Job Specifications
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 looking for an experienced, technical, and mission-driven Director of Security Operations to lead our Detection & Response, Enterprise Security, Identity & Access Management, and Cyber Threat Intelligence teams. You will report directly to the Head of Security and will be instrumental in defining and executing our security operations strategy while building world-class teams that protect Discord and our users.
This role owns four security domains and requires a leader who can operate with minimal direction, drive long-term strategy, and deliver results across complex, high-stakes environments. As a senior member of the Security leadership team, you'll serve as a key succession candidate for greater organizational responsibility.
This is a technical leadership role. Security at Discord is an engineering discipline, and we expect leaders at all levels to stay close to the work. You won't be writing production code daily, but you should be comfortable reading code, writing scripts, and digging into technical details when the situation demands it.
What You'll Be Doing
Strategy & Vision
Define and own the unified security operations strategy spanning Detection & Response, IT Security, Identity & Access Management, and Cyber Threat Intelligence—ensuring alignment across domains while respecting their distinct missions
Formalize and expand Discord's Cyber Threat Intelligence function: mature existing capabilities into a structured program, build the team, establish collection and production processes, and integrate intelligence into security operations and business decision-making
Own the identity and access management strategy across Discord—covering corporate systems, cloud infrastructure environments, and the policies and controls that govern access to both
Collaborate with Security, Engineering, IT, Legal, Trust & Safety, and executive leadership to align security operations priorities with company goals
Own accountability for security operations outcomes across all four domains, ensuring success criteria are effectively measured and achieved
Technical Leadership
Maintain enough technical depth across your domains to effectively evaluate proposals, challenge assumptions, and hold teams accountable for sound technical decisions
Get hands-on when needed: review detection logic, dig into incident forensics, audit IAM configurations, or prototype solutions when it accelerates the team
Drive engineering excellence across security operations—ensuring teams build reliable, automated, and scalable solutions rather than manual processes that don't scale
Organizational Leadership
Build, lead, and scale a high-performing organization of security professionals across four functions with varying maturity levels, each requiring different leadership approaches
Design a healthy organization structure that balances operational excellence, innovation, and speed
Drive the full talent lifecycle: hiring, culture-building, growth, performance management, and retention
Grow and develop managers who can effectively own their domains with increasing autonomy; maintain a clear succession plan and build bench strength across the organization
Establish operational rhythms, cross-team rituals, and shared practices that create cohesion while preserving domain expertise
Cross-Functional Partnership
Partner with Security Engineering leadership to ensure detection, response, IAM, and threat intelligence capabilities are informed by and integrated with product and infrastructure security efforts
Drive alignment between IT Security, IAM, and enterprise technology decisions—ensuring security is embedded in how Discord operates, not bolted on
Ensure threat intelligence is actionable: inform detection engineering priorities, support incident investigations, and provide strategic context to Security and company leadership
Executive Communication & Crisis Leadership
Serve as a trusted advisor to leadership on security operations risks, incidents, threat landscape, and program health
Provide executive-level visibility into security operations posture, investment needs, and key risks
Translate threat intelligence into business-relevant context for leadership and cross-functional partners
Act as an escalation point and decision-maker during significant security incidents; ensure appropriate crisis communication to leadership
Represent Discord's security operations externally when appropriate, and build the organization's reputation through knowledge shari