Senior Backend Data Engineer – Content Intelligence

Lever, Inc.; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Spotify is seeking a Senior Backend Data Engineer in London or Stockholm to help build and scale the systems powering content understanding across audio, video, text, and images. You’ll own end-to-end engineering problems, collaborating with engineers across disciplines to deliver reliable, scalable solutions.

The role emphasizes designing for performance and cost, contributing to AI-enabled workflows, and shaping architectures with RFCs.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of engineering experience in backend and/or data engineering.
• Deep expertise in either backend or data engineering and comfortable spanning both.
• Experience building and scaling large-scale distributed systems.
• Strong programming in Java, Scala, and/or Python.
• Design systems with scalability, reliability, performance, and cost in mind.
• Able to take end-to-end ownership of complex engineering problems.
• Translate technical problems into designs, RFCs, and executable plans.
• Excellent communication and collaboration with engineering, product, and technical stakeholders.
• Able to operate in environments where backend, data, ML infrastructure, and AI overlap.
• Able to participate in a shared on-call rotation.
• Experience with ML infrastructure, AI/LLM systems, agents, model evaluation, or integrating model APIs at scale is a plus.
• Exposure to large-scale multimedia processing, audio processing, search, or recommendation systems is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and evolve scalable backend and data systems powering Spotify’s content intelligence capabilities
• Take end-to-end ownership of significant engineering projects, from technical design and architecture through implementation and operation
• Build reliable infrastructure for large-scale content processing across audio, video, text, and images
• Create RFCs and contribute to architectural decisions within your squad and across connected systems
• Develop reliable and cost-efficient systems for high-throughput data and content-processing workloads
• Work with distributed data systems and large-scale content-management infrastructure
• Partner closely with other Engineers to plan and deliver technical solutions
• Contribute to AI and LLM-enabled workflows and infrastructure, including systems for content understanding, enrichment, and processing
• Evaluate and integrate AI capabilities into production systems at scale
• Build a strong understanding of adjacent systems and contribute to a shared on-call rotation
• Contribute to technical quality and engineering best practices across the team
• Collaborate with stakeholders across engineering, product, and tech domains

Skills

Backend

Data engineering

Distributed systems

Java/Scala/Python

System design

End-to-end ownership

RFCs

Communication

On-call

ML infrastructure

AI/LLM integration

Multimedia processing

Job description

The Experience team designs 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.

The Content Intelligence Product Area is a core part of Spotify’s Content Platform within the Experience mission. We build systems that create deep, machine-readable understanding of content across audio, video, text, and images before it reaches users. This enables automation, safety, and entirely new product experiences. Our work powers content enrichment, quality analysis, annotation platforms, and scalable intelligence systems that allow teams across Spotify to build without needing direct content understanding expertise.

We’re looking for a Senior Backend Data Engineer to help build and scale the systems powering content understanding across Spotify. This role sits at the intersection of backend engineering, distributed data systems, ML infrastructure, and applied AI. You’ll take end-to-end ownership of significant engineering problems while working alongside other Engineers.

What You Will Do

• Design, build, and evolve scalable backend and data systems powering Spotify’s content intelligence capabilities

• Take end-to-end ownership of significant engineering projects, from technical design and architecture through implementation and operation

• Build reliable infrastructure for large-scale content processing across audio, video, text, and images

• Create RFCs and contribute to architectural decisions within your squad and across connected systems

• Develop reliable and cost-efficient systems for high-throughput data and content-processing workloads

• Work with distributed data systems and large-scale content-management infrastructure

• Partner closely with other Engineers to plan and deliver technical solutions

• Contribute to AI and LLM-enabled workflows and infrastructure, including systems for content understanding, enrichment, and processing

• Evaluate and integrate AI capabilities into production systems at scale

• Build a strong understanding of adjacent systems and contribute to a shared on-call rotation

• Contribute to technical quality and engineering best practices across the team

Who You Are

• You have 5+ years of relevant engineering experience, with strong experience in backend and/or data engineering

• You have deep expertise in either backend or data engineering and are comfortable working across both disciplines

• You have experience building and scaling large-scale distributed systems

• You have strong programming experience in Java, Scala, and/or Python

• You understand how to design systems with scalability, reliability, performance, and cost in mind

• You’re comfortable taking end-to-end ownership of complex engineering problems

• You can translate technical problems into designs, RFCs, and executable engineering plans

• You communicate effectively and enjoy collaborating with engineering, product, and technical stakeholders

• You’re comfortable operating in an environment where backend, data, ML infrastructure, and AI increasingly overlap

• You’re able to participate in a shared on-call rotation

• Experience with ML infrastructure, AI/LLM systems, agents, model evaluation, or integrating model APIs at scale is a plus

• Exposure to large-scale multimedia processing, audio processing, search, or recommendation systems is a plus

Where You’ll Be

• This role is based in London or Stockholm

• We offer you the flexibility to work where you work best! There will be some in person meetings, but still allows for flexibility to work from home.

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! So bring us your personal experience, your perspectives, and your background. It’s in our differences that we will find the power to keep revolutionizing the way the world listens.

At Spotify, we are passionate about inclusivity and making sure our entire recruitment process is accessible to everyone. 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.