The Personalization team makes deciding what to play next easier and more enjoyable for every listener. From Blend to Discover Weekly, we’re behind some of Spotify’s most-loved features. We built them by understanding the world of music and podcasts better than anyone else. Join us and you’ll keep millions of users listening by making great recommendations to each and every one of them.

Spotify Search handles billions of queries across every market, language, and content type — music, podcasts, audiobooks, videos, playlists, and more. We’re looking for a Principal Product Manager to lead the Search Personalization within our Conversation Product Area, setting the product strategy for how hundreds of millions of users find and discover content on Spotify. This is a leadership role at the intersection of search systems, AI, and user experience. You’ll own the end-to-end strategy for search results — from ranking and relevance to AI-powered features like semantic search, LLM reranking, and AI Overviews — while leading two key Search squads (results ranking and query suggestions). Search is the front door to Spotify; this role shapes what people find when they walk through it.

What You'll Do

Set the product strategy and multi-cycle roadmap for Search Personalization at Spotify — spanning ranking, relevance, retrieval, AI-native features, quality, and trust.
Drive the evolution of Search toward AI-native experiences — AI Overviews, semantic search, LLM reranking — balancing innovation velocity with quality and cost discipline.
Own the Search quality bar: define how relevance, trust, compliance, and user experience connect into a holistic quality framework with measurable outcomes.
Manage Search’s role as a shared surface across many company strategies — build prioritization frameworks, communicate trade-offs, and represent Search at executive forums.
Influence and coach junior PMs working in Search.
Partner with engineering leadership to make architectural decisions that balance short-term delivery with long-term Search infrastructure health.
Drive cross-functional alignment where Search intersects.

Who You Are

You have 8+ years of product management experience, with 3+ years leading search, discovery, or information retrieval products at scale (100M+ users).

You have a deep technical understanding of search systems — ranking architectures, retrieval strategies, evaluation methodology, and the trade-offs between relevance, latency, cost, and freshness.

You have experience with AI/ML-powered search features — semantic search, LLM-based reranking, recommendations, or similar — and can lead a team through the transition from traditional to AI-native search.

You have a track record of managing complex stakeholder landscapes with competing priorities and limited resources, and can build frameworks for principled prioritization.

You think strategically at the portfolio level — you can synthesize across many concurrent initiatives, set a coherent vision, and communicate it clearly to executives.

You communicate with clarity and conviction, with the ability to translate technical complexity into compelling narratives for leadership, bet owners, and cross-functional partners.

You have experience mentoring and developing early-career PMs, and can influence without authority or direct reporting lines.

You bring familiarity with music, audio, or media technology and understand the unique dynamics of content-rich platforms.

You have experience operating Search as a platform that serves multiple internal teams or content verticals.

You have worked in content integrity, trust & safety, or regulatory compliance in the context of search or discovery systems.

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.

About the company

Spotify runs an audio streaming service where listeners find music, podcasts, and audiobooks through one account on phones, computers, and connected devices. Its Discover Weekly playlist recommends songs based on listening habits, alongside playlists made by editors and artists. Listeners stream on demand, save favorites, share playlists, and download eligible content for offline listening through paid plans. The business earns subscription fees from Premium members and advertising revenue from its free service, while separate creator tools support publishing, audience measurement, and promotion. Spotify was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

Company Size

5,001-10,000

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

Stockholms kommun, Sweden

Founded

2006

Get referred to Spotify

See people who can refer or advise you

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

Growth funds investment: August 2026 results showed Spotify's subscribers rose 9% and quarterly operating profit reached €655 million.
Artist promotion adds revenue: Spotify's Marquee and Showcase campaigns target audiences using actual listening behavior.
Spotify supports remote careers: most roles allow home or office work, within approved countries and team requirements.

