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Director of Machine Learning, Safety

San Francisco, CA (or Remote US)

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.

Discord is about giving people the power to create space to find belonging in their lives. As communities grow on our platform, we're committed to keeping our users safe by leveraging effective machine learning. We're seeking a Director of Machine Learning for Trust & Safety who will lead our efforts in protecting millions of users through state-of-the-art ML technologies.

The Trust & Safety ML organization at Discord is responsible for helping reduce harm on the platform using machine learning, from proactive detection of harmful content to building scalable reactive systems for reported content. In this role, you'll lead a high-performing team of ML scientists and engineers while collaborating extensively with Trust & Safety, Legal, Policy, and Adaptive Data teams. At the same time, we’re looking to expand into using ML for fraud prevention and security detection and response in further efforts to keep Discord users safe. This role reports to our Senior Director of AI and Machine Learning and will be critical to this expansion.

What You'll Be Doing

  • Drive the technical vision and execution of Discord's Safety ML stack, emphasizing SOTA ML technologies
  • Scale and organize teams across key functional areas including Trust & Safety, Fraud Prevention, and Content Moderation
  • Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to drive safety initiatives and demonstrate ML's impact on user safety
  • Lead innovation in creative data sourcing and model development to move key safety metrics
  • Guide technical decision-making around ML architecture and infrastructure choices
  • Mentor and grow technical leaders within the Safety ML organization

What you should have

  • 8+ years of experience in machine learning, data science, or related technical field
  • 5+ years of experience leading teams building ML products at scale
  • Demonstrated success driving Trust & Safety, Fraud Prevention, or Content Moderation initiatives
  • Strong track record of applying ML techniques to consumer-facing problems
  • Experience collaborating with Policy, Legal, and Trust & Safety teams
  • Ability to balance technical excellence with practical business impact
  • Experience scaling and organizing technical teams

 

#LI-Remote

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $342,000 to $376,150 + 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!

Check out our inclusion, diversity and purpose efforts, company principles, or learn more about the Life @ Discord experience!

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