---
title: 'Senior Principal Machine Learning Engineer - Recommendations at SoundCloud'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-principal-machine-learning-engineer-recommendations-soundcloud-new-york-ayge8z5cz2q3'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-15'
---

# Senior Principal Machine Learning Engineer - Recommendations at SoundCloud

- **Company:** SoundCloud
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Posted:** 2026-03-31
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-15
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/soundcloud71/jobs/8486880002

## Job description

SoundCloud empowers artists, tastemakers and fans to connect and share through music. Founded in 2007, SoundCloud is a creator-first platform helping artists build and grow their careers by providing them with the most advanced tools, services, and resources. With over 4x the music catalog of every other major streaming platform, spanning 40+ million artists across 190+ countries, SoundCloud is where emerging artists find their sound, hidden gems are discovered, and music culture is shaped in real time.

SoundCloud is seeking a Machine Learning leader to architect the next era of Musical Intelligence at SoundCloud. As a Senior Principal Engineer, you will combine deep technical expertise with strategic vision and people leadership to drive the development of large-scale recommendation, personalization, and search systems. The mission is clear: architect systems to extract high-fidelity insights from user interactions with the world’s largest audio dataset to connect artists and fans through music. You will define the technical North Star for ML across engineering, delivering impactful data-driven products while leading and growing a high-performing team of Engineers and Scientists. This role reports directly to the Chief Technology Officer and will work in lockstep with the Music Intelligence, Content, and Recommendations teams. You will also be part of a small group leading the charge in architecting the agentic workflows and LLM-assisted systems that will allow us to ship Musical Intelligence at 10x the speed of traditional teams.

Key Responsibilities:

- Lead the technical strategy and execution for SoundCloud’s ML systems (e.g., recommendation, ranking, personalization), including model development, deployment, and scaling
- Lead the exploration of advanced modeling techniques including Deep Neural Networks, LLMs, large recommender systems, multi-modal embeddings and transformer-based architectures to create unique and impactful listening experiences
- Define and drive the overall technical direction for ML in SoundCloud including model architecture, feature engineering, training and serving infrastructure at scale, feature stores, pipeline orchestration, and model registry and versioning all aimed at accelerating our ability to bring ML-powered features to market
- Own short- and long-term objectives, ensuring ML investments deliver measurable user and business impact
- Lead, mentor, and grow ML Engineers and Scientists across SoundCloud
- Be a strategic partner to the CTO in bringing an “ML Everywhere” strategy to all surfaces in the product (both Creator and Fan), and helping to lead the charge on AI-native engineering
- Stay current with industry trends and advancements in machine learning, identifying opportunities to apply them at SoundCloud
- Lead the leveraging of agentic workflows and AI-assisted engineering as a force multiplier to work at 10x the speed of traditional methods

Experience and Background:

- 10+ years of experience in ML engineering, plus 3+ years in search or recommendations in an internet scale service with the reach of tens of millions of daily active users. Experience in a music streaming environment is a bonus
- Proven track record of defining technical strategy and driving execution for large-scale ML systems, particularly in recommendation, personalization, or search
- Experience setting technical roadmaps, influencing cross-functional priorities, and balancing business, product, and engineering trade-offs at an organizational level
- Experience leading and scaling teams of ML Engineers and Scientists, including hiring, mentoring, and developing high-performing talent
- Deep expertise in delivering data-driven products and ML solutions at scale on cloud-based platforms, with strong understanding of infrastructure and lifecycle management
- Hands-on familiarity with modern ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow) and data processing pipelines, combined with strong software engineering foundations
- Thought leadership in ML and data science, with a track record of driving technical innovation and applying emerging industry trends
- Exceptional communication, strategic influence, and cross-functional leadership skills across senior stakeholders and global teams

The salary range for this role is $280,000 - $325,000 annually. The final salary offered will be determined based on relative experience, skills, internal equity, and location. We also offer a generous total rewards program - read more about additional benefits and perks below!

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:

- Comprehensive health benefits including medical, dental, and vision plans, as well as mental health resources
- Robust 401k program
- Employee Equity 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

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 SoundCloud

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: SoundCloud is an artist-first, fan-powered music streaming and sharing platform that connects a global community of creators and listeners.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Privately Held)
- **Headquarters**: Berlin, Germany (with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and London)
- **Founded**: 2007
- **Founders**: Alexander Ljung, Eric Wahlforss

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Music Streaming, Audio Entertainment, Social Community
- Target customers: B2C (artists and fans), with a two-sided ecosystem serving both creators (independent and established) and listeners.
- Mission or purpose statement: "Empower artists and fans to share and connect through music."

