Backend Engineer II - Data Platform

Spotify; Stockholms kommun; Hybrid; SEK 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Spotify is seeking an experienced backend data platform engineer to design, build and operate the services behind our data catalog, lineage and publishing systems. You will own end-to-end data pipelines, ensuring reliable, scalable access to metadata across batch and streaming workloads.

You will work with Java, SQL and modern data warehouses within a hybrid work setup, coordinating across teams in Stockholm or London, with some flexibility to work from home.

Qualifications

• Proven experience building and running backend services in production.
• Ability to design API interfaces with forward/backward compatibility.
• Strong SQL skills and experience with data pipelines.
• Understanding of orchestration, metadata management and data quality.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and operate backend services behind data catalog, lineage and publishing systems.
• Develop batch and streaming pipelines to keep metadata current and usable as data evolves.
• Own projects end to end from design through rollout and production support.
• Contribute to platform health with observability, testing, and on-call participation.

Skills

Java backend

API design

SQL

Data pipelines

Data governance & lineage

Problem solving

Communication & collaboration

AI-assisted development

Tools

Beam

Flink

Spark

BigQuery

Snowflake

Databricks

Job description

Every dataset at Spotify, from the data behind creator royalties to the signals powering recommendations, is registered, published and traced through systems our team builds. We're the source of truth for what data exists at Spotify, where it lives, who owns it, and how it flows from one pipeline to the next.

These systems sit on the critical path of the platform. Data teams use them every day to publish and find data, and other platform teams build on them for access, retention, governance and incident response. That means our work is judged on correctness and reliability, because every system built on top of ours is only as good as the metadata we provide.

This is a backend role focused on data management, working on the problems at the core of any large data platform: running a data catalog that stays accurate at scale, capturing lineage across batch and streaming workloads, managing schemas as they evolve, and guaranteeing that consumers only read complete data. We build on open standards like OpenLineage and Apache Iceberg, and define the internal standards for naming, storage and metadata that the rest of Spotify builds against. As the platform takes on new storage technologies and new kinds of data assets, those standards and the systems behind them have to evolve with it, and you'll help decide how.

What You'll Do

• Build and Evolve Core Services: Design, build and operate the backend services and APIs behind our data catalog, lineage and publishing systems, and evolve them as the platform adopts new storage technologies and new kinds of data. Hold them to a high bar for correctness, performance and reliability.
• Build Data Pipelines: Develop and run the batch and streaming pipelines that keep our metadata current, processing platform events and audit logs to capture how data is created and changed, and turning lineage and metadata into data products other teams build on.
• Own Projects End to End: Turn what the teams using our platform need into technical designs, drive them through delivery and rollout, and own the results once they're in production.
• Keep the Platform Healthy: Take part in on-call for critical services, build in observability and quality checks by default, and use automation, including AI tooling, to reduce toil for the team and our users.

Who You Are

• You have solid experience building and running backend services and APIs in production with Java, and you care about API design, versioning and backward compatibility.
• You're comfortable with SQL and have worked with data pipelines or a cloud data warehouse such as BigQuery, Snowflake or Databricks. Hands-on experience with batch or streaming frameworks like Beam, Flink or Spark is a plus.
• You have a working understanding of data engineering concepts such as orchestration, metadata management, data quality, governance and lineage.
• You break problems down into clear, shippable steps, reasoning through tradeoffs and risks and converging on clear recommendations.
• You own the quality of what you ship, including code written with AI assistance, and you care about operating it well after launch.
• You are a strong communicator and collaborator who enjoys working across teams, and you're comfortable in a dynamic platform environment where many engineers depend on what you build and priorities evolve with the business.

Where You'll Be

• This role is based in Stockholm or London.
• 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.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us. Find our AI notice here: https://lifeatspotify.com/ai-notice

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