Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
This Backend Engineer role sits at the intersection of SaaS platform engineering and advertising technology, where reliability and latency directly shape monetisation outcomes. The remit spans Java services, APIs, and data pipelines, reflecting a product area that behaves like an internal platform serving multiple stakeholder groups. The scale implied by “hundreds of millions” of users and a large advertiser base makes this a representative example of engineering in mature, high-traffic SaaS environments.
From a SaaS career perspective, the work builds durable strengths in operating distributed systems, designing service boundaries, and treating data as a first-class product input. Collaboration with data science and research functions is a common pattern in modern SaaS organisations, and experience translating internal customer needs into backend capabilities tends to transfer well across growth, platform, and monetisation teams. The emphasis on testing, CI, and operational ownership aligns with practices expected in production-grade subscription platforms.
This position suits engineers who prefer product-adjacent infrastructure work where success is measured in system behaviour, scalability, and developer ergonomics rather than one-off deliverables. It will appeal to professionals who want to deepen backend fundamentals while expanding into data engineering touchpoints, and who are comfortable partnering across disciplines to turn ambiguous requirements into stable services.
The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.
Job Description
Our mission on the Advertising Product & Technology team is to build a next generation advertising platform that aligns with our unique value proposition for audio and video. We work to scale the user experience for hundreds of millions of fans and hundreds of thousands of advertisers. This scale brings unique challenges as well as tremendous opportunities for our artists and creators.
We're seeking a talented Backend engineer (with some data engineering experience as a bonus) to join our team at Spotify, where you'll collaborate with internal customers to design scalable backend services, data pipelines, and APIs that meet their needs. You'll contribute to high-impact projects powering our ad services, scaling distributed systems, and continuously improving our engineering practices. As someone who shares our passion for building innovative ad experiences, you'll have a direct impact on how the world uses Spotify.
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What You'll Do
- Design and develop scalable backend systems and APIs using Java services
- Collaborate with Data Scientists and or Data Engineers to build and maintain complex data pipelines using frameworks like Scio, Storm, Spark, and Google Cloud Platform
- Develop expertise in testing practices, including TDD and integration testing
- Ensure high-quality code through automated testing and continuous integration
- Lead high-performance Java service development and operations for millions of users
- Partner with Data Scientists and User Researchers to understand user needs and inform product decisions
Who You Are
- You are a highly motivated and communicative engineer who is passionate about collaborating on difficult engineering problems.
- You are an experienced Backend Engineer with 3+ years of working experience, passionate about delivering high-quality code
- You are proficient in Java, with a desire to expand knowledge into additional languages like Scala
- You are a strong advocate for code quality, testing, and automation
- You have experience with distributed systems, high-volume services, production deployment, big data processing technologies, and system design
- You are familiar with APIs, stakeholders, and agile methodologies
- Knowledge of algorithms, data structures, and software engineering principles
- Understanding of end-user experience, quality, and modern engineering practices
- Collaborative attitude with a strong desire to work with others and make a difference
- Passionate about delivering high-quality code, iterating quickly, and experimenting with new ideas
- Believes data is a powerful tool for informed decision-making
Where You'll Be
- We offer you the flexibility to work where you work best! For this role, it can be within the North America region in which we have a work location.
- This team operates within the Eastern Standard time zone for collaboration
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The United States base range for this position is $132,949.00 - 189,927.00, plus 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. This range encompasses multiple levels. Leveling is determined during the interview process. Placement in a level depends on relevant work history and interview performance. 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.
