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. Discord plays a uniquely important role in the future of gaming. We are focused on making it easier and more fun for people to talk and hang out before, during, and after playing games.

The Database Infrastructure team develops and operates all of Discord’s databases and data services. Those systems store the data of Discord's 200M+ monthly active users—including trillions of messages! We work across multiple areas: databases, disk storage and Rust-based data access services. We're a small team whose work has a huge impact on our company's success and ability to grow!

Some blog posts from the team:

You will:

Build and operate large-scale, reliable and performant data systems with ScyllaDB, PostgreSQL, ElasticSearch, Linux and Rust.
Collaborate with product and infrastructure teams to develop storage primitives enabling all of Discord.
Exercise "First Principles Thinking" to always deliver what matters most to our users.
Work with a talented team of engineers who have built one of the largest communication platforms in the world.

You have:

2-4 years of experience with building backend infrastructure
Ability to troubleshoot, debug, and test complex systems in a live, production environment
Strong operating systems, distributed systems, and concurrency control fundamentals
Proficiency with at least one statically-typed programming language: e.g. Rust, Go, Java, C, C++
Comfortable working in fast paced environments

Bonus Points:

Experience with highly-available and distributed databases: e.g. ScyllaDB, Cassandra, Vitess, Postgres w/HA, etc.
Experience with Rust
Knowledge of DevOps tools like Salt, Terraform or Kubernetes

More things that might interest you:

We’ve tackled a lot of fascinating technical challenges over the years, and blogged about it regularly:
One of our team members even wrote a book on ScyllaDB
We present at conferences:
- How Discord Indexes Trillions of Messages by Vicki Niu
- How Discord Performs Database Upgrades at Scale by Ethan Donowitz

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $160,000 to $180,000 + 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. 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.

Software Engineer- Database Infrastructure

About the role