About SoundCloud

What's next in music happens on SoundCloud first. As the world’s largest open audio platform, SoundCloud is powered by a connected community of creators, listeners, and curators who share, discover, and influence what’s new, now, and next in music and audio.

We are looking for an Engineering Manager to lead our Ads ML (Machine Learning) team within the Growth, Revenue and Commerce group, and to take SoundCloud's ad delivery into the machine learning era.

Advertising is one of SoundCloud's core revenue streams. It earns money directly, and it is also one of the main ways free listeners discover and move to a paid subscription. That revenue pays creators on our platform, covers content costs, and keeps SoundCloud a healthy, independent company. Getting ad delivery right matters to listeners, artists, and the business.

Our team builds the systems that decide which ads SoundCloud listeners hear and see, how many, and when. We're replacing fixed rules with ML: contextual bandits and predictive models (churn risk, subscription propensity, user LTV) that set ad load for each listener in real time. The goal is more ad revenue without hurting retention, and you'll decide how far and how fast we get there.

This is a hybrid leadership role with a strong hands-on component. You'll lead a team of four backend and ML engineers, contribute directly to the codebase, and own the technical direction of machine learning driven ad delivery. You'll work closely with client engineers, data analysts, and product, and report to the Director of Engineering in a flat structure.

Key Responsibilities:

Own the ML roadmap for ad delivery. Take personalised ad serving (contextual bandits, churn and subscription-propensity models) from experiment to production across markets, and decide what the team builds next.
Own the production ML stack behind ad decisions: online model serving, real-time bandit decisioning, feature pipelines, and model evaluation and monitoring.
Build a rigorous experimentation practice for ML: offline and online evaluation, A/B test design, guardrail metrics, and clear ship-or-hold decisions on ad load and user LTV.
Own the backend ad delivery services that turn model decisions into the ads served on iOS, Android and web.
Partner with client engineers, data analysts and product on the roadmap, balancing revenue, retention and ad inventory.
Grow the team's ML depth through hiring, mentorship and career development, and manage performance effectively.

Background & Experience:

2+ years of engineering management experience.
5+ years as a backend software developer. You're comfortable writing code, discussing trade-offs and taking part in system design.
Hands-on experience building and running ML systems in production: model serving, real-time decisioning, feature pipelines, and monitoring for model drift and data quality.
Solid grasp of applied ML for decision-making (bandits, ranking, recommendation or propensity models), deep enough to challenge modelling choices and trade-offs with the team.
Strong experiment design skills, including statistical rigour and the trade-off between short-term revenue and long-term retention.
Experience managing engineers, including coaching, feedback and performance development.
Clear communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders, including explaining ML trade-offs in business terms.

Bonus Points

Experience in ad tech, ad serving or large-scale experimentation on a large consumer platform.
Contextual or multi-armed bandits, reinforcement learning or uplift modelling in production.
ML platform tooling: feature stores, model registries and workflow
User LTV, churn or subscription-propensity modelling.
Ad standards and integrations: VAST, programmatic demand (SSPs and DSPs), frequency capping.
Audio or video advertising.
Scala or another JVM language, and Python for ML work.

If you're excited about bringing machine learning to ad delivery at scale, leading a team, and shaping how millions of listeners experience ads on SoundCloud, we'd love to hear from you.

About us:

We are a multinational company with offices in the US (New York and Los Angeles), Germany (Berlin), and the UK (London)
We provide a flexible work culture that offers the opportunity to collaborate and connect in person at our offices as well as accommodating work from home
We are deeply committed to ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels of our organization and fostering a community where everyone’s voice, perspective and experience is respected and heard.
We believe a strong team is made by investing in employees through mentorship, workshops and enrichment opportunities

Benefits:

Interested in a gym membership, photography course or book? We have a Creativity and Wellness benefit!
Employee Equity Plan
Generous professional development allowance
Flexible vacation and public holiday policy where you can take up to 35 days of PTO annually
Various snacks, goodies, and 2 free lunches weekly when at the office

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at SoundCloud

SoundCloud is for everyone. Diversity and open expression are fundamental to our organization; they help us lead what’s next in music by understanding and empowering our creators and fans, no matter their identity. We acknowledge the challenges in the music industry, and strive to influence an inclusive culture where everyone can contribute respectfully and thrive, especially the historically marginalized communities that many of our creators, fans and SoundClouders identify with. We are dedicated to creating an inclusive environment at SoundCloud for everyone, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, migration background, national origin, age, disability status, or care-giver status.

At SoundCloud you can find your community or elevate your allyship by joining a Diversity Resource Group. Diversity Resource Groups are employee-organized groups focused on supporting and promoting the interests of a particular underrepresented community in order to build a more inclusive culture at SoundCloud. Anyone can join, whether you share the identity or strive to be an ally.

