Senior Machine Learning Engineering Manager

Spotify; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Spotify is seeking a senior ML engineering leader to guide a large, highly skilled team in London or Stockholm. You will shape the group’s strategy around content understanding (audio, video, text) and drive initiatives that impact billions of listeners.

You’ll coach Staff engineers, stay hands-on when needed, and champion practical AI approaches that boost productivity while aligning with product and research leaders across Spotify.

Qualifications

• Deep ML expertise with Staff-level technical judgement.
• Experience in NLP, audio/music understanding and recommenders.
• Proven track record leading engineering teams on cross-functional programs.
• Passion for coaching senior and Staff engineers to grow impact.
• Clear point of view on using AI to improve ML workflows.
• Strategic thinker who communicates clearly and balances long-term bets with delivery.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and grow a group of 10+ senior and Staff ML engineers.
• Set technical and team strategy for content understanding problems.
• Own delivery of high-priority initiatives with measurable impact for listeners.
• Stay close to technology; review designs and guide modelling choices.
• Define practical AI tooling usage to boost team productivity.
• Partner with product, design, research and engineering leaders to align priorities.

Skills

Staff-level leadership

Machine learning

NLP

Audio understanding

Recommender systems

Coaching engineers

Job description

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.