Engineering Manager, Notifications

Discord
San Francisco, US
On-site

Why this role

Pace
Fast Paced
Collaboration
High
Autonomy
Medium
Decision Impact
Team
Role Level
Team Lead

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • leading a team of full-stack engineers
  • setting technical direction for notifications infrastructure
  • partnering with cross-functional teams to define and execute the notifications roadmap
Typical background
5+ years of experience as a Software Engineer2+ years of experience as an Engineering Manager

Transferable backgrounds

  • Coming from Engineering Manager
  • Coming from Technical Lead
  • Coming from Infrastructure Manager

Skills & requirements

Required

ElixirPythonKubernetesPubsub/streaming PipelinesBackend DevelopmentTeam LeadershipInfrastructure Management

Preferred

Push NotificationsRe-engagement SystemsGaming Industry Knowledge

Stack & domain

ElixirPythonKubernetesPubsubStreaming PipelinesLeadershipCommunicationCoachingGamingInfrastructureNotifications

About the role

Original posting from Discord via Greenhouse

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.

We're looking for a technical, hands-on, and infrastructure-minded Engineering Manager to lead our Notifications team within the Growth organization. Notifications is a full-stack team owning the platform and infrastructure that powers every notification Discord sends, the orchestration layer that optimizes notifications globally across types, the in-app notifications center, and the user-facing settings and client experience. You will lead a team of full-stack engineers operating business-critical systems that fan out to hundreds of millions of users while shipping the re-engagement surfaces that bring them back.

This role reports to the Senior Engineering Manager of Growth.

What You'll Be Doing

Lead a team of full-stack engineers building and operating the notifications platform — Elixir services, Python backends, pubsub pipelines, and the Kubernetes infrastructure underneath them

Set technical direction for notifications infrastructure and ensure systems scale reliably as volume and complexity grow

Partner with Product, Design, Data Science, and Marketing to define and execute the notifications roadmap

Use experimentation and metrics to drive continuous improvement in notification engagement, retention, and long-term user trust

Build a high-performing team through hiring, coaching, and instilling engineering best practices

Partner with platform consumers across Discord to evolve the primitives other teams depend on to reach our users

Partner with engineering leadership on strategic planning and organizational improvement

What you should have

5+ years of experience as a Software Engineer, with significant time building and operating backend or infrastructure systems at scale

2+ years of experience as an Engineering Manager

Comfort owning production systems built on technologies like Elixir, Python, pubsub/streaming pipelines, and Kubernetes, with strong intuition for reliability, throughput, and cost at scale

Experience collaborating closely with product managers, designers, data scientists, and other engineers to define and ship solutions

A track record of growing engineers and helping team members succeed

Strong ownership mindset — you stay close to the technical decisions your team makes and can discuss them in depth with anyone at Discord

Ability to drive a culture of 80/20 thinking, fast iteration, and high-quality delivery

Bonus points

Experience leading teams that own shared platforms or primitives consumed by other engineering teams

Experience shipping push notifications or other re-engagement systems at consumer scale, including familiarity with deliverability, throttling, and policy considerations

Full-stack experience across both frontend and backend development

Strong track record of driving measurable impact through experimentation and data-driven decision making

Demonstrated success driving engagement and long-term retention through messaging or re-engagement surfaces

You understand the gaming industry

You're a Discord user and understand the core features and flow of Discord communications

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.

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.

Source: Discord careers (Greenhouse)

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