About Discourse
What is Discourse?
Discourse is open-source software for online communities, combining forum discussion with real-time chat and AI tools. Jeff Atwood, Robin Ward and Sam Saffron founded it in 2013 "to bring thoughtful conversation back to the internet", and its mission is "to democratize online community and teamwork by raising the standard of civilized discourse on the Internet." The company, Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc., is also a hosting company: "There is only one version of Discourse – the awesome open source version," with more than 950 contributors, and its full codebase is on GitHub. Discourse powers more than 22,000 communities, and organisations such as OpenAI, Mozilla and NVIDIA run their communities on it. It is built with Ruby on Rails, Postgres and Ember.js.
Where will I work?
Anywhere. "Work anywhere you have a computer and internet access," the team page says. "We'll also fund up to $400/month in colocated office expenses, if you prefer not to work from home." Discourse is "a fully remote company" whose mailing address is in Dover, Delaware. Its 79 team members live in 23 countries across 16 time zones, and once a year everyone meets for an all-expenses-paid week in a host city; past meetups have been in San Francisco, Toronto, Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo and Prague, among others.
What is the Discourse team like?
The team coordinates on Discourse itself: "With its strength in distributed teamwork, we can keep interruptions like messages, calls, and meetings to a minimum." Discourse says it is "still a young company, with 79 people", where "you will be a central part of what we do and have major input into every decision we make as a company." It is "looking to hire people with diverse backgrounds from all over the world", pays through a transparent salary framework "according to skill level and country of residence", and gives every full-time employee stock options. The team follows the official code of conduct of its open source project in all its work.
Work-Life Balance
"Completely flexible schedule. No set hours. Need to take two weeks off? Wanna try the digital nomad lifestyle? Let's figure it out! If customers are happy, we're happy." Staff get five weeks of vacation "plus all major holidays". Sick time has no cap: "Employees can take as many physical or mental health days as they need", and there is unlimited menstrual leave. Some perks and benefits vary with local laws. In September 2026 the jobs page said: "We do not have any job openings at the moment."
Perks and Benefits
- Five weeks of vacation plus all major holidays
- No set hours
- Work from anywhere, with up to $400 a month toward a coworking space
- As many physical or mental health days as you need, plus unlimited menstrual leave
- A yearly all-expenses-paid world meetup
- A transparent salary framework
- Stock options for every full-time employee
- A laptop of your choice and a good chair
- Paid parental leave
- Few meetings: the team coordinates in Discourse itself