Senior Machine Learning Engineering Manager - Content Platform
At a glance
Senior Machine Learning Engineering role at Spotify. London · no salary stated · we estimate £125,500–£152,500.
Spotify has not published a salary for this role. The figure below is our estimate, not theirs.
aimlroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Guide and grow a team of senior and Staff machine learning engineers as they tackle priority business problems
- Choose technical and team priorities across content understanding, then map them into achievable plans
- Carry major company initiatives from defining the problem to measurable results for listeners
- Shape modelling and retrieval decisions, review technical designs and contribute directly when useful
- Set a practical approach to AI tools in ML engineering, while aligning priorities with product, design, research and engineering leads
What you bring
- Deep ML expertise and Staff-level technical judgement, plus work across NLP, audio or music understanding, and recommender systems
- You have led engineering teams while delivering complex initiatives involving multiple functions
- You can coach experienced senior and Staff engineers and help them broaden their impact
- You can explain how AI can improve ML engineers’ daily work and motivate a team to use it
Who this fits
This player-coach role suits someone who can manage experienced engineers while remaining engaged in technical decisions and hands-on work. The team has senior and Staff-level members. The position is based in London or Stockholm, with some in-person meetings and the option to work from home.
From the employer
We design Spotify's consumer experience—end to end, moment to moment, across every screen, platform, and partner integration. Our mission is to make listening feel effortless, personal, and joyful for billions of users around the world. That means turning complexity into clarity across hundreds of touchpoints—from our mobile and desktop apps to the smart speakers, TVs, cars, and integrations where Spotify shows up every day. If it touches a consumer, we shape it. We bring deep insight into human behavior, design, and technology to craft experiences that feel intuitive, expressive, and unmistakably Spotify.
You'll lead a senior-heavy group of 10–12 machine learning engineers, including Staff engineers, who team up dynamically to solve high-priority business problems while staying deep in content understanding (audio, video and text). This is a player-coach role with a strong strategic remit: you'll shape where the group goes next, grow our audio understanding expertise over the long term, and help the team scale through thoughtful, practical use of AI in everyday engineering work.
What You'll Do
- Lead, coach and grow a group of 10+ senior and Staff machine learning engineers who team up dynamically around business problems while staying deep in their domain.
- Set technical and team strategy for multiple content understanding problems and turn it into clear, achievable plans.
- Own delivery of high-priority company initiatives, from shaping the problem through to measurable impact for listeners.
- Stay close to the technology as a player-coach. Lead technical strategy, reviewing designs, guiding modelling and retrieval choices, and contributing hands-on where it helps the team most.
- Define and champion a practical point of view on how ML engineers use AI tools in their day-to-day work, and help the team realise real productivity gains.
- Partner with product, design, research and other engineering leaders across Spotify to align priorities and share context.
Who You Are
- You have deep machine learning expertise and Staff-level technical judgement, and you're comfortable getting hands-on when it matters.
- You bring experience across NLP, audio / music content understanding and recommender systems.
- You have a track record of managing engineering teams while delivering complex, cross-functional initiatives.
- You enjoy coaching senior and Staff engineers, and you help experienced people grow their impact.
- You have a clear, informed point of view on using AI to improve how ML engineers work, and you can inspire a team to adopt it.
- You think strategically, communicate clearly, and can balance long-term bets with near-term delivery.
Where You'll Be
- This role is based in London or Stockholm.
- We offer the flexibility to work where you work best! There will be some in person meeetings, but still allows for flexibility to work from home.