Senior Principal Engineer, Machine Learning

SoundCloud; New York (NY); On-site; USD 280,000 - 325,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k)

Equity

Professional development allowance

Wellness benefits

Job summary

SoundCloud is hiring a Senior Principal Machine Learning Engineer in New York. This role involves leading the technical strategy for machine learning systems to enhance user experience in music streaming. Candidates should have over 10 years of experience in ML engineering, with a focus on recommendation systems, and proven leadership in scaling teams. The position offers a competitive salary range of $280,000-$325,000 and includes health benefits and equity options.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in machine learning engineering, preferably streaming services.
• Proven track record in defining and executing technical strategies for ML systems.
• Experience mentoring and leading teams of ML Engineers and Scientists.
• Deep expertise in cloud-based delivery and infrastructure management.
• Hands-on experience with modern machine learning frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical strategy and execution for ML systems, including model development.
• Define technical direction for ML architecture and pipeline orchestration.
• Mentor and grow ML Engineers and Scientists across the organization.
• Ensure ML investments deliver measurable user and business impact.
• Stay current with industry trends to inform technical decisions.

Skills

Machine Learning Engineering

Technical Strategy

Team Leadership

Cloud Platforms

Data-driven Product Delivery

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Job description

Senior Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Location: New York, United States

SoundCloud empowers artists and fans to connect and share through music. Founded in 2007, SoundCloud is an artist‑first platform with over 400 million tracks from 40 million artists, enabling creators to grow their careers with progressive tools and services.

About the role

SoundCloud is seeking a Machine Learning leader to architect the next era of Musical Intelligence. As a Senior Principal Engineer, you will combine deep technical expertise with strategic vision and people leadership to drive the development of large‑scale recommendation, personalization, and search systems, and to deliver data‑driven products at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the technical strategy and execution for SoundCloud’s ML systems (recommendation, ranking, personalization), including model development, deployment, and scaling.
• Explore advanced modeling techniques (Deep Neural Networks, LLMs, large recommender systems, multi‑modal embeddings, transformer‑based architectures) to create unique listening experiences.
• Define and drive the overall technical direction for ML architecture, feature engineering, training and serving infrastructure, pipeline orchestration, model registry, and versioning.
• Own short‑ and long‑term objectives, ensuring ML investments deliver measurable user and business impact.
• Lead, mentor, and grow ML Engineers and Scientists across SoundCloud.
• Partner with the CTO to bring an “ML Everywhere” strategy to all product surfaces and lead AI‑native engineering initiatives.
• Stay current with industry trends and identify opportunities to apply them at SoundCloud.
• Leverage agentic workflows and AI‑assisted engineering to accelerate development.

Experience and Background

• 10+ years of experience in ML engineering, with 3+ years in search or recommendations for internet‑scale services with tens of millions of daily active users; experience in a music streaming environment is a bonus.
• Proven track record of defining technical strategy and driving execution for large‑scale ML systems.
• Experience setting technical roadmaps, influencing cross‑functional priorities, and balancing business, product, and engineering trade‑offs at an organizational level.
• Experience leading and scaling teams of ML Engineers and Scientists, including hiring and mentoring.
• Deep expertise in delivering data‑driven products on cloud‑based platforms with strong infrastructure and lifecycle management knowledge.
• Hands‑on familiarity with modern ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow) and data processing pipelines, combined with strong software engineering foundations.
• Thought leadership in ML and data science, with a track record of driving technical innovation and applying emerging industry trends.
• Exceptional communication, strategic influence, and cross‑functional leadership skills across senior stakeholders and global teams.

Compensation

Salary range: $280,000 – $325,000 annually. Final offer based on experience, skills, internal equity, and location. Total rewards program includes health benefits, 401(k), equity, professional development allowance, and wellness benefits.

Equal Employment Opportunity

SoundCloud is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics. The company is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and encourages all qualified individuals to apply.

Legal Notice

By applying to this position, you consent to SoundCloud collecting and processing your personal data for recruitment purposes in accordance with applicable data privacy laws.