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10 Spotify engineering leaders
These ten people hold or have held director, senior director and vice president engineering roles at Spotify, across core infrastructure, data and machine learning platforms, commerce and product teams. A reader can learn how Spotify structures engineering teams and the internal platforms other engineers build on.
Professionals to explore
01—10Alison Gilles
LinkedInExperience: VP of Engineering Core Infra, Data & Insights Platform · Spotify
VP of Engineering Core Infra, Data & Insights Platform at Spotify since March 2021, a title that spans core infrastructure and the data and insights platform. Alison Gilles was also Engineering Director of Infrastructure & Operations at Spotify from 2014 to 2019, a role the profile lists at director level.
Allan Beaufour
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director, Engineering · Spotify
Senior Director, Engineering at Spotify since February 2023, where the profile says Allan Beaufour leads the Core Infrastructure org covering backend developer experience, deployments, observability and core infrastructure, serving 2800+ engineers at Spotify. The profile also lists SVP Engineering at Maven Clinic (2020–2021) and CTO at Bayesian Health (2020).
Anders Åsbrink
LinkedInExperience: Director Of Engineering - Head of Data Platform · Spotify
Director Of Engineering - Head of Data Platform at Spotify since May 2022, in Stockholm. Other Spotify roles include Director Of Engineering - Data and Insights (2019–2022), Senior Manager of Engineering, Data Infrastructure (2016–2019) and Product Area Lead (2013–2016).
Atelach Alemu Argaw
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director of Engineering · Spotify
Senior Director of Engineering at Spotify, a title the profile lists in three consecutive entries from 2021 to the present, with the current one in Stockholm since February 2026. Atelach Alemu Argaw was also Director of Engineering at Spotify (2018–2021) and Head of Data and Privacy, Director of Engineering at Schibsted (2017–2018).
James Jacoby
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director, Engineering & Insights · Spotify
Senior Director, Engineering & Insights at Spotify since May 2025, based in Edinburgh, with a headline placing the role in Audiobooks. James Jacoby was also Director Of Engineering (2022–2025) and Senior Engineering Manager (2019–2022) at Spotify, and Engineering Lead at Bungie (2015–2017).
John Hayes
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director of Engineering · Spotify
Senior Director of Engineering at Spotify since February 2024, in London, where the profile says John Hayes looks after the teams responsible for all commerce and customer service activities at Spotify. John Hayes was also Director Of Engineering at Spotify (2018–2024) and Director of Digital Development at Three UK (2015–2018).
Kristian Lindwall
LinkedInExperience: Director Of Engineering - Data, Insights, Experimentation and Machine learning infrastructure · Spotify
Director Of Engineering - Data, Insights, Experimentation and Machine learning infrastructure at Spotify from 2019 to 2026, and Senior Director of Engineering at Spotify since April 2026, with a headline naming AI/ML, experimentation and analytics platforms. The profile says Kristian Lindwall makes the build, buy, open-source and sunset calls.
Pia Nilsson
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director of Engineering · Spotify
Senior Director of Engineering at Spotify since March 2024, in Stockholm. The profile also lists Director of Engineering - Studio Lead - Platform Developer Experience (from 2019) and Senior Manager of Engineering Infrastructure Software Delivery (from 2018) at Spotify, both shown without end dates.
Pooja Dave
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director of Engineering · Spotify
Senior Director of Engineering at Spotify since May 2026. Other Spotify roles on the profile include Director of Engineering (2025–2026), General Manager (Director of Engineering and Product) (2024–2025), Director of Engineering (2022–2024) and Senior Engineering Manager (2021–2022).
Stephan Kraus
LinkedInExperience: Director of Engineering - Studio Lead for Free & Paid Products · Spotify
Director of Engineering - Studio Lead for Free & Paid Products at Spotify since March 2024, a role the profile says is responsible for the technical implementation of the Free & Paid products. Stephan Kraus was also Director Of Engineering - Product Area Lead for Activation, Retention, Conversion at Spotify (2022–2024) and Engineering Director - Global Shipping at eBay (2018–2021).
Choose the right perspective
Match the person to the part of the engineering organization behind your question, since infrastructure, data platform and product engineering leaders face different tradeoffs. Check each person's current title and dates before asking how a specific Spotify team works today.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How does Spotify divide ownership between platform teams and the product teams that build on top of them?
- 02What does a Spotify engineering leader weigh when deciding whether to build, buy or retire an internal platform?
- 03How do Spotify engineering directors measure whether their teams are delivering well, and which metrics do they review most often?
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot and may describe past or present roles. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.
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