Staff Software Engineer, Audio/Video Infrastructure
Discord Moderator Jobs
Job Description
Location : San Francisco Bay Area (on-site or willing to relocate)
Salary : $248,000 – $279,000 + equity + benefits
This position is at the heart of Discord's real-time media stack , where you’ll design, build, and scale low-latency, high-reliability WebRTC-based audio/video systems used by 200M+ monthly users . This role is highly impactful—your work directly affects core voice and video experiences on the platform.
You’ll collaborate with a world-class engineering team to solve complex performance, scalability, and latency challenges, and help transition Discord’s RTC infrastructure to edge-based architecture .
- Build Real-Time Infrastructure
- Architect and develop scalable, distributed RTC systems that power voice/video on Discord.
- Improve quality of experience, reliability, and performance, especially under high concurrency (millions of concurrent calls).
- Edge Deployment for Low Latency
- Play a key role in transitioning infrastructure to edge nodes, improving media latency globally.
- New Media Features
- Partner with product and UX teams to deliver innovative new A/V features and improvements.
- System Observability & Debugging
- Build observability and diagnostic tools to detect and resolve real-time performance and quality issues.
What You Should Have
- 5+ Years in Video Infrastructure Engineering
- Deep experience with designing, building, and maintaining media systems at scale.
- Proven history of working in high-throughput, low-latency production systems.
- WebRTC or Streaming Protocol Expertise
- Comfort with WebRTC , HLS , or DASH protocols; experience designing systems around them.
- Observability Mindset
- You know how to measure and monitor real-time system health (e.g., jitter, packet loss, latency).
- Codebase Agility
- You’re comfortable navigating large codebases and writing clean, maintainable systems code.
- Experience with Elixir (a major part of Discord's backend stack)
- Knowledge of media codecs (e.g., H.264 , AV1 , HEVC )
- Familiarity with networking protocols: RTMP , UDP , QUIC , HTTP
- Contributions to open source RTC/media projects
- Experience optimizing edge computing or cloud-native media infrastructure
- Equity : Strong RSU or options package
- Perks : Top-tier healthcare, 401(k), wellness stipend, flexible PTO, and more
Why This Role Matters
Discord is one of the largest real-time communication platforms globally. Audio and video are mission-critical to its product, and your work will impact everything from game nights and classrooms to live events and global communities .