Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (ads)

Discord Discord · Consumer · San Francisco, CA · Machine Learning

Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Ads) at Discord. This role focuses on building and scaling ML capabilities for the Ads initiative, specifically in ads measurement, targeting, and delivery ranking. The engineer will design, develop, and deploy ML models, enhance ad relevance, optimize performance, and drive revenue. The role involves working with an early-stage Ads ML platform, scaling ML infrastructure for low-latency decision-making, and applying state-of-the-art ML techniques in online advertising.

What you'd actually do

  1. Design, develop, and deploy machine learning models for ads targeting and ranking.
  2. Develop sophisticated ML solutions such as identity graph to enhance ad targeting.
  3. Build and optimize ad ranking models to serve the most effective ads based on campaign objectives (e.g., app installs, link click).
  4. Improve ads targeting and ranking by leveraging both on-platform and off-platform signals.
  5. Scale our ML infrastructure to support an increasing number of concurrent ad campaigns while ensuring low-latency decision-making.

Skills

Required

  • Python
  • PyTorch or TensorFlow
  • applied deep learning
  • transformers
  • embedding models
  • real-time ML inference
  • A/B testing
  • optimization frameworks
  • ML evaluation results
  • performance metrics

Nice to have

  • performance advertising
  • revenue
  • advertiser retention
  • ad tech industry standards
  • ads ecosystem
  • large-scale recommendation systems
  • large-scale data infrastructure
  • distributed computing

What the JD emphasized

  • 5+ years of experience as a Machine Learning Engineer or Data Scientist.
  • 3+ years of experience specifically in Ads ML (ads ranking, personalization, optimization, privacy-compliant user modeling, targeting, or measurement).
  • Proven track record of designing, implementing, and scaling ML-driven ad systems in real-world applications.

Other signals

  • early-stage Ads ML platform
  • build and scale ML capabilities
  • foundational ML models
  • real-time ad-serving technologies
  • scale our ML infrastructure
  • low-latency decision-making