Engineering Manager, Machine Learning (Safety)
At a glance
Manager-level Machine Learning Engineering role at Discord. Remote, United States · $272,000–$340,000 base.
aimlroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Lead hiring and coaching for the Safety ML engineering team, building clear ownership and focus on impact
- Set the technical direction for safety models with partners in Trust & Safety, Product, Policy, Legal and Data Science
- Oversee production models from capability definition through performance measurement and operational monitoring
- Work with Trust & Safety to improve label quality, create golden sets and automate manual investigations
- Improve engineering practices with peer managers while staying hands-on with technical decisions
What you bring
- At least five years as a machine learning engineer, data scientist or applied scientist
- At least three years managing engineering teams, including a team of five or more engineers
- Deep practical experience in abuse detection, content classification or another listed modeling area
- A record of delivering machine learning systems into production at scale
Who this fits
This is a hands-on engineering management role combining team leadership with technical ownership of safety models. It suits someone who can coach engineers, work across partner teams and contribute directly to technical problem-solving. The role is based in San Francisco and is listed as remote. The stated base salary range is $272,000 to $340,000 per year, with equity and benefits also included.
From the employer
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's Safety ML team builds the machine learning systems that protect 200M+ users. The team's mission is to make Discord a place where people can build genuine friendships without exposure to harm, at a scale where manual review alone can never keep up.
We're looking for a highly technical, hands-on, and mission-driven Engineering Manager to lead our Safety ML team. As the manager responsible for Safety ML, you will own the detection systems that sit between attackers and our users; real-time and batch models for content understanding, account integrity, and platform abuse.
What You'll Be Doing
- Build and lead an exceptional team of highly-engaged ML engineers by hiring, coaching, and instilling a sense of ownership and impact.
- Drive the technical vision and roadmap for Safety ML by collaborating with your team and partners across Trust & Safety, Product, Policy, Legal, and Data Science.
- Own the end-to-end lifecycle of production safety models: defining new capabilities, measuring performance, and monitoring the operational health of systems that make millions of enforcement decisions per day.
- Manage processes and leverage your technical expertise to continually raise the bar and ensure your team delivers extraordinary results.
- Partner with Trust & Safety on label quality, golden sets, and automating manual investigations.
- Work with other Engineering Managers to continuously improve the Engineering organization and uphold our workplace philosophy.
What you should have
- You have 5+ years of experience as a Machine Learning Engineer, Data Scientist, or Applied Scientist.
- You have 3+ years of experience as an Engineering Manager and successfully managed a team of 5+ engineers.
- You have hands-on depth in at least one of: abuse/fraud detection, content classification, behavioral modeling, graph-based modeling, or LLM-based classification systems.
- You have strong communication skills and the ability to work well cross-functionally.
- You thrive in ambiguous environments and get excited about figuring out solutions to complex problems, and then executing on them.
- You are a first principles thinker that can work with others to come up with pragmatic solutions.
- You have a proven record of shipping ML systems to production at scale.
- You are passionate about coaching and leading other engineers, but can roll up your sleeves and get elbow deep in code when needed.
- You keep up with the industry trends and continuously identify new technologies to leverage to solve technical problems
The base salary range for this full-time position is listed below. This position will also be eligible for equity and 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 role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include equity, or benefits.
Base Salary$272,000—$340,000 USDWhy 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.
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