Staff Software Engineer, Audio/Video Infrastructure

Discord is looking for a Staff Audio & Video Infrastructure Engineer excited about building the software that powers our realtime communication infrastructure. The Audio & Video Infrastructure team builds and maintains our WebRTC-based systems and scales the infrastructure that enables millions of concurrent voice and video conversations. Your role will have significant impact on the quality of experience for Discord users and will involve architecting solutions for our next-generation edge computing infrastructure. This opportunity calls for an engineer ready to tackle challenging problems, drive improvements, and contribute to the technology that connects millions of people globally.

What you'll do:

• Architect and build large-scale real-time Audio & Video systems that handle millions of concurrent users.
• Optimize system performance and reliability across control and media layers for improved user experience.
• Lead the migration to edge computing for reduced latency.
• Partner with third-party vendors and service providers to scale our global infrastructure.
• Guide cross-functional feature development and product launches.
• Mentor a world-class engineering team who have built one of the largest communication platforms in the world.

What you have:

• 6+ years of experience working with audio and/or video infrastructure
• Strong systems programming skills in languages like Rust, C++, Python, or Elixir
• Experience with large-scale distributed systems serving millions of concurrent users, including deployment tools and infrastructure automations such as Terraform or SaltStack.
• Experience with network protocols and/or understanding of packet-level networking fundamentals
• Experience architecting fault-tolerant systems with proper observability and monitoring
• Staff-level technical leadership experience mentoring engineers and driving architectural decisions

Bonus Points:

• Experience with Elixir
• Experience working with WebRTC, HLS or DASH
• Familiarity with codecs such as H.264, HEVC and AV1
• Experience with network protocols like RTMP, HTTP, UDP and QUIC
• You have built or contributed to open source projects.

Candidates must reside in or be willing to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties). Relocation assistance may be available."

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $248,000 to $279,000 + 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.