About the company

Platform: SoundCloud offers digital music streaming that lets users listen to music online for free and through paid plans. It hosts a library with over 265 million tracks for listeners, artists, DJs, and creators. How it works: free tier streams with ads; premium subscriptions (SoundCloud Go and Go+) provide ad-free listening, offline access, and higher audio quality. Artists can join SoundCloud Premier to monetize tracks via ads and fan support. Differentiation: a very large, diverse library including many independent creators, plus an artist monetization program that helps creators earn money directly on the platform. Goal: connect music lovers with a broad catalog while giving creators a way to earn revenue, growing both user base and revenue through ads, subscriptions, and creator monetization.

Company Size

1,001-5,000

Company Stage

Series G

Total Funding

$568.7M

Headquarters

Berlin, Germany

Founded

2007

Get referred to SoundCloud

See people who can refer or advise you

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

August 2026 Artist Plan at $3.25 monthly lowers creator adoption friction.
Direct music purchases and Fan Support expand non-streaming revenue beyond royalties.
The Upload and Twitch Sessions push curated discovery while algorithms feel stale.

What critics are saying

February 2026 lawsuit alleges 29.8 million-account breach, threatening trust and fines.
Bandcamp, Spotify, and YouTube already own larger listener graphs and discovery.
Weak direct-sales adoption leaves SoundCloud dependent on subscriptions and ads, repeating Nina's collapse.

What makes SoundCloud unique

August 2026 zero-commission downloads let artists keep 100% of sales.
July 2026 Nina acquisition adds editorial archive and genre-map discovery.
March 2026 Twitch partnership and February follower releases deepen creator-fan relationships.

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Benefits

Comprehensive health benefits including medical, dental, and vision plans, as well as mental health resources
Robust 401k program
Employee Stock Ownership Plan
Generous professional development allowance
Interested in a gym membership, photography course or book? We have a Creativity and Wellness benefit!
Flexible vacation and public holiday policy where you can take up to 35 days of PTO annually
16 paid weeks for all parents (birthing and non-birthing), regardless of gender, to welcome newborns, adopted and foster children
Various snacks, goodies, and 2 free lunches weekly when at the office

Growth & Insights and Company News

6 month growth

1 year growth

2 year growth

PR Newswire

Oct 21st, 2026

Moises and SoundCloud link AI creation tools with distribution for artists

Moises, an AI-powered music creation suite used by 80 million musicians, has partnered with SoundCloud to let artists move tracks between the two platforms. The deal was announced on October 21, 2026. Artists can import eligible SoundCloud tracks into Moises to practise, mix, master, and collaborate in real time. They can then publish finished work directly back to SoundCloud, where eligible artists can monetise qualifying music. The integration includes Moi, which Moises calls an agentic production assistant that sets up sessions and mixes and masters tracks on request. Both companies say their AI is not trained on user content without consent. Moises trains its models only on licensed and authorised music. Moises Pro subscribers will get a two-month trial of SoundCloud Artist Pro, and vice versa.

Inven Global

Oct 9th, 2026

Riot Games and SoundCloud launch remix contest for True Damage's Worlds anthem.

Riot Games and SoundCloud launch remix contest for True Damage's Worlds anthem. Oct 9, 2026 Riot Games and SoundCloud have launched a remix competition for 'Know My Name', the True Damage song chosen as the official anthem of the 2026 League of Legends World Championship. According to a release, the campaign opened on October 9th, with Riot making the track's official instrumental stems available to download on SoundCloud. Stems are the individual layers of a recording, such as the drums or bass, which producers can pull apart and rework. SoundCloud is a music streaming and sharing platform where artists upload their own tracks, while Riot Games is the developer and publisher of League of Legends. League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game in which two teams of five characters, known as champions, try to destroy each other's base. True Damage is a virtual hip-hop group set within the game's universe, and it debuted seven years ago with the single 'GIANTS'. 'Know My Name' marks the group's return. How to enter the remix contest. Riot has left the brief open. Vocalists can record an original verse over the instrumental, while producers are free to move the beat into another genre or rebuild it from scratch, with the release describing the track as an 'open canvas' for entrants. "We put everything we had into 'Know My Name'. Now, we wanna see what you can bring to it," Ekko, one of True Damage's members, said in the release. Ekko added that creators could "add your own verse, flip the beat, remix it, tear it apart, and build it back up however you want to make it yours." Entry runs entirely through SoundCloud. According to the release, entrants need to: * Download the stems from the official Riot Games x SoundCloud Remix Hub * Unlock access to the files, which are hosted for subscribers to SoundCloud's Artist Pro plan (non-subscribers can claim a free trial with the code KNOWMYNAME26) * Create a track using the stems, whether by adding vocals, chopping up the parts or producing a new version * Upload the finished track to SoundCloud with the hashtag #KNOWMYNAME26 between October 9th and October 28th Submissions close on October 28th at 11:59 PM ET, which gives entrants just under three weeks. The release did not explain how the winning tracks will be chosen. What the winners will receive. The contest has one grand prize and two runner-up places. The grand prize winner will receive: * Two tickets to the 2026 League of Legends World Championship * True Damage Know My Name skins for the champions Qiyana, Senna and Yasuo * A True Damage 'Know My Name' seven-inch vinyl record Both runners-up will get the same three skins and the vinyl, but not the tickets. Skins are cosmetic items that change how a champion looks in League of Legends, and they have no effect on gameplay. Riot Games and SoundCloud in music. SoundCloud said the campaign is part of an ongoing initiative to give emerging artists and producers a 'low-friction entry point' and access to high-quality source material. Founded in 2007, the platform says it hosts over 400m tracks from more than 40m artists in 193 countries. Music is one of several ways Riot has expanded League of Legends since the game launched in 2009. Its other music projects include K/DA, and the company has also taken the game into comic books, board games and Arcane, its Emmy-winning animated series. The League of Legends World Championship, often called Worlds, is the game's annual international tournament. Riot describes it as the most widely viewed esports tournament, and it sits alongside the company's other major events, such as the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) and the Teamfight Tactics (TFT) Open. I write. I rap. I run. That's pretty much it.

