Principal Media SDK Engineer

Spotify; City of Westminster; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading music streaming service is looking for a talented Playback Systems Engineer to enhance their playback experiences across platforms. Responsibilities include overseeing audio and video playback, improving architecture for new media formats, and collaborating with teams for consistency across platforms. The ideal candidate has experience in modern JavaScript, playback APIs, and CI systems, and values teamwork. This role is based in London or Stockholm with flexible working options.

Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of modern JavaScript and TypeScript (ESNext, Web APIs).
• Confident with media playback APIs (MediaSource Extensions, EME, WebRTC).
• Familiar with CI systems and care about data instrumentation.
• Experience with native media stacks (Android/iOS, C++, Rust) is a plus.
• Knowledge of ad technology and fallback mechanisms is valuable.

Responsibilities

• Take end-to-end responsibility for playback and measurement for audio and video.
• Develop team architecture to support new media formats.
• Improve CI and observability systems.
• Collaborate with native teams for shared contracts and tests.
• Advance video reliability through ad fallback and multi-player coordination.
• Contribute to unified dashboards and reusable metrics templates.

Skills

Web or Playback Systems Engineering

Modern JavaScript and TypeScript

Media playback APIs

Data instrumentation

CI systems and hermetic testing

Native media stacks (Android/iOS, C++, Rust)

Job description

Overview

Delivering the best Spotify experience possible. To as many people as possible. In as many moments as possible. That's what the Experience team is all about. We use our understanding of how people engage with music, podcasts, and video to bring Spotify to life across every platform and device. If you enjoy building smooth, reliable playback experiences that reach millions every day, we'd love to have you join us. Spotify reaches listeners through a wide ecosystem of first‑party and partner‑built applications on web, desktop, mobile, and beyond. To support this variety, this team builds the shared playback, evaluation, and reliability foundations that power every streaming moment at Spotify.

What You'll Do

• Take end‑to‑end responsibility for playback and measurement for audio and video on web, meeting reliability goals for start success, time‑to‑first‑frame, and smooth, stall‑free sessions.
• Develop and evolve the team architecture to support new media formats and maintain feature parity with native platforms.
• Improve CI and observability systems through hermetic testing, synthetic canaries, SLO‑based rollouts.
• Collaborate with native teams to define shared contracts, mocks, and conformance tests that ensure consistency across platforms.
• Advance video reliability through ad fallback, AEC conformance, lossless playback on Cast, and multi‑player coordination.
• Build on our data and experimentation foundations by contributing to unified dashboards and reusable metrics templates.
• Support teammates in playback architecture, streaming performance, and data instrumentation.

Who You Are

• Experience in Web or Playback Systems Engineering, with deep knowledge of modern JavaScript and TypeScript (ESNext, Web APIs, performance profiling).
• Confident working with media playback APIs such as MediaSource Extensions, EME, WebRTC, HLS/DASH, and DRM, and understand how to build for video streaming and measurement, including adaptive bitrate, buffering, and QoE metrics.
• Ideally familiar with CI systems and hermetic testing at scale, and care about data instrumentation, from logging and metrics to dashboards and observability.
• Experience with native media stacks (Android/iOS, C++, Rust, or React Native bridges) is a strong plus.
• Knowledge of ad technology and fallback mechanisms in media delivery is also valuable.
• Someone who works well in multi‑functional environments and values teamwork as much as technical prowess, who cares about building inclusive, maintainable systems that serve a wide range of users and partners.

Where You'll Be

This role is based in Stockholm or London. We offer flexibility to work where you work best! There will be some in‑person meetings, but it still allows for flexibility to work from home.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Spotify is an equal opportunity employer. You are welcome at Spotify for who you are, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or what's playing in your headphones. Our platform is for everyone, and so is our workplace. The more voices we have represented and amplified in our business, the more we will all thrive, contribute, and be forward‑thinking! We have ways to request reasonable accommodations during the interview process and help assist in what you need. If you need accommodations at any stage of the application or interview process, please let us know – we're here to support you in any way we can.