About this role.
Spotify is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead a six-person, Europe-distributed team responsible for event delivery and data pseudonymisation infrastructure. The role combines people leadership, roadmap ownership, and technical strategy for highly scaled, event-driven data systems serving hundreds of internal teams. The manager will be accountable for delivery, operational reliability, on-call health, hiring, and cross-functional alignment. Strong experience developing senior engineers and operating effectively across distributed teams is central to the position. The role is London-based with flexible work-from-home arrangements and some in-person meetings.
Role DNA
A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description.
Job Complexity
5/5Pace & Pressure
4/5Autonomy Level
5/5Communication Load
5/5Salary analysis
Estimated compensation compared with the broader US market for similar roles.
Core skills
Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity.
Sample interview questions
I set clear outcome-based objectives and establish regular operating rhythms for planning, delivery reviews, and one-to-ones. I delegate technical ownership to senior engineers while remaining engaged enough to remove blockers, assess risk, and ensure development opportunities align with important work.
I would first review service-level objectives, incident trends, alert quality, capacity risks, and the distribution of on-call burden. With the team, I would prioritize the highest-leverage reliability investments, such as reducing noisy alerts, automating common remediation, strengthening observability, and tracking recurring issues through a blameless post-incident process.
I create predictable communication channels, document decisions and context asynchronously, and ensure meeting schedules do not systematically disadvantage particular locations. I also make space for regular one-to-ones, team retrospectives, and intentional relationship-building so remote team members have equal visibility and influence.
I would align stakeholders on the user and compliance outcomes, clarify ownership and dependencies, and translate those needs into an incremental roadmap with measurable milestones. I would communicate trade-offs early, especially around security, reliability, developer experience, and delivery timing, while ensuring the team retains sound technical decision-making authority.
I start with specific developer or operational pain points and run measured experiments with appropriate security and privacy controls. I evaluate adoption using evidence such as cycle time, quality, incident impact, and engineer feedback, then scale practices that provide durable value without weakening review standards or accountability.
Within the Data Platform studio, we own two critical pillars: our event delivery platform that collects trillions of events per day from producers to consumers, and another, which handles the pseudonymisation of data so Spotify can use data responsibly and in compliance with privacy regulations. These systems sit at the heart of Spotify’s data collection and are used by hundreds of teams across the company.
We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to lead a team of six experienced engineers distributed across Europe. You’ll set the technical direction, ensure the team delivers high-impact work, and – just as importantly – invest deeply in the growth and careers of your engineers. If you’re energised by both the technical challenges of large-scale data systems and the human side of building a high-performing team, we’d love to hear from you.
What You’ll Do
- Lead and develop a team of six experienced engineers, with a strong focus on coaching, career development, and creating an environment where people do the best work of their careers.
- Take accountability for the team’s delivery, ensuring clear priorities, healthy execution, and measurable outcomes.
- Partner with product and stakeholders to shape the roadmap for event delivery and privacy infrastructure.
- Drive technical strategy and architectural decisions for systems operating at Spotify scale.
- Build a culture of ownership, psychological safety, and continuous improvement.
- Collaborate across Data Platform and the wider engineering organisation to align on shared goals and dependencies.
- Manage on-call health, operational excellence, and reliability for the team’s services.
- Actively participate in hiring, onboarding, and growing the team’s capabilities.
Who You Are
- You have experience managing teams of senior/experienced engineers and understand that people leadership is your primary craft, not a side responsibility.
- You have a track record of investing in engineers’ careers – running meaningful development conversations, helping people grow into new roles, and creating clarity around expectations and progression.
- You’re comfortable with distributed data systems, event-driven architectures, or data infrastructure at scale – you don’t need to write the code, but you can engage credibly in technical discussions and unblock your team.
- You hold yourself and your team accountable for outcomes, not just activity.
- You communicate clearly and build trust across functions and time zones.
- You’ve worked with distributed teams and understand how to create cohesion and inclusion when people aren’t in the same room.
- You’re excited about the potential of AI and LLMs to transform how engineering teams work – whether that’s accelerating development workflows, rethinking how data infrastructure is built and operated, or helping your team adopt AI-assisted tooling effectively.
Where You’ll Be
- This role is based in London.
- 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.
Compensation
Additional Information
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.
Annual salary information is not provided for this position. Explore salary ranges for similar roles in our Salary Directory ›
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