Back to jobs
New

Staff Security Engineer, Platform Security

San Francisco, CA or Remote (U.S. only)

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 empowering people to find belonging. Trusted by millions to keep their communications out of the hands of evildoers, we depend on security and privacy for success. Our Platform Security Engineering team protects the people who create Discord and the systems they use to do it, making the “secure way” the “easy way.”

We are looking for a Staff Security Engineer, reporting to the Platform Security Engineering Manager, to advance this mission through security expertise, software development, and operational excellence. You’ll articulate and pursue the most leveraged opportunities to reduce security risk across Engineering, bridging organizational boundaries to create secure and lovable “paved paths” for managing identities and access, shipping code, configuring cloud infrastructure, and operating services.

If you are a security engineer with a passion for security and privacy, deep curiosity, eagerness to own technically and socially complex projects, and a strong desire to improve Discord, read on!

What you'll do

  • Guide strategy and lead software engineering projects on a small, highly-autonomous, horizontally-integrated security team with a lot of leverage. This is a code-forward role!
  • Consult on risk assessments, architectural designs, threat models, code reviews, and more—pragmatically balancing security with other business considerations.
  • Develop and apply best-in-class secure baselines for cloud and bare-metal resources.
  • Secure our software supply chain, from a developer’s laptop through version control and CI/CD and into production.
  • Build and own IAM systems that are user-friendly and promote least privilege.
  • Manage third-party vulnerabilities while supporting rapid growth for Product Engineering.
  • Partner cross-functionally for security monitoring and incident response.

Example Projects

Who you are

  • You have 7+ years of experience building and operating production systems and infrastructure.
  • You have 5+ years of experience writing software in at least one general-purpose programming language (we mainly use Python and Rust).
  • You have 4+ years of experience securing systems with millions of users.
  • You have been the tech lead for projects involving 3+ engineers and spanning multiple quarters.
  • You have designed and built user-facing software for customers beyond your immediate team.
  • You have experience securing cloud-based environments (e.g. GCP, Cloudflare).
  • You have experience with technologies for defining and orchestrating containers (e.g. OCI, Docker, Distroless, Kubernetes).
  • You understand modern authentication and authorization protocols and concepts (e.g. RBAC, OAuth 2.0, OIDC/SAML, Zero Trust network architectures, mTLS).
  • You have experience with build and CI/CD technologies (e.g. Bazel, Buildkite, Terraform).

Bonus points

  • You have a system to discover industry tools that can multiply your team’s impact.
  • You have experience securing multi-cloud environments.
  • You have developed and debugged distributed systems atop GCP and Cloudflare.
  • You have built and operated a service mesh (e.g. Envoy, Istio, Linkerd).
  • You have managed and secured VMs and bare-metal hosts (e.g. Linux, Salt).
  • You have designed and applied Kubernetes security policies (e.g. OPA Gatekeeper, Kyverno).

#LI-Remote

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $223,000 to $245,500 + 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!

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Education

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Demographic Questions for Discord

We’d like to know a little more about you. Answering is completely voluntary, but we'll be forever grateful since the information will help us evaluate and improve our recruitment, diversity and belonging efforts. Whether or not you choose to answer the questions will not affect your job application with us. Any information you submit here will be kept secure, pseudonymized, confidential and completely separate from your personal data and job application. By answering this survey, you consent to our processing of your responses for the purposes listed above. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us. 

Self-identification categories:

  • Gender Identity: A person's internal perception of their gender and how they label themselves (may or may not correspond to gender assigned at birth).
  • Race/Ethnicity: A person’s racial or ethnic identity. 
  • Sexual Orientation: A person's sexual identity in relation to the gender to which they are attracted.
  • Disability: A person who has a physical or mental impairment which substantially, or occasionally, limits one or more of their major life activities. 
  • Military Service: A person who has spent time serving in any branch of the military (may be retired or active).
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Discord’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.