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About This Role
Data, Research \& Insights
Research Science
Permanent
New York
We are seeking Research Scientists (across all levels of seniority) to join our Artist\-First AI Music Lab. Our team pioneers and advances state\-of\-the\-art generative technologies for music that create breakthrough experiences for fans and artists. We invent entirely new listening experiences that center and celebrate artists and creatives. All of our products will put artists and songwriters first, through these four principles:
- Partnerships with record labels, distributors, and music publishers: We’ll develop new products for artists and fans through upfront agreements, not by asking for forgiveness later.
- Choice in participation: We recognize there’s a wide range of views on the use of generative music tools within the artistic community. Therefore, artists and rightsholders will choose if and how to participate to ensure the use of AI tools aligns with the values of the people behind the music.
- Fair compensation and new revenue: We will build products that create wholly new revenue streams for rightsholders, artists, and songwriters, ensuring they are properly compensated for the use of their work and transparently credited for their contributions.
- Artist\-fan connection: AI tools we develop will not replace human artistry. They will give artists new ways to be creative and connect with fans. We will leverage our role as the place where more than 700 million people already come to listen to music every month to ensure that generative AI deepens artist\-fan connections.
Learn more in our press release: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2025\-10\-16/artist\-first\-ai\-music\-spotify\-collaboration/
What You'll Do
- Conduct groundbreaking research in generative audio using diffusion or flow matching models, with a focus on one or more of the following areas:
Vocal Synthesis — Research in vocal and speech synthesis, along with related areas such as ML\-based audio processing and signal processing.
Post\-Training — Research in post\-training techniques for music generation, including preference alignment methods (such as DPO, RLHF, or KTO), reward model design and training, and reinforcement learning to improve output quality, controllability, and human preference adherence.
Editing — Research in iterative music generation and audio editing, including capabilities such as stem replacement, instrumentation change, mood changes (while preserving content), tempo changes, and structure changes.
You will also:
+ Run large\-scale experiments with access to Spotify's extensive infrastructure and an audience of more than 700 million monthly active users.
+ Create practical applications that harness generative technologies and push the boundaries of what's possible in listening experiences.
+ Collaborate as part of a cross\-functional team—working closely with scientists, engineers, product managers, designers, user researchers, and analysts—to craft innovative solutions to complex challenges.
+ Have a direct impact on Spotify's products, tools, and services, working on projects that influence the entire organization.
+ Engage with the broader research community by publishing your findings, delivering talks, and attending top conferences.
Who You Are
- + You have a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related field. Previous industry experience is helpful.
+ You have experience in one or more of the following fields: generative modeling, machine learning, music information retrieval, speech processing, audio processing, signal processing, probabilistic modeling, computer vision, or related areas.
+ You have deep expertise in at least one of the focus areas above—whether that's vocal/speech synthesis, post\-training alignment techniques (e.g., PPO, GRPO, DPO), or audio\-to\-audio generation and text\-guided music editing.
+ You have publications at leading conferences such as ICASSP, ISMIR, INTERSPEECH, ICLR, AAAI, IJCAI, NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, or related venues.
+ You have strong coding skills in Python, PyTorch, and NumPy.
+ You are a creative problem solver who is passionate about building outstanding products that add real value to millions of people.
+ You are enthusiastic about turning research ideas into products operating at scale.
+ You can explain complex topics in simple terms, and you enjoy building strong relationships with colleagues and stakeholders.
Where You'll Be
- + We offer you the flexibility to work where you work best! For this role, you can be within the North Americas region as long as we have a work location.
+ This team operates within the Eastern Standard time zone for collaboration.
+ Core working hours are CET 3pm\-6pm / EST 9am\-12pm.
Learn about life at Spotify
The United States base range for this position is $133,194 \- $190,278 plus equity. The benefits available for this position include health insurance, six month paid parental leave, 401(k) retirement plan, a monthly meal allowance, 23 paid days off, 13 paid flexible holidays. These ranges may be modified in the future.
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.
