Senior Software Engineer
Spotify is hiring a Senior Software Engineer for a remote role open to applicants in Canada. Level rates it ; you can apply on Spotify.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
- The posting lists this role as remote.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include Java, backend engineering and distributed systems.
- Level classifies it as a senior role.
- Level lists 88 other open roles at Spotify.
AI in this role
Senior Software Engineer building and operating backend authorization and permissions systems at scale.
The Platform team creates the technology that enables Spotify to learn quickly and scale easily, enabling rapid growth in our users and our business around the globe. Spanning many disciplines, we work to make the business work; creating the infrastructure, tooling, frameworks, and capabilities needed to welcome a billion customers.
Spotify is looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join the Authorization team within Platform. Our team builds and operates the authorization and permissioning systems that enable creators and their teams to securely access and manage their presence across Spotify. What began by supporting Spotify for Artists has grown into foundational capabilities used across Spotify, including Music, Podcasts, and Audiobooks.
This is a backend-focused role working on systems that sit on a critical path for Spotify's creator ecosystem. You'll help us evolve these systems as they grow in scale and complexity, bringing strong backend engineering expertise while collaborating across product, frontend, and data when needed.
What You'll Do:
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Design, build, deploy, and operate scalable backend services that power authorization, permissions, and team management across Spotify.
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Take ownership of critical systems that enable creators, teams, agents, licensors, and other partners to securely access and manage the right content and capabilities.
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Evolve our backend architecture to support continued growth in users, use cases, and Spotify products while maintaining high standards for reliability, performance, and security.
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Improve the systems and workflows that enable creators to gain access to their content, profiles, and teams.
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Make thoughtful technical decisions and trade-offs, balancing long-term architecture with solutions that meet current product and business needs.
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Partner with engineers and cross-functional collaborators across Spotify to understand authorization needs and build reusable platform capabilities.
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Contribute to frontend experiences and data-related work when useful, while bringing deep expertise and leadership to backend engineering.
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Raise engineering quality through strong technical judgment, design discussions, operational excellence, and knowledge sharing across the team.
Who You Are:
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You have deep experience designing, building, and operating backend services, with strong knowledge of Java or comparable backend technologies.
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You have experience owning distributed, high-scale, or business-critical systems where reliability, performance, and security matter.
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You have experience working with relational databases at scale, including performance optimization and database tuning.
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You think beyond individual services and can reason about architecture, APIs, dependencies, data flows, and the impact technical decisions have across a broader platform.
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You have experience working in a product-driven environment and connect technical decisions to user and business outcomes.
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You make pragmatic engineering trade-offs and know when a simpler solution is more valuable than unnecessary technical complexity.
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You collaborate effectively within and across teams, sharing context and helping others make better technical decisions.
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You are comfortable contributing across the stack when needed, while your strongest expertise is in backend engineering.
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You adapt as requirements and systems evolve, approaching change with curiosity and sound technical judgment.
Where You'll Be:
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This role is based in Toronto
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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.
How we rate this
Senior Software Engineer at Spotify rates 0 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Little AI. AI is not part of the work.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Also common in software engineer jobs at this level
Pay
- Typical software engineer job
- $167k
This posting doesn't list pay. Use the typical software engineer figure when pay comes up. See software engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where backend engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where authorization was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where api design was part of your work. What did you do?
- Walk me through how you've used Java in your day-to-day work.
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Backend Engineering, Distributed Systems, Authorization, API Design, and Java. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
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