The Role
Architect, develop, and operate scalable Java backend services supporting subscription conversion, retention, upsells, and personalized user journeys. Design cloud-native systems, data models, and APIs on Google Cloud Platform; collaborate with product, marketing, growth, and engineering teams; mentor colleagues; and lead complex platform initiatives involving automation, content management, machine learning, and high-volume distributed services.
Summary Generated by Built In
We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to join the Subscriptions Mission. This team oversees the entire user journey on Spotify and ensures we engage with people in innovative ways, every step of the way. Our team grows Spotify’s audience by finding future listeners around the world and delivering the right value to them, at the right time. With research, product development, product design, engineering, and marketing all collaborating in one organization, we’re able to quickly create meaningful features and services for millions of people around the world, resulting in joyful, long-lasting relationships with Spotify.
As a Senior Backend Engineer you will participate in building and maintaining the systems responsible for driving user conversion, retention and upsells together with other R&D teams, Marketing and Growth. The team is uniquely positioned to play a key role in a new effort to strengthen our platform capabilities in this area to support the rapidly growing business needs of the ever-changing product portfolio.
We are moving towards a more user focused, contextual conversion, retention and upsell experience that is less manually operated, and more consistent across channels, using levers like machine learning and personalisation. We want to solve this through a platformised approach utilising new systems for decision-making on what we want users to see combined with a content management solution that can handle all the necessary complexities.
What You'll Do
- Architect, develop and operate Java services that serve our users through the merchandising platform to enable cohesive and relevant conversion and upsell journeys.
- Collaborate with our squad and key internal partners to determine how to design scalable backend systems, data models and APIs that run on Google Cloud Platform.
- Be a technical leader, mentor and valued contributor in an autonomous, cross-functional agile squad, in close collaboration with other squads and business stakeholders.
- Collaborate with other squads, engineering managers and product managers to identify and solve challenging problems, to successfully scale our automation and new platform capabilities.
Who You Are
- You have 5+ years of working experience as a Backend Engineer working with Java. Additional tools and technologies such as gRPC, GCP, BigQuery and Bigtable are a plus.
- You have strong computer science fundamentals and previous experience building complex backend services at scale.
- You have experience in designing, implementing, and scaling cloud-native software components on providers such as GCP, AWS, etc.
- You have experience working directly with stakeholders to understand, document and develop APIs and systems to meet their requirements.
- You are comfortable working collaboratively on cross-functional teams and independently driving complex delivery initiatives.
- You have written distributed, high-volume services and know how to deploy and operate them in production.
- You have a growth mindset and are passionate about your work, striving towards the team’s goals and, ultimately, the Spotify Mission.
- Nice-to-haves: Experience modelling, building and operating integrations with external CMS solutions or working with ML teams for recommendations and data pipelines.
Where You'll Be
- This role is based in London or Stockholm.
- We offer you the flexibility to work where you work best! There will be some in person meetings, but still allows for flexibility to work from home.
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.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of experience as a Backend Engineer working with Java
- Strong computer science fundamentals
- Experience building complex backend services at scale
- Experience designing, implementing, and scaling cloud-native software components
- Experience working directly with stakeholders to define, document, and develop APIs and systems
- Experience collaborating on cross-functional teams
- Experience independently driving complex delivery initiatives
- Experience writing distributed, high-volume services
- Experience deploying and operating services in production
- Experience with gRPC, GCP, BigQuery, and Bigtable
- Experience integrating with external CMS solutions
- Experience working with machine learning teams on recommendations and data pipelines
Spotify Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Spotify and has not been reviewed or approved by Spotify.
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Flexible Benefits — Employees consistently praise the total compensation package beyond base salary, highlighting a mix of RSUs, cash incentives, and stipends alongside core pay. The package is described as flexible and customizable through equity choices (e.g., RSUs, options, cash) that can be tailored for long-term wealth building.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off offerings are repeatedly highlighted as substantial, including generous vacation, paid sick days, volunteer time, and flexible holidays. These policies are framed as a meaningful part of the overall rewards experience beyond salary.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is portrayed as comprehensive, spanning medical, dental, vision, life insurance, disability coverage, and mental health support. Additional employer contributions to HSAs are cited as strengthening the overall health and wellness value proposition.
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The Company
What We Do
Spotify transformed music listening forever when it launched in Sweden in 2008. Discover, manage and share over 50m tracks for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features including offline mode, improved sound quality, and an ad-free music listening experience.
