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.
As Director of Data and Analytics Engineering, you'll build the data products and systems that powers how Discord accesses data—from self-service analytics and dashboards to AI-powered experiences that let anyone query data naturally. You'll lead a team of talented engineers and engineering managers through a critical growth phase, enabling rapid decision making across our subscription, advertising and commerce businesses.
You'll strengthen data engineering foundations while advancing analytics engineering practices—creating high-quality, well-modeled datasets and semantic layers that enable both technical teams and business users to access data reliably, whether through traditional analytics platforms or AI-powered assistants.
What You'll Be Doing
- Develop and drive a strategic vision to make data quality and reliability paramount across Discord
- Partner closely with leadership across data platform, ML platform, and other and related engineering teams teams to shape the overall vision of data at Discord
- Partner with AI Productivity teams to democratize data through AI, building semantic layers that enable natural language querying and AI-driven data experiences
- Define and implement data modeling best practices using frameworks like dimensional modeling, ensuring consistent business logic and metrics definitions across the organization
- Build and optimize foundational, high-leverage datasets that power business-critical applications including analytics, machine learning, experimentation, and more
- Establish metrics governance and a robust semantic layer that serves as the foundation for both traditional analytics tools and AI-powered data experiences, creating a single source of truth that enables accurate insights whether accessed through dashboards or natural language queries
- Strengthen a world-class data engineering team, expanding the impact and reach of data across the organization
- Foster a collaborative culture that thrives on innovation, impact, and continuous learning
What you should have
- 10+ years of experience in data engineering and/or analytics engineering, with deep expertise in building scalable data systems
- 5+ years of management experience, having successfully hired and grown other managers and technical leaders
- Proven track record of cross-functional collaboration with data science, ML, and engineering teams to optimize data pipelines and consumption patterns for usability, performance, and cost—working end-to-end from instrumentation to insights
- Deep hands-on expertise with modern data storage and processing technologies (BigQuery, SQL, Airflow, Dagster, dbt, or similar)
- Experience with data visualization and dashboarding technologies (Looker, Tableau, or similar)
- Track record of building and scaling semantic/metrics layers (using tools like dbt metrics, Looker LookML, or similar) that enable reliable insights through both dashboards and AI-powered experiences
- Demonstrated success building self-service analytics capabilities and data products that democratize data access and empowering non-technical stakeholders
- Exceptional communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences, with an ability to explain complex concepts clearly and influence at all levels
- Comfort navigating ambiguity, solving problems that are not well-defined and adapting as priorities evolve quickly
- Experience working with and influencing executives to drive data-informed decision making
- A desire to work with amazing, passionate people who care deeply about solving challenging problems to improve Discord
Bonus Points:
- Passion for Discord or gaming in general
- Experience solving complex data governance challenges that span across functional boundaries
- Familiarity with modern AI tools for data developer productivity (code generation, documentation, data quality validation)
The US base salary range for this full-time position is $400,000 to $450,000+ 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.
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