What critics are saying

Suppliers constrain Spotify's leverage: three major labels and Merlin cover 72% of record-label streams under licenses requiring renewal.
Podcast jobs face restructuring: Spotify cut about 15 podcast employees in March 2026, including staff at The Ringer.
Synthetic artists strain listener trust: Spotify's August 2026 announcement acknowledged confusion and planned labels for AI-generated artist identities.

What makes Spotify unique

Spotify spans competing hardware brands: its Connect directory lists over 2,000 devices from more than 200 brands.
Artists influence Spotify's recommendations commercially: Discovery Mode prioritizes selected songs in exchange for commissions on resulting streams.
Spotify's annual recap drives distribution: February 2026 results reported over 630 million Wrapped shares on social media.

Help us improve and share your feedback! Did you find this helpful?

Benefits

Extensive learning opportunities, through our dedicated team, GreenHouse
Global parental leave, six months off - fully paid - for all new parents
Flexible public holidays, swap days off according to your values and beliefs
Flexible share incentives letting you choose how you share in our success
All The Feels, our employee assistance program and self-care hub
Spotify On Tour, join your colleagues on trips to industry festivals and events

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

1 year growth

2 year growth

Yahoo Finance

Oct 22nd, 2026

Spotify Q3: $5.7B revenue, 316M subscribers expected and 40% audiobook listening growth

Spotify reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of €5 billion, up 14% at constant currency, on an earnings call held October 22, 2026. Free cash flow over the past 12 months reached €3.2 billion. Management pointed to three drivers. Investments in proprietary taste models are lifting content discovery, with early deployments showing double-digit gains. Audiobook listenership rose 40% before the global rollout. Spotify expects to reach 316 million subscribers this year, up from 71 million when it went public in 2018. It has added 25 million or more subscribers every year since. Chief financial officer Christian Luiga said operating expense growth is falling and should keep moderating into 2027.

Android Headlines

Oct 20th, 2026

Spotify purges 50 million AI generated tracks from discovery feeds.

Spotify purges 50 million AI generated tracks from discovery feeds. Oct 20, 2026 Spotify filtered 50 million AI-generated spam tracks from its recommendation engine while expanding artist verification and profile protection tools. By combining listener skip behavior with metadata detection and AI Persona badges, the platform aims to keep automated clutter out of user discovery queues. Few things ruin a good music recommendation session faster than a lifeless, computer-generated song popping up in your queue. Spotify is tackling that exact headache by removing more than 50 million AI-generated spam tracks from its recommendation system over the last six months. That massive cleanup comes on top of an earlier wave that saw the streaming service take down 75 million tracks for serious policy violations. Using listener skips to spot fake tracks. Rather than depending only on automated scanner software to flag synthetic songs, Spotify started paying close attention to how everyday listeners react to music. Streaming data showed that songs people constantly skipped, muted, or ignored almost always overlapped with mass-produced AI spam. By connecting those listening habits with account upload patterns, track metadata, and third-party AI detection tools, Spotify updated its recommendation engine to filter out low-quality audio. Beyond keeping your daily mix clean, removing AI spam helps protect royalty payouts for actual musicians. Beatdapp CEO Morgan Hayduk pointed out that flooding catalog systems with synthetic tracks inflates total stream counts, directly shrinking the payout pool available for human artists. Adding AI Persona labels and profile shields. Spotify is also rolling out new profile tags so listeners know exactly who created the music playing through their speakers. Virtual musicians created by artificial intelligence now carry an AI Persona badge, which automatically excludes them from algorithmic recommendations unless a listener explicitly follows their page. To protect human creators from impersonation, Spotify is testing a profile security feature that lets verified musicians review any new track uploaded under their name before it goes public. The company also expanded its track credits section. The feature allows artists to voluntarily share when and how they used AI tools in their creative process. Industry standards for synthetic music. Spotify is not the only platform drawing a clear line around artificial music. Competing services like Tidal, Apple Music, and YouTube Music have introduced similar labeling systems. Others like Tidal completely cut off monetization for fully synthetic tracks. Flagged AI tracks still exist on Spotify if you search for them directly. Still, keeping them out of automated radios makes finding real music much easier. Spotify admitted that bad actors will keep changing their tactics, but tuning recommendation algorithms around genuine listener behavior gives real musicians a far better chance to shine.

