Machine Learning Engineering Manager II

The Personalization team makes deciding what to play next easier and more enjoyable for every listener. From Blend to Discover Weekly, we’re behind some of Spotify’s most-loved features. We built them by understanding the world of music and podcasts 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.

At Spotify, great personalization is about more than recommending the right song. It's about creating listening experiences that feel effortless and meaningful while balancing the needs of listeners, creators, and our business.

The Samba team, part of Spotify's Personalization Mission, works on multi-objective balancing and sequencing for personalized listening experiences like Autoplay, Radio, and Mixes. Our engineers bring together machine learning, backend engineering, and data engineering to build systems that support Spotify's financial objectives while keeping listeners at the center of what we do.

We're looking for an Engineering Manager to lead this team, develop our engineers, and help shape the technical direction of systems that influence how millions of people experience Spotify.

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.

Who You Are

• You have experience managing and developing engineering teams, with a track record of helping people grow and delivering impactful results.
• You bring a strong technical background in machine learning, software engineering, or related areas, and can confidently guide technical conversations.
• You understand the opportunities and challenges of developing and operating machine learning systems in production.
• You have experience working with cross-functional partners to define priorities, navigate trade-offs, and deliver against shared goals.
• You are comfortable leading teams through ambiguity and helping engineers make informed technical decisions.
• You care about building inclusive, collaborative environments where people feel supported and empowered.
• You communicate with clarity, lead with empathy, and know how to balance people, technology, and business needs

Where You'll Be

• We offer you the flexibility to work where you work best! For this role, you can be within the North Americas region as long as we have a work location.
• This team operates within the Eastern Standard time zone for collaboration.