New

Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Recommendations (Core)

Berlin, London

We are looking for a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to join ML Core, the team that builds the shared ML models behind SoundCloud’s recommendations, search and content understanding. New sounds start on SoundCloud. Our job is to connect artists with the communities that will care about their music, and help listeners discover the gems and emerging scenes they’d never find on their own. Recommendations are our largest area, but you’ll work across problems that share the same foundations: representing users, tracks and creators, and ranking them well. We’re also in the middle of modernizing our stack, moving from classical approaches to deep learning on GPU, and you’ll play a big part in that.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Design, train and ship models for recommendations (candidate generation, user/item modeling, ranking) and related problems in search and content understanding.
  • Lead the move of key models from classical approaches (e.g., word2vec-style embeddings) to PyTorch-based models trained and served on GPU.
  • Adapt, fine-tune and evaluate open-source embedding and ranking models for our catalog and use cases.
  • Own evaluation end to end: offline metrics, A/B experiments, and making sure offline gains show up online.
  • Work with ML, data and backend engineers to get models into production and keep them healthy, and help set modeling standards across the team.

What we’re looking for:

  • 3+ years building ML systems in production, with end-to-end ownership of at least one ranking, retrieval or recommendation model.
  • Strong deep learning skills in PyTorch (or similar frameworks), and a good grasp of recommendation and retrieval fundamentals (embeddings, two-tower models, learning to rank, multi-objective ranking) and their trade-offs.
  • Solid experience with evaluation and experimentation for ranking systems, including biases in implicit feedback such as clicks and plays.
  • Strong Python; comfortable with large-scale data processing (e.g., Spark/BigQuery) and with getting models to production on a cloud platform (GCP preferred).
  • M.Sc. in a quantitative field or equivalent experience.

Nice to have:

  • Fine-tuning or serving transformer-based embedding/ranking models.
  • Applying LLMs or foundation models to recommendations (content understanding, semantic IDs, generative retrieval, feature generation).
  • Audio or music ML, or multimodal representations.
  • Contextual bandits, RL or causal methods for long-term value.
  • Publications at RecSys, KDD, SIGIR, WSDM, NeurIPS or similar.
  • Experience with ANN/vector search and GPU training or serving at scale.

We encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every qualification. Research suggests that some applicants may doubt their candidacy, so please submit an application if you are interested.

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at SoundCloud? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...
Select...

Will you now, or in the future, require sponsorship for employment visa status?

Select...

When you apply to a job on this site, the personal data contained in your application will be collected by SoundCloud Inc. (located at 2 Gansevoort St., 6th Floor, New York, NY 10014, USA) if you are applying from the US, and SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG (located at Karl-Marx-Str. 101, 12043 Berlin, Germany) if you are applying from outside the US (“SoundCloud”). SoundCloud's data protection officer can be contacted by emailing dataprotection@soundcloud.com. 

Purposes of Processing and Legal Basis

Your personal data will be processed for the purposes of managing SoundCloud’s recruitment-related activities, which include setting up and conducting interviews and tests for applicants, evaluating and assessing the results thereto, and as is otherwise needed in the recruitment and hiring processes. Such processing is legally permissible under Art. 6(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation), § 26 BDSG, as necessary for the establishment of an employment relationship. 

We have marked the required data for the application procedure accordingly, or referred you to the relevant sections. If you provide voluntary data that is not covered here in your CV or elsewhere, the basis for this is your consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR).

Data Transfer

SoundCloud will share your data with the responsible employees of their People Team and with employees otherwise involved in your application process.

Furthermore, external companies may process your personal data on our behalf on the basis of order processing contracts in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR. Categories of recipients in this case are Internet service providers, providers of employee management systems and software, and providers of software that we use in all departments (e.g., video conferencing software).

Your personal data will be shared with Greenhouse Software, Inc., a cloud services provider located in the United States of America and engaged by SoundCloud to help manage its recruitment and hiring process on SoundCloud’s behalf. Accordingly, if you are located outside of the United States, your personal data will be transferred to the United States once you submit it through this site. Because the European Union Commission has determined that United States data privacy laws do not ensure an adequate level of protection for personal data collected from EU data subjects, the transfer will be subject to appropriate additional safeguards under standard contractual clauses. By submitting your application, you expressly consent to your data being transferred to the USA for processing as described above.

Retention Period

In the event that your application results in an offer of employment, information collected during the recruitment process will be incorporated into your permanent personnel record. This data will be retained for the duration of your employment and for a subsequent period as required by local statutory regulations and legal limitation periods.

For candidates who do not enter into an employment relationship with us:

  • United States: We will retain your information for a minimum of 1 year following the final hiring decision to ensure compliance with federal record-keeping mandates. If you have opted into our talent pool for future opportunities, your data will be retained for 5 years, or until you opt out of the talent pool or request that your data be deleted
  • Rest of World: Your application data will be deleted no later than 6 months after the position has been filled. If you have provided explicit consent to be considered for future recruitment cycles, we will maintain your information for 1 year from the date consent was granted.

Your Rights 

Under the GDPR, you have the right to request access to your personal data, to request that your personal data be rectified or erased, and to request that processing of your personal data be restricted. You also have the right to data portability and the right to object. You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. The withdrawal of consent shall not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. In addition, you may lodge a complaint with an EU supervisory authority.

Demographic Questions Germany and UK

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Mission 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.

In order to track the effectiveness of our recruiting efforts and ensure we consider the needs of all our employees, please consider the following questions. Your answers will be anonymous and will not be tied to your application. 

Select...