Music Industry Weekly

Aug 27th, 2026

SoundCloud launches zero-commission direct download sales for artists.

SoundCloud launches zero-commission direct download sales for artists. August 27, 2026 SoundCloud has begun testing a feature that lets artists sell downloads directly from their profile pages, with the platform taking no cut of the revenue. The company says artists will keep 100% of sales made through the tool. The beta is limited to roughly 200 US-based Artist Pro subscribers who already have Fan Support, SoundCloud's tipping feature, enabled. A wider rollout has not been announced. The move adds another direct-to-fan monetization option alongside streaming royalties and tipping, as SoundCloud continues positioning itself as an artist-friendly alternative to major streaming services.

Interspace Music

Aug 27th, 2026

SoundCloud launches direct music sales for artists.

SoundCloud launches direct music sales for artists. SoundCloud has begun beta testing a direct music sales feature that lets artists set prices and sell downloads without platform commission. August 27, 2026 SoundCloud has started rolling out a direct music sales feature in beta, letting artists sell downloads to fans while the platform takes zero commission. The feature is currently available to 200 Artist Pro creators and will open to all eligible creators this fall. Artists can set their own prices and choose the download format. Sales information will appear in Artist Studio and the Fan Support Dashboard. SoundCloud says more than 250,000 artists on its platform have listed 2.4 million tracks for sale on other services. The company also directs more than 500,000 users to external stores each year. In a survey cited by SoundCloud, 28% of artists said they currently sell downloadable music or want to start. The company also notes that superfans spend up to five times as much on music as casual listeners. "Artists should be able to build their audience in one place, on one platform. SoundCloud has always been where artists find their first fans and build real communities. We're continuing to bring more of what they need to grow their careers into that same experience, while letting fans directly support the music they love." The statement was made by Eliah Seton, CEO of SoundCloud. August 27, 2026 Dolly parton's quiet soundcheck fix at dollywood recalled. August 26, 2026 Luminate adds AI music tracking to CONNECT platform. August 27, 2026

MGi Computadores

Aug 26th, 2026

You can now buy music on SoundCloud.

You can now buy music on SoundCloud. Wednesday, 26 August 2026 SoundCloud has launched a new beta feature that allows artists on the audio streaming platform to sell music directly from their profiles, instead of diverting fans to purchase from third-party services like Bandcamp and Beatport. The feature aims to give listeners a better way to support the musicians behind their favorite songs, because SoundCloud isn't taking any commission from these sales - meaning everything goes directly to the artists. By comparison, Bandcamp takes a cut of between 10-15 percent for sales, and artists on Beatport receive roughly 50-65 percent of their sale price. More than 250,000 artists have linked over 2.4 million tracks to external music platforms, according to SoundCloud, and the platform says it sends more than half a million users to external parties to purchase music each year. The ability to sell music will only be available to 200 Artist Pro SoundCloud creators in the US to start, with plans to expand access to all eligible creators later this fall. Fans can purchase music "in the format provided by the artist," according to SoundCloud, such as MP3 or WAV files. This new beta feature follows SoundCloud launching its All-in-One artists subscription in November last year, which gives creators 100 percent of their distribution royalties. The introduction of music sales is also part of SoundCloud's plan to evolve into something more than a service for streaming and discovering music, allowing its creators to "get heard, connect with fans, and earn-all in one place." (Originally posted by Jess Weatherbed) When you subscribe to the blog, Mgicomputers will send you an e-mail when there are new updates on the site so you wouldn't miss them.

SoundCloud

Engineering Manager - Ads

About the job