Senior/User Researcher, Formats & Machine Learning

At Spotify Advertising, our part of that mission is to build the next generation advertising platform for audio which can scale the freemium experience for hundreds of millions of fans and tens of thousands of advertisers. This scale brings unique challenges as well as tremendous opportunities to define the insights product for our business.
Music and podcasts for everyone, no credit card needed. It’s a promise our platform was built on. And here in the Advertising R&D team, we’re still building on that vision. We work at the intersection of advertising and messaging technologies to connect millions of brands to billions of fans and we are responsible for the success of Spotify’s freemium business model. We’re paving the way for a sustainable global Spotify business that allows even more creators to make a living off their art. Come help build the platform that powers promotion at Spotify!
What We’re Looking forWe want our Listeners to have a relevant, seamless, and valuable experience with ads, while listening to music and podcasts on Spotify. Our Listener User Research Team partners with our cross-functional teams to develop new ad format experiences and machine-learning delivery systems based on our listener needs. We advocate for our listener’s experience, while balancing the needs of our advertisers, creators/publishers, and business. 
We are looking for two experienced & accomplished User Researchers who will lead research projects that drive and influence product strategy on new ad formats and machine learning systems. In this role, you’ll partner closely with Data Scientists and Designers, as well as Product Managers and Engineers, to look critically at how advertising fits into our ad-supported listening experience from user-centered perspectives.
You will drive a research roadmap on key efforts, conduct research to generate actionable insights, and impact the strategy and direction of Spotify ad experiences. Above all, your work will affect the way the world experiences music and podcasts.

What You’ll Do:

• Build trusted relationships with Design, Data Science, and Product partners to drive impact from your research and build a better Spotify ads experience
• Identify research opportunities, drive priorities, and contribute to a collective Listener User Research roadmap across Music & Podcasts
• Employ a wide range of storytelling techniques to deliver & socialize compelling insights to enable evidence-based Product and Design decisions, as well as areas for additional research with Data Science partners
• Drive User Research programs to improve our best practices & innovate on our mixed-methods practice, especially for our Machine Learning initiatives

Who You Are:

• 5+ years experience in a similar user research role, preferably (but not required) Advertising-related and/or Machine-learning related
• Strong experience and advocate in user-centered approach to product development, and are excited by working on a constantly evolving team
• Planned and led research multiple research initiatives simultaneously, through every step of the product development cycle: exploratory, concept and usability tests, and validation studies on your own from start to finish
• Skilled storyteller and communicator of research insights, able to speak fluently to product strategy, designers, data scientists, product managers, engineers, and other partners
• Degree in HCI, Psychology, Human Computer Interaction, Social Science, or a related field or the equivalent experience desired

Where You’ll Work:

• We are a distributed workforce enabling our band members to find a work mode that is best for them!
• Where in the world? For this role, it can be within the Americas region in which we have a work location
• Prefer an office to work from home instead? Not a problem! We have plenty of options for your working preferences. Find more information about our Work From Anywhere options here.
• Working hours? We operate within the Eastern Standard time zone for collaboration

#remote
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.
Spotify transformed music listening forever when we launched in 2008. Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the chance to enjoy and be passionate about these creators. Everything we do is driven by our love for music and podcasting. Today, we are the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service.
Global COVID and Vaccination DisclosureSpotify is committed to safety and well-being of our employees, vendors and clients. We are following regional guidelines mandating vaccination and testing requirements, including those requiring vaccinations and testing for in-person roles and event attendance. For the US, we have mandated that all employees and contractors be fully vaccinated in order to work in our offices and externally with any third-parties. For all other locations, we strongly encourage our employees to get vaccinated and also follow local COVID and safety protocols.