Machine Learning Engineering Manager, Personalization

The Personalization team makes deciding what to play next easier and more enjoyable for every listener. From Discover Weekly to AI DJ, we’re behind some of Spotify’s most-loved features. We built them by understanding the world of music, podcasts, and listeners better than anyone else. Join us and you’ll keep millions of users listening by making great recommendations to each and every one of them.The Next Generation Sessions (NextGen) product area within Personalization is evolving listening beyond playlists, inventing new personalized listening (and watching!) sessions such as AI DJ, AI Playlist, Blend, Podcast Discovery Feed, and Music Discovery Feed. NextGen is a team of about 100 engineers, scientists, product managers, and music and voice domain experts working remotely and in offices in New York, Boston, London, and Stockholm.
This ML Engineering Manager role will provide technical leadership to a newly formed squad of ~12 engineers focusing on exciting new AI-driven music session experiences. In collaboration with a cross-functional and cross-team leadership group, you will drive expansion of NextGen's AI experiences in music, leveraging the success of AI DJ and AI Playlist, advancing and spearheading the development of entirely new music recommendations experiences and capabilities.

What You'll Do

• Lead a talented team of ML, backend, and data engineers to build and launch innovative AI-driven personalized music experiences
• Debate and align technical strategies with senior engineering leaders and partner teams, translate these strategies clearly back to your squad, and actively guide architectural vision and day-to-day ML modeling and coding decisions
• Bring external experience in generative AI and agent frameworks to enhance Spotify's personalized music sessions
• Navigate ambiguity, driving innovation through rapid prototyping and iterative development in cross-functional teams
• Champion AI-assisted coding practices, continually expanding the team's technical capabilities
• Foster strong research partnerships to scale innovative solutions from experimentation to production
• Develop and grow your team's talent through hiring, coaching, mentoring, and fostering a collaborative, adaptive culture

Who You Are

• Experienced leading delivery of consumer-facing ML products at scale
• Energized by rapid change, ambiguity, and opportunity, with a proven track record transforming innovative ideas into impactful products
• Skilled with current generative AI and agent technologies
• Actively using AI-assisted coding and product development tools to prototype new products
• Expert in modern ML theory, practices, and their practical implementation
• Comfortable providing detailed technical direction and resolving complex engineering challenges
• Collaborative and influential, thriving in strategic discussions with senior engineers and managers
• Focused on user outcomes, rigorously grounding decisions in user data and insights
• Experienced in nurturing technical talent, committed to growing engineers' skills in technology and leadership

Where You'll Be

• We offer you the flexibility to work where you work best! For this role, you can be within the EST time zone as long as we have a work location. The squad is based in New York City.
• This team operates within the Eastern Standard time zone for collaboration.

The United States base range for this position is $176,166- $251,666 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, 13 paid flexible holidays, 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.
Spotify transformed music listening forever when we launched in 2008. Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the chance to enjoy and be passionate about these creators. Everything we do is driven by our love for music and podcasting. Today, we are the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service.