At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and operate scalable backend systems to combat online abuse.
- Company: Join SoundCloud's innovative Anti-Abuse Team.
- Benefits: Flexible work culture, mentorship, and diversity initiatives.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with opportunities for continuous learning.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in keeping creator-fan connections safe.
- Qualifications: Extensive software engineering experience with distributed systems and strong Go skills.
The predicted salary is between 67500 - 82500 £ per year.
Senior Backend Engineer in SoundCloud’s Anti-Abuse Team. You will design and operate scalable, event-driven backend systems to keep creator–fan connections safe, building an abuse-prevention platform at global scale. You collaborate with Product, Analytics, and Trust Safety to fight emerging abuse patterns, while owning end-to-end solutions from ideation to delivery. This role combines architecture work with rapid response to new abuse vectors, offering both strategic impact and hands-on problem solving.
Pay / Benefits
- Flexible work culture
- Office-based or remote collaboration
- Mentorship and workshops
- Enrichment opportunities
- Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
- Employee resource groups
Responsibilities
- Build and evolve platform capabilities for detecting and responding to abuse at scale
- Shape platform architecture and technical strategy for long-term scalability and rapid responses
- Collaborate with Product, Analytics, Trust Safety, and Engineering to address abuse patterns and communicate complex concepts
- Own problems end-to-end from opportunity identification to delivery
- Make pragmatic technical decisions balancing cost, latency, complexity, scalability, and maintainability
- Lead architecture discussions and improve engineering practices, tooling, and processes
- Debug complex issues across data pipelines and distributed systems
- Continuously learn and share best practices in abuse prevention and detection
- Participate in on-call rotations to ensure system reliability
Key requirements
- Extensive software engineering experience with distributed, event-driven backend systems at scale
- Hands-on IaC with Terraform and cloud environments (AWS or GCP)
- Experience building distributed data processing and ETL pipelines, metrics, and ML infrastructure
- Experience with microservices, SQL and NoSQL databases, containers
- Strong Go experience; Scala or another language is a plus
- Designing APIs and backend services for multiple client platforms
- Strong SQL skills for large datasets (e.g., BigQuery or similar)
- Knowledge of API patterns (gRPC, GraphQL)
- Nice-to-have: experience in abuse prevention, fraud detection, or Trust Safety
- Nice-to-have: experience with AI-assisted development tools
- Ownership mindset and ability to navigate ambiguity
- Collaborative, team-first attitude and eagerness to learn
- Collaborative
- Proactive
- Strong communication
- Go
- Scala (or other language)
- BigQuery or similar SQL for large datasets
Senior Software Engineer - Anti-Abuse employer: SoundCloud
At SoundCloud, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer that champions creativity and innovation in the music industry. Our flexible