading teams in a technical capacity).
• Proficiency in event streaming tools such as Kafka or PubSub.
• A data-driven mindset, with a focus on infrastructure and algorithm validation.
• Strong empathy for users, both internal and external, with an inclination to seek feedback and continuously improve systems.

Why Discord?

Discord plays a key role in the future of gaming and online communities, offering an engaging platform for users to connect around games and shared interests. As a Staff Software Engineer on the Ads Infrastructure team, you will have the chance to impact millions of users while building out systems that support Discord's growing revenue stream through ads.

Salary Range:

• $223,000 - $245,000 per year + equity + benefits (Compensation is based on role, level, skills, experience, and relevant education).

If you're passionate about large-scale system design, backend development, and solving complex optimization problems in a dynamic and fast-paced environment, this role at Discord could be an excellent