TechCrunch

Oct 20th, 2026

Spotify launches paid podcast memberships in 34 markets, with creators keeping 90% of revenue

Spotify has launched paid memberships for podcasts, giving creators a way to earn from their biggest fans beyond paywalled bonus episodes. The feature is rolling out to 34 markets, including the US. Creators choose the perks, such as bonus audio or video, fewer ads, early access, or a mix. They keep 90% of membership revenue and can offer multiple tiers and prices. To qualify, shows must be hosted on Spotify for Creators or Megaphone, with at least 100 consumption hours, 100 listeners or viewers, and three published episodes. Memberships will be bought on the web, not through in-app purchases. Launch shows include "The Adam Friedland Show," "Making Sense with Sam Harris," and "Shawn Ryan Show." YMH Studios will bring memberships to 12 shows. The move helps Spotify court creators as it pushes into video to compete with YouTube.

afaqs!

Oct 19th, 2026

Nouran Hassan joins Snap as head of communications for MENA & APAC.

Nouran Hassan joins Snap as head of communications for MENA & APAC. Prior to this, Hassan had been working with Spotify as the head of communications for MENA. 19 Oct 2026 08:33 IST Nouran Hassan has joined Snap as head of communications for MENA & APAC, moving on from Spotify after nearly eight years with the streaming platform. Hassan announced the move on LinkedIn, marking the beginning of a new chapter after her long stint at Spotify. Reflecting on her time at Spotify, she said the experience left her with "incredible memories, invaluable experiences" and gratitude for the people she worked with during her tenure. At Snap, Hassan will lead communications across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets. She said she is looking forward to working with Snap's teams, exchanging ideas, pushing boundaries and exploring new opportunities. Hassan's move comes as Snap continues to build its presence across international markets, with communications playing a key role in shaping the company's relationships with consumers, creators, advertisers and other stakeholders. In the past, Hassna has worked with Sony Music Entertainment, Viacom and WSF.

Tribune Online

Oct 17th, 2026

Spotify expands audiobook service to Nigeria.

Spotify expands audiobook service to Nigeria. October 17, 2026 Audio streaming platform, Spotify, has expanded its audiobook service to Nigeria as part of a global rollout that will make hundreds of thousands of titles available to listeners in more than 180 markets. Announced on 7th October, the expansion will give users access to more than 350,000 audiobook titles spanning over 120 languages by the end of 2026. According to Spotify's official announcement, the move is expected to help authors and publishers reach new audiences while giving listeners more ways to discover and enjoy books. The company said its audiobook partnerships are non-exclusive, allowing authors and publishers to distribute their works through other platforms while making them available on Spotify. In Nigeria, users can access audiobooks through the Audiobooks+ subscription, which offers 15 hours of listening each month. Spotify lists the service at ₦2,300 monthly after a free trial for eligible subscribers. Users can also purchase selected titles individually, while free samples allow listeners to explore books before deciding to buy them. Audiobooks enable people to listen to books while travelling, exercising or carrying out other activities, offering an alternative to printed and electronic books. Spotify's expansion also creates potential opportunities for Nigerian authors and publishers to reach readers in international markets through digital distribution. The company said its global audiobook audience had continued to grow, with monthly audiobook listeners increasing by nearly 40 per cent over the preceding year and listening hours rising by more than 30 per cent. The expansion reflects Spotify's efforts to extend its platform beyond music and podcasts into other forms of audio entertainment. For Nigerian listeners, the service provides another option for discovering books, while writers and publishers gain an additional channel for distributing their work. The long-term impact will depend on the availability of locally relevant titles, subscription affordability and the level of interest among Nigerian listeners. WATCH TOP VIDEOS FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE TV

Spotify

Principal Product Manager - Personalization

About the job