Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Policy & Safety

Spotify; Kansas; Hybrid; USD 184,050 - 262,928; 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 looking for a Machine Learning Engineer specializing in content safety to design and build ML systems that ensure compliance across its platform. You'll lead initiatives in detection and moderation, collaborating with teams across Trust & Safety, Legal, and Public Affairs.

This role is based in New York, offering flexibility to work from home alongside in-person meetings. The compensation range is $184,050 - $262,928 USD plus equity, along with comprehensive health benefits and paid leave.

Qualifications

• Experience in building and deploying machine learning systems at scale.
• Proficient in training and evaluating ML models using PyTorch.
• Understanding of machine learning evaluation, metrics, and improvement systems.
• Experience with distributed systems or backend technologies like Scala.

Responsibilities

• Design and build ML systems for content safety and policy enforcement.
• Lead key initiatives across detection and evaluation systems.
• Develop and maintain ML models for content moderation.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams on policy and enforcement.

Skills

Machine learning systems

PyTorch

Distributed systems

Technical leadership

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.

The Policy & Safety team sits within Content Platform in the Experience Mission, building the systems that keep Spotify safe, compliant, and trusted by millions of users and creators. This team owns Spotify’s content moderation infrastructure—from detection models to policy enforcement systems and compliance data pipelines. Working at the intersection of machine learning, platform engineering, and regulatory compliance, the team partners closely with Trust & Safety, Legal, and Public Affairs. They’re on the critical path for every new content type and social feature—including messaging, comments, and collaborative experiences—ensuring safety is built in from day one. With a strong focus on “safety by default,” the team is investing in large-scale rearchitecture and ML‑driven systems to proactively protect users and empower safer interactions across the platform.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and ship production‑grade machine learning systems that power content safety and policy enforcement at Spotify scale
• Own and lead key technical initiatives across detection, classification, and policy evaluation systems
• Develop and maintain ML models for content moderation, including multimodal and LLM‑based systems
• Build robust evaluation frameworks, including standardized datasets, offline and online metrics, and continuous improvement loops
• Drive experimentation to improve model performance, reliability, and fairness in safety‑critical systems
• Collaborate closely with cross‑functional partners in Trust & Safety, Legal, and Public Affairs to align on policy and enforcement needs
• Provide technical leadership within the team, mentoring engineers and contributing to ML strategy and prioritization
• Represent technical decisions and trade‑offs in stakeholder discussions and influence product direction

Who You Are

• You have solid experience building and deploying machine learning systems in production environments at scale
• You are experienced with training, evaluating, and maintaining ML models using modern frameworks such as PyTorch
• You have a deep understanding of machine learning evaluation, including dataset design, metrics, and continuous improvement systems
• You know how to design systems that balance performance, reliability, and real‑world impact in high‑stakes domains
• You care about building safe, responsible, and user‑centric ML systems
• You are comfortable working across disciplines, partnering with legal, policy, and product stakeholders
• You have experience leading technical projects and influencing direction within a team or product area
• You have experience with distributed systems or backend technologies (e.g., Scala)

Where You'll Be

• This role is based in New York
• 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.

The United States base range for this position is $184,050 - $262,928 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.

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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