IT Ops Engineer - Lisbon

Discord
Lisbon, Portugal
On-siteCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Geared toward a highly independent, senior IT professional comfortable with establishing infrastructure from scratch.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with experience building IT infrastructure in high-growth tech environments and a strong automation background
    — “You are measured by leverage and outcomes, not just tickets touched.”
  • Individuals who can operate across multiple IT domains and manage vendor relationships with minimal guidance
    — “This is a highly independent senior role for someone who navigates ambiguity, wears every hat, and turns a greenfield into a place that just works.”
  • Candidates who have previously stood up IT systems from scratch and have a business-savvy mindset
    — “You will stand up and run the full employee technology surface across EMEA.”

Things to consider

  • Requires full-time in-office presence in Lisbon, with no flexibility for remote work
    — “For this role, the Hiring Manager needs this person to be in the office 5 days a week.”
  • Candidates should be prepared to manage on-call rotations and resolve urgent IT issues independently
    — “Participate in on-call rotations.”

How to stand out

  • Emphasize your ability to design and implement end-to-end IT systems with automation
    — “Script and integrate across that surface: use vendor-native automation and APIs to connect those systems.”
  • Showcase your experience in managing identity and access systems like Okta and device management platforms
    — “Hands-on experience across most of the employee technology surface, with real depth in several areas.”
  • Highlight your track record of independently operating in ambiguous environments and building from scratch
    — “A track record of operating independently through ambiguity, ideally standing something up from scratch.”
  • Demonstrate your ability to prioritize workflow automation over manual processes
    — “You reach for automation before a runbook.”
  • Include experience with GDPR and EU data protection frameworks in your application materials
    — “Bonus points: Working knowledge of GDPR and EU data-protection expectations.”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Company

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

What success looks like

  • smooth IT operations
  • high employee satisfaction
  • efficient processes
Typical background
IT operationsnetwork managementdevice management

Skills & requirements

Required

IT OperationsNetwork ManagementDevice ManagementIdentity And Access ManagementAutomation

Preferred

ScriptingAutomation ToolsVendor Management

Stack & domain

Identity ManagementDevice ManagementCorporate NetworkingSaasAutomationProblem SolvingCollaborationIT OperationsNetworking

About the role

Original posting from Discord via Greenhouse

Discord has a highly engaged community of millions of daily active users who use the platform for many different reasons, but there’s one thing that nearly everyone does: play video games. Discord plays a uniquely important role in the future of gaming, and we are focused on making it easier and more fun for people to hang out before, during, and after playing games.

Discord is opening an engineering hub in Lisbon, our first dedicated one outside of our San Francisco HQ. And we’re building it from the ground up. As a member of our founding team, you’ll help set the direction for teams across Core Technology, advancing work that keeps Discord reliable for millions of people around the world, helps our engineers move faster, and protects our platform at scale. You’ll also help shape the culture of the hub so it feels unmistakably Discord while developing a distinctly Lisbon identity of its own.

This is our first IT hire in EMEA, and it is a founding role. You will stand up and run the full employee technology surface across EMEA, based in our Lisbon office and supporting Discordians throughout the region. You are the trusted face of IT in the region and the coverage anchor for European hours, handling what cannot wait for San Francisco to wake up. This is a highly independent senior role for someone who navigates ambiguity, wears every hat, and turns a greenfield into a place that just works. You are measured by leverage and outcomes, not just tickets touched.

What you will do

Stand up IT for the region, starting with Lisbon: establish the office's physical technology footprint, build the local and regional vendor and ISP relationships, and set the day-to-day processes a growing EMEA presence needs, as the foundation the region's IT grows on.

Own the full surface end to end in region: identity and access, device and endpoint management, office network and connectivity, AV and meeting rooms, and SaaS, in partnership with Enterprise Security on the endpoint and identity surface.

Script and integrate across that surface: use vendor-native automation and APIs to connect those systems and write the glue that makes them work as one instead of a pile of consoles.

Run onboarding and offboarding for the region so a new Discordian is equipped on day one and deprovisioned on exit.

Be the EMEA coverage anchor: resolve what the timezone gap would otherwise stall, and keep async, well-documented handoffs with the team in San Francisco.

Look past the individual ticket to the workflow underneath: find the recurring breakdowns, automate them away, and measure the result in time and risk saved.

Participate in on-call rotations.

What you should have

Hands-on experience across most of the employee technology surface, with real depth in several areas and not all expected: identity (Okta), device management across both Mac (Jamf) and Windows (Intune), corporate networking (wireless, DNS/DHCP, VPN, Zero Trust access), SaaS and productivity (Google Workspace), collaboration and conferencing (Discord), and the meeting-room AV around it.

A track record of operating independently through ambiguity, ideally standing something up from scratch. You do not wait to be told what to fix.

Real automation chops: comfortable producing working scripts (Python is our go-to, and using AI to write them is fine), plus no-code and low-code workflows. You reach for automation before a runbook.

Excellent written communication and async discipline, since you will often be the only IT person in the room. Plus a business-problem mindset and a collaborative, low-ego, secure-by-design posture.

8+ years of experience managing IT systems in high growth tech companies.

Bonus points

Working knowledge of GDPR and EU data-protection expectations.

For this role, the Hiring Manager needs this person to be in the office 5 days a week.

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, and helps developers build and grow their businesses. 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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