Backend Senior Software Engineer - Music Discovery

SoundCloud empowers artists and fans to connect and share through music. Founded in 2007, SoundCloud is an artist-first platform empowering artists to build and grow their careers by providing them with the most progressive tools, services, and resources. With over 400+ million tracks from 40+ million artists, the future of music is SoundCloud.

We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to join the SoundCloud Recommendation team (part of Music Discovery & Intelligence group), with a mission to help users find and play what they’re looking for and enable them to explore further to discover music that exists nowhere else and connect directly with the artists that make it. In the role you will be responsible for the software engineering and machine learning infrastructure necessary to leverage the data and other resources to build and deliver search and recommendation mechanisms. You will work with a multidisciplinary team of engineers and scientists focused on exploring, designing, building, and deploying state-of-the-art software and machine learning algorithms and delivering high-accuracy music recommendations at scale.  You will also be responsible for the high availability and consistent quality of your services through the design and development of automated testing and monitoring. We care much more about your general engineering skills and positive attitude towards getting things done than any prior knowledge of a particular language or framework. 

Read about engineering at SoundCloud.

Required skills and experience:

• 5+ years of experience writing code in a typed language (e.g. Go/C++/C/Java)
• Proficiency in programming, software design and code reviews.
• Knowledge of scripting languages like Python 
• Very good understanding of software development processes and tools (e.g. CI/CD, Version Control)
• Deep understanding of cloud-based platforms (e.g. GCP services like Bigtable, BigQuery, Airflow, Kubernetes) and hands-on experience with infrastructure as code (IaC) using Terraform.
• Track record of successful projects in algorithm design and product development.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Solid communication skills

Bonus Points if you have:

• Experience working in AI/ML and up-to-date with recent advances in the field
• Practical experience in deploying ML solutions to production (on a public cloud) 
• A love for music

About us:

• We are a multinational company with offices in the US (New York and Los Angeles), Germany (Berlin), and the UK (London)
• We provide a flexible work culture that offers the opportunity to collaborate and connect in person at our offices as well as accommodating work from home
• We are deeply committed to ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels of our organization and fostering a community where everyone’s voice, perspective and experience is respected and heard
• We believe a strong team is made by investing in employees through mentorship, workshops and enrichment opportunities
• You can contribute to our Engineering Blog

Benefits:

• Not located in Berlin? No worries, we offer extensive relocation support including allowances, one way flights, temporary accommodation and, by partnering with Expath, on the ground support on arrival
• Interested in a gym membership, photography course or book? We have a Creativity and Wellness benefit!
• Employee Stock Ownership Plan
• Professional development allowance
• Flexible vacation and public holiday policy where you can take up to 35 days of PTO annually
• We offer free German courses at beginning, intermediate and advanced
• Various snacks, goodies and 2 free lunches weekly at the office! 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at SoundCloud

SoundCloud is for everyone. Diversity and open expression are fundamental to our organization. With this foundation, we aim to build a social platform and global community for everyone to create, discover, and share sounds. We acknowledge the challenges in our industry and strive to develop an inclusive culture where individual contributions are valued. We are dedicated to creating an inclusive environment for everyone, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, migration background, national origin, age, disability status, or care-giver status. 

At SoundCloud you can find your community or elevate your allyship by joining a Diversity Resource Group (groups focused on people of color, LGBTQIA+ folks, and women). You may also participate in inclusive workshops, contribute to our Cultural Moments series, vote on organizations for the SoundCloud Community fund’s support, and more!