Senior Data Scientist – Generative AI Music at Spotify

Spotify; United States; Hybrid; USD 145,000 - 207,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Six-month paid parental leave

401(k) retirement plan

Monthly meal allowance

23 paid days off

Paid flexible holidays

Paid sick leave

Job summary

Spotify is seeking a Senior Data Scientist for the Artist-First AI Music Lab in the US. This role focuses on generative AI for music, building metrics, and guiding product strategy with rigorous analyses and cross-functional collaboration across product, policy, and music industry stakeholders.

You will shape evaluation methods for generative music experiences, partner with engineers and researchers, and translate complex signals into actionable recommendations that align with artists and fans.

Qualifications

• Experience in advanced analytics or data science, ideally with LLM evaluation, user-generated content, or complex user behavior.
• Proficient in Python and SQL; use AI tools to boost productivity and impact.
• Solid grounding in experimental design and causal inference.
• Ability to turn signals into clear narratives for executives and cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead foundational measurement and insights work for generative music experiences; develop frameworks to understand creator, listener, and rights holder behavior.
• Design and run large-scale analyses and evaluations of generative music systems using Spotify's datasets and experimentation platforms.
• Partner with Engineers and AI Researchers to integrate evaluation signals into model development loops and product iteration.
• Identify behavioral and market dynamics shaping demand and participation; translate into strategic recommendations.
• Build scalable metrics and decision systems defining what 'good' looks like for AI music: credibility, user delight, safety, creator alignment, ecosystem trust.

Skills

LLM evaluation

Causal inference

Experimental design

Cross-functional leadership

Python and SQL

Job description

Senior Data Scientist – Generative AI Music at Spotify in Wilmington

A High-Impact Role at the Frontier of AI and Music: This Senior Data Scientist position sits at a genuinely rare intersection — generative AI, music industry strategy, and large-scale consumer behavior. The Artist-First AI Music Lab is a new, high-visibility initiative at Spotify, meaning your work will likely reach executive leadership and shape company-wide AI policy.

Compensation vs. Market: At $144K–$206K USD plus equity, this is competitive for a Senior Data Scientist in the US. Market benchmarks for senior DS roles at major tech firms typically range $150K–$220K total cash, so the base is at the lower-to-mid range — however, Spotify equity and the breadth of the role add significant upside, especially for a lab with strategic importance.

Skills You'll Develop:

• LLM evaluation and generative AI metrics — among the most in-demand skills in 2025, with very few practitioners having deep production experience.
• Causal inference and experimental design at scale using unique behavioral datasets (700M+ users).
• Cross-functional leadership across product, legal, policy, and music industry stakeholders — rare and highly transferable.

Green Flags: Clear principles-driven mission, strong equity component, six-month parental leave (exceptional by US standards), and exposure to a zero-to-one product space with broad strategic impact.

Watch For: "Loosely defined problems in ambiguous spaces" signals this is a build-from-scratch role requiring strong self-direction. If you prefer structured, well-defined projects, this may feel uncomfortable. Also note: some in-person meeting requirements exist, implying proximity to a Spotify office may be expected long-term.

The Music Mission team owns Spotify 's end-to-end proposition for music creators and the experiences they create for fans. The team is dedicated to building tools and services to enable creation, promotion, expression, and monetization at scale.

We're looking for a Senior Data Scientist to join the Artist-First AI Music Lab. Our team explores and advances generative technologies for music to create new experiences for fans and artists, with a focus on listening experiences that center and celebrate artists and creatives.

