Machine Learning Engineer, Spotify

Personalization - Samba

$148.9-212.7k

+ Equity. Salary applicable to US, other locations may vary

Senior and Expert level

New York

Remote from Canada, US

More information about location

Commercial music streaming service

Be an early applicant

Commercial music streaming service

1001+ employees

B2CMusicEntertainmentDigital MediaSaaSMobile

Be an early applicant

$148.9-212.7k

+ Equity. Salary applicable to US, other locations may vary

Senior and Expert level

New York

Remote from Canada, US

More information about location

1001+ employees

B2CMusicEntertainmentDigital MediaSaaSMobile

Company mission

To unlock the potential of human creativity—by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it

Job

Company

Role

Who you are

You have 5+ years of experience in machine learning, data, or backend engineering
You are experienced with production-grade systems and scalable architectures
You have worked on recommendation systems, ranking, or optimization problems
You bring a T-shaped skillset across ML, data, and backend domains
You are comfortable navigating ambiguity and solving complex problems
You care about user experience and measurable impact
You enjoy collaborating across disciplines and geographies

What the job involves

The Personalization team makes deciding what to play next easier and more enjoyable for every listener. From Blend to Discover Weekly, we’re behind some of Spotify’s most-loved features. We built them by understanding the world of music and podcasts better than anyone else. Join us and you’ll keep millions of users listening by making great recommendations to each and every one of them
Samba sits at the heart of Spotify’s personalization engine, powering experiences like autoplay, radio, and personalized mixes. We work on complex sequencing and optimization problems—balancing what users love with how Spotify supports creators and the business
Our team blends machine learning, backend engineering, and data expertise, and collaborates across North America and Europe to deliver impactful, real-time personalization at scale
Design and build machine learning systems that optimize ranking and sequencing across personalized surfaces
Develop multi-objective optimization strategies that balance user satisfaction with business outcomes
Collaborate closely with cross-functional partners including product, data science, and engineering teams to align on goals, share context, and deliver impactful solutions
Work across ML, backend, and data layers to bring models into production
Contribute to scalable infrastructure supporting high-volume user interactions
Run experiments and use insights to continuously improve performance
Help shape technical direction and raise the bar for engineering excellence within the team

Our take

Spotify was founded in an attempt to combat the rampant music piracy that was causing significant harm to the industry. The company has since taken music streaming mainstream and now has 180m+ paying subscribers across the world.

With features that include a highly accessible interface and a vast catalogue of artists, Spotify's strong brand has been able to maintain growth in spite of fierce competition from deep-pocketed rivals like Amazon and Apple. The company has achieved this by making smart acquisitions to move into other verticals to strengthen its offerings, especially podcasting, by acquiring Gimlet Media, Anchor and Parcast.

Spotify's future plans include rapid growth with a goal to become a one-stop destination for all digital sound, as well as AI and NFT integrations. However, high costs incurred from the acquisition of exclusive podcasts, increasing competitor strength, and weak bottom-line growth mean that the company must find a balance to maintain its position in the sector.

Freddie

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Insights

Top investors

23% employee growth in 12 months

Glassdoor (4.2)

Trustpilot (1.6)

Company

Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)

Jan 2016

$1bn

CONVERTIBLE

Jun 2015

$526m

SERIES G

Total funding: $2.1bn

Company benefits

Extensive learning opportunities, through our dedicated team, GreenHouse
Flexible share incentives letting you choose how you share in our success
Global parental leave, six months off - fully paid - for all new parents
All The Feels, our employee assistance program and self-care hub
Flexible public holidays, swap days off according to your values and beliefs

Company HQ

Norrmalm, Stockholm, Stockholms län

Leadership

Daniel Ek

(CEO & Chairman)

Founded Spotify in 2006. Previously worked as an executive at Tradera, an auction company that was sold to eBay and was briefly the CEO of uTorrent.

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