## Products & Services
- **SoundCloud (Platform)**: A free and paid music streaming service available on mobile, desktop, and Xbox devices. It offers one of the largest music libraries globally, with over 200 million audio tracks and 40 million+ creators.
- **SoundCloud for Artists**: A suite of tools, services, and resources to help artists upload, promote, share, and monetize their music. This includes audience growth and direct fan engagement features.
- **SoundCloud Go / Go+**: Paid subscription tiers that offer ad-free listening, offline playback, and access to a deeper catalog of full-length tracks.
- **Repost by SoundCloud**: A distribution and monetization service for independent artists.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (private company). The company has raised **$550.2M in total funding** over 9 rounds.
- **Key Metric (Annual Revenue)**: Estimated at **$300.0 million** (per LinkedIn data). The company has approximately **900 employees**.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not explicitly listed in the provided search results, but the company has raised significant venture capital. Key executives include Eliah Seton (CEO), Drew Wilson (COO, CFO), and Alexander Ljung (Chairman and Co-Founder).
- **Growth Signals**: Reports over **140 million monthly active users** (as of 2023). The platform hosts over **320 million music tracks** and operates in **64 countries**. It is widely recognized as the "leading voice of independence" in the music industry, having launched the careers of major artists like Billie Eilish and Post Malone.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Artist-First Ecosystem**: Unlike general streaming services, SoundCloud is purpose-built for independent creators, offering direct-to-fan engagement and discovery tools.
- **Massive & Unique Catalog**: Boasts "over 4x the catalog of any major platform," with a deep well of emerging and underground music that isn't available elsewhere.
- **Discovery Engine**: Known as a place where "discovery starts early," allowing fans to find new music and artists before they break into the mainstream.
- **Strong Community**: Positioned as the "world's most social music platform," fostering direct connections between artists and fans.

## Strategic Focus
- **Artist Empowerment**: Continuing to build tools and services that help artists build and monetize their careers.
- **Product Innovation**: Constantly evolving the platform with new features, driven by the Engineering, Product & Design (EPD) teams.
- **Global Expansion**: Operating in 190 countries and territories, with a focus on deepening its global community.
- **Two-Sided Growth**: Balancing the needs of both fans (discovery, social features) and creators (monetization, audience growth) within a single ecosystem.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture & Vibe**: Described as music and pet-friendly, with on-site industry events and snacks. The company emphasizes being "one team, one dream" and encourages employees to be their "authentic and true self."
- **Diversity & Inclusion**: Diversity is described as "in our DNA." The company has active Diversity Resource Groups (Clouds of Color, Women at SoundCloud, Women in Engineering, QueerClouders) and a dedicated DEI team.
- **Work Environment**: Hybrid model with four main office locations (Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, London) and numerous WFH offices.
- **Total Rewards & Perks**: Offers "flexible vacation up to 35 days" and a "Learning and Development benefit" with time and budget for professional growth (conferences, workshops, classes).
- **Engineering Culture**: The Engineering, Product & Design (EPD) team is positioned as the "backbone" and "leaders of innovation," with a focus on constant product updates and new features.
- **Open Roles (as of search date)**: Includes roles in Engineering (Lead Principal Software Engineer, Senior ML Engineer, Full Stack Engineer), Security (Principal Product Security Engineer), Sales (Associate/Strategist), and Executive (Business Partner to CEO).

## Sources
1. [SoundCloud About Us](https://soundcloud.com/company/about-us)
2. [SoundCloud Careers](https://soundcloud.com/company/careers)
3. [SoundCloud LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/soundcloud)
4. [SoundCloud Community Homepage](https://community.soundcloud.com/company/home)
5. [SoundCloud Job Board (Greenhouse)](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/soundcloud71/jobs/8559361002)

## Other roles at SoundCloud

- [Backend Engineer - Media Streaming](https://feeny.ai/job/backend-engineer-media-streaming-soundcloud-berlin-5vnz9tabkyn1) — Berlin, Germany
- [Associate Community Manager (Part-Time)](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-community-manager-part-time-soundcloud-new-york-8py1pnb3836m) — New York, NY
- [Senior Software Engineer -  Anti-Abuse](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-anti-abuse-soundcloud-berlin-058pkqwvcg8j) — Berlin, Germany
- [Director - Internal Communications](https://feeny.ai/job/director-internal-communications-soundcloud-new-york-hmhfrmccwckj) — New York, NY
- [Director - Technical Accounting](https://feeny.ai/job/director-technical-accounting-soundcloud-berlin-c366xfxqtg69) — Berlin, Germany
- [Senior Full-Stack Engineer - Artist Success](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-full-stack-engineer-artist-success-soundcloud-new-york-p7rzw43h8x9v) — New York, NY
- [Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Recommendations (Experience)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-machine-learning-engineer-recommendations-experience-soundcloud-berlin-j6pz5qcxm148) — Berlin, Germany
- [Senior Product Designer - Creator Analytics & Tools](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-designer-creator-analytics-tools-soundcloud-new-york-zb0v45ty627c) — New York, NY
- [Senior Director - Product Marketing & Market Intelligence](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-product-marketing-market-intelligence-soundcloud-new-york-kx3kyazswasw) — New York, NY
- [Senior Director - Integrated Marketing & Growth](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-integrated-marketing-growth-soundcloud-new-york-a73ye38awctn) — New York, NY