Our global benefits
Extensive learning opportunities, through our dedicated team, GreenHouse.
Flexible share incentives letting you choose how you share in our success.
Global parental leave, six months off \- for all new parents.
All The Feels, our employee assistance program and self\-care hub.
Flexible public holidays, swap days off according to your values and beliefs.
Salary Context
This $133K-$190K range is in the lower quartile for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $195K across 149 roles with salary data).
Role Details
About This Role
Research Scientists push the boundaries of what AI can do. They design experiments, develop novel architectures, publish papers, and translate research breakthroughs into production capabilities. This is where the fundamental advances happen, from attention mechanisms to diffusion models to reasoning chains.
The work is intellectually demanding and often ambiguous. You might spend months on an approach that doesn't pan out. The best research scientists combine deep mathematical intuition with engineering pragmatism. They know when to go deep on theory and when to run experiments. They read papers voraciously and can spot incremental contributions from genuine breakthroughs.
Across the 4,317 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 4% of the market. At Spotify, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: reading and discussing recent papers with your team, designing and running experiments on multi-GPU clusters, analyzing results and iterating on hypotheses, writing up findings for internal review or publication, and collaborating with engineering teams to productionize promising results. The ratio of thinking to coding is higher than in engineering roles.
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
Skills Required
PhD strongly preferred for most roles. Deep expertise in a specific area (NLP, computer vision, reinforcement learning, multimodal) is expected. PyTorch is the standard. Publication track record matters. Strong mathematical foundations in linear algebra, probability, optimization, and information theory are assumed.
Beyond the fundamentals, companies value experience with large-scale distributed training, novel architecture design, and the ability to bridge theory and practice. Understanding of current frontier topics (reasoning, multimodal, long-context, alignment) is essential. Code quality matters more than many researchers expect. Labs want researchers who can implement their ideas cleanly.
Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.
Compensation Benchmarks
Research Scientist roles pay a median of $222,200 based on 378 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $194,400. This role's midpoint ($161K) sits 27% below the category median. Disclosed range: $133K to $190K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($287,500) and Research Engineer ($272,100). By seniority level: Entry: $110,000; Mid: $194,400; Senior: $227,400; Director: $274,554; VP: $241,000.
Spotify AI Hiring
Spotify has 5 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI Software Engineer, Research Scientist, AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist. Based in New York, NY, US. Compensation range: $167K - $262K.
Location Context
AI roles in New York pay a median of $220,000 across 1,650 tracked positions.
Career Path
Common paths into Research Scientist roles include PhD Student, Research Engineer, Postdoc.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Research Lead, Distinguished Scientist, VP of Research.
The PhD is the entry point for most paths. Choose your advisor and research area carefully since they'll define your first industry position. Publish consistently, contribute to open-source projects in your area, and build relationships at conferences. Industry research offers better compensation and compute resources than academia, but the pressure to show product impact is real.
What to Expect in Interviews
Research interviews are multi-stage: a research talk (present your best paper), technical deep-dives on your methodology, and often a 'research proposal' exercise where you design an experiment to test a hypothesis. Coding rounds test implementation ability alongside theoretical knowledge. Be prepared to implement a paper from scratch and discuss the design choices the authors made. Strong candidates can critique papers constructively and identify gaps in experimental methodology.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 4,317 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 138 entry-level, 2,071 mid-level, 1,655 senior, and 453 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (635 positions). The remaining 3,657 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($287,500 median, 34 roles); Research Engineer ($272,100 median, 227 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($244,000 median, 23 roles).
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 4,317 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (3,004), Data Scientist (345), AI Software Engineer (309). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (138) are outnumbered by mid-level (2,071) and senior (1,655) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 453 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (635 positions), with 3,657 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $215,000. Top-quartile roles start at $266,300, and the 90th percentile reaches $320,790. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $287,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $145,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (2,249 postings), Aws (1,224 postings), Azure (938 postings), Rag (915 postings), Gcp (660 postings), Pytorch (640 postings), Prompt Engineering (624 postings), Kubernetes (559 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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