Staff Designer, Core Experience - Playback Experiences

Spotify; Remote; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading digital audio service is looking for a Staff Designer to shape the playback experience across audio and video formats. This role involves driving the design strategy, collaborating with engineering and product teams, and mentoring design talent. The ideal candidate will be experienced in systems-level design and passionate about enhancing playback through innovation. The position allows for flexibility within the EMEA region, excluding France.

Qualifications

• Experienced in systems-level product design at scale.
• Skilled in motion design, interaction design, and prototyping.
• Comfortable in collaborative environments with technical complexities.

Responsibilities

• Lead design vision for playback experiences across all content formats.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver cohesive playback systems.
• Mentor designers and contribute to Spotify's design frameworks.

Skills

Motion design

Interaction design

Systems-level product design

Collaboration

Design for scale

Job description

Spotify is seeking a Staff Designer to define and evolve the future of Playback Experiences — the heartbeat of Spotify’s multi-format experience. Playback Experiences is where everything comes together: sound, motion, interaction, and emotion, synchronized across every format. It’s where our identity shines, and where users feel closest to the content they love.

As Spotify continues to expand across audio, video, and emerging interactive formats, this role will shape how playback feels, behaves, and scales. You’ll architect a cohesive, flexible framework that supports innovation and business growth while maintaining simplicity, delight, and design coherence across Spotify’s playback ecosystem.

As a Staff Designer, you’ll define the architecture of the playback experience — how systems interconnect, how formats transition, and how users flow through Spotify’s core playback surfaces. You’ll bring structure to complexity, leading the design vision for a human and unmistakably Spotify experience.

What You'll Do

• Playback Vision & Systems Architecture: Lead the end-to-end vision and design strategy for Now Playing View on mobile, defining how playback operates and scales across all content formats.
• Design and evolve the systemic framework that unifies video, audio, voice, and interactive experiences, ensuring consistent logic, flexibility, and cohesion.
• Partner with engineering to shape technical design models, playback state transitions, and scalable interface patterns for future formats and capabilities.
• Drive the evolution of core playback surfaces; including the queue, playing scroll, and format transitions, ensuring fluid continuity across experiences.

• Collaboration & Craft Leadership: Partner cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Research, and Data Science to deliver playback experiences that balance innovation with stability.
• Collaborate across Experience to ensure playback design principles are cohesive and scalable across Spotify’s ecosystem. Set a high bar for craft and systems rigour, combining storytelling, motion, and interaction design with strong technical understanding and design-for-scale thinking.
• Innovation & Mentorship: Explore how AI and adaptive systems can enhance playback — from generative motion to personalized, context-aware experiences that deepen engagement.
• Mentor and develop designers within Play Design, elevating technical fluency and systems literacy.
• Contribute to and evolve Spotify’s design frameworks and principles for multi-format playback, ensuring scalability and design consistency across product lines.

Who You Are

• A senior design leader experienced in systems-level product design at scale — fluent in connecting user experience, technology, and playback architecture.
• A leader skilled in Motion, Interaction, and prototyping, with a curiosity about simplifying technical intricacies into user-friendly solutions.
• Experienced working across multiple content modalities (audio, video, voice, live, interactive) and crafting for continuity across them.
• A confident collaborator who thrives in cross-functional, technically sophisticated product environments.
• Passionate about mentorship, enabling other designers to think in systems and scale their craft.
• Curious about the role of AI and adaptive intelligence in shaping more personal and expressive playback experiences. Energised by crafting experiences that feel alive, and uniquely Spotify.

Where You'll Be

• We offer you the flexibility to work where you work best! For this role, you can be within the EMEA region as long as we have a work location (excluding France due to on-call restrictions).
• This team operates within the Central European and GMT time zone for collaboration.