All of our products will put artists and songwriters first, through these four principles:

• Partnerships with record labels, distributors, and music publishers: We'll develop new products for artists and fans through upfront agreements, not by asking for forgiveness later.
• Choice in participation: We recognize there's a wide range of views on use of generative music tools within the artistic community. Artists and rightsholders will choose if and how to participate to ensure the use of AI tools aligns with the values of the people behind the music.
• Fair compensation and new revenue: We will build products that create wholly new revenue streams for rightsholders, artists, and songwriters, ensuring they are properly compensated for uses of their work and transparently credited for their contributions.
• Artist-fan connection: AI tools we develop will not replace human artistry. They will give artists new ways to be creative and connect with fans. We will use our role as the place where more than 700 million people already come to listen to music every month to ensure that generative AI deepens artist-fan connections.
• Lead foundational measurement and insights work for generative music experiences, developing the frameworks that help Spotify understand how creators, listeners, and rights holders engage with generative AI music.
• Design and run large-scale analyses and evaluations of generative music systems, from prompt interpretation to model output quality, using Spotify's unique behavioral datasets, annotations, and experimentation platforms.
• Partner with Engineers and AI Researchers to integrate evaluation signals into model development loops, debugging workflows, and product iteration, making sure scientific rigor informs technical direction.
• Identify the behavioral and market dynamics that shape sustainable consumer demand and creator participation, and translate them into clear strategic recommendations.
• Build practical, scalable metrics and decision systems that define what "good" looks like for AI music: credibility, user delight, safety, creator alignment, and ecosystem trust.
• Bring together model, user behavior, and ecosystem signals into clear narratives that shape product strategy, cross-functional alignment, and long-term priorities across Spotify.
• Create the datasets, dashboards, and long-term measurement systems that give Spotify a lasting, comprehensive understanding of product health and impact.
• Work closely with Product, Design, Research, Legal, Trust & Safety, Marketing, Policy, and Licensing teams, bringing statistical rigor and principled measurement to help build artist-first systems that scale responsibly.

Who You Are

• You have a track record of using insights to shape strategy for major company initiatives involving many different partners.
• You have significant hands-on experience in advanced analytics or data science, ideally in a domain involving LLM evaluation, user-generated content, or complex user behavior.
• You communicate clearly, form well-founded, evidence-backed points of view, and can bring together messy, multimodal signals (quantitative, qualitative, and model telemetry) into clear narratives for senior executives, researchers, engineers, and the music industry.
• You're proficient in advanced analytics with Python and SQL, have analyzed large datasets, and use AI tools (e.g. Cursor, Copilot) to increase your productivity and impact.
• You have experience developing metrics frameworks for complex products that help teams measure impact and reason clearly about priorities.
• You have experience with machine learning frameworks, designing and assessing multimodal or embedding-based models, and validating them against LLM judges or human ground truth, with an understanding of how to evaluate models beyond offline accuracy.
• You have a solid grounding in experimental design and causal inference, such as A/B tests, quasi-experiments, and power analysis.
• You thrive when tackling loosely defined problems in ambiguous, zero-to-one spaces.

Where You'll Be

• 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.
• This team operates within the US Eastern timezone for collaboration.

Compensation

The United States base range for this position is $144,714–$206,735 USD, plus equity. The benefits available for this position include health insurance, six-month paid parental leave, 401(k) retirement plan, monthly meal allowance, 23 paid days off, paid flexible holidays, and paid sick leave. These ranges may be modified in the future.

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.

Is this Spotify Senior Data Scientist role fully remote? The role offers significant flexibility to work from home, but requires alignment with US Eastern timezone hours for team collaboration. There will also be some in-person meetings. What is the salary range for this position? The US base salary range is $144,714–$206,735 USD annually, plus equity. Benefits include health insurance, 401(k), six-month paid parental leave, and 23 paid days off. What technical skills are required for this role? Spotify requires proficiency in Python and SQL, experience with machine learning frameworks, LLM evaluation, multimodal/embedding-based models, and experimental design including A/B tests and causal inference. What team will the Senior Data Scientist be joining? You'll be joining the Artist-First AI Music Lab within Spotify's Music Mission team, which develops generative music technologies centered on artist empowerment, fair compensation, and fan connection. Does Spotify require candidates to be based in a specific US location? The job description does not specify a required city or state, but notes collaboration within the US Eastern timezone and some in-person meetings, suggesting US-based candidates are expected.

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