Machine Learning Engineering Manager II
Job description
Engineering Manager to lead the Samba team within Spotify's Personalization Mission, which builds multi-objective balancing and sequencing for personalized listening experiences like Autoplay, Radio, and Mixes. The role combines people leadership with shaping the technical direction of machine learning, backend, and data engineering systems.
At a glance
- Employment
- Full-time · Employee (employment agreement)
- Work mode
- Remote · North America
- Pay
- USD 227,495 – 262,928 / year
What you'll do
- Lead and grow a team of machine learning, backend, and data engineers, supporting their development and helping them deliver their best work.
- Shape the team's technical strategy and execution, ensuring engineering efforts align with listener needs and Spotify's broader business goals.
- Guide the development of machine learning and recommendation systems that balance multiple objectives across personalized listening experiences.
- Collaborate with Product and engineering partners to define priorities, align on outcomes, and translate complex challenges into clear plans.
- Support the team in making thoughtful technical decisions across experimentation, scalability, system reliability, and model performance.
- Create a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement, where engineers feel empowered to experiment and learn.
- Drive effective planning and delivery while balancing immediate priorities with long-term technical health.
- Foster an inclusive, supportive team environment through coaching, feedback, and thoughtful people leadership.
What we're looking for
- Experience managing and developing engineering teams, with a track record of helping people grow and delivering impactful results.
- Strong technical background in machine learning, software engineering, or related areas, and can confidently guide technical conversations.
- Understanding of the opportunities and challenges of developing and operating machine learning systems in production.
- Experience working with cross-functional partners to define priorities, navigate trade-offs, and deliver against shared goals.
- Comfortable leading teams through ambiguity and helping engineers make informed technical decisions.
- Cares about building inclusive, collaborative environments where people feel supported and empowered.
- Communicates with clarity, leads with empathy, and knows how to balance people, technology, and business needs.
Your team
Samba team, Personalization Mission
Works on multi-objective balancing and sequencing for personalized listening experiences like Autoplay, Radio, and Mixes; engineers bring together machine learning, backend engineering, and data engineering.
Benefits
- Health insurance
- Six month paid parental leave
- 401(k) retirement plan
- Monthly meal allowance
- 23 paid days off
- 13 paid flexible holidays
- Paid sick leave
- Equity
Apply
Direct apply at Spotify
Opens the job posting at Spotify
About Spotify
The Personalization team makes deciding what to play next easier and more enjoyable for every listener; from Blend to Discover Weekly, they are behind some of Spotify's most-loved features.