Backend Engineer - Music

Spotify • New York, NY

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a Backend Engineer to join our Artist-First AI Music lab. Our team designs and builds state-of-the-art generative products for music that create breakthrough experiences for fans and artists. We invent entirely new listening experiences that center and celebrate artists and creatives. All of our products will put artists and songwriters first, through these four principles:
Partnerships with record labels, distributors, and music publishers: We’ll develop new products for artists and fans through upfront agreements, not by asking for forgiveness later.
Choice in participation: We recognize there’s a wide range of views on use of generative music tools within the artistic community. Therefore, artists and rightsholders will choose if and how to participate to ensure the use of AI tools aligns with the values of the people behind the music.
Fair compensation and new revenue: We will build products that create wholly new revenue streams for rightsholders, artists, and songwriters, ensuring they are properly compensated for uses of their work and transparently credited for their contributions.
Artist-fan connection: AI tools we develop will not replace human artistry. They will give artists new ways to be creative and connect with fans. We will leverage our role as the place where more than 700 million people already come to listen to music every month to ensure that generative AI deepens artist-fan connections.

Requirements

• Experience developing backend systems using Java
• Knowledge of designing APIs and working with service-based architectures
• Ability to write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code
• Care about performance, scalability, and system reliability
• Enjoy working collaboratively in cross-functional teams
• Curious, proactive, and motivated to learn and grow
• Experience contributing to production systems
• Interested in applying AI to improve systems and exploring practical use cases

Responsibilities

• Build backend systems that support generative AI usage at scale
• Design and develop APIs that power AI creation flows, content consumption, and reporting
• Work closely with Product and Design to bring new features to life
• Improve system scalability, performance, and reliability
• Contribute to a collaborative engineering culture through code reviews and knowledge sharing
• Help evolve our architecture as we grow and scale

Benefits

• health insurance
• six-month paid parental leave
• 401(k) retirement plan
• monthly meal allowance
• 23 paid days off
• paid flexible holidays
• paid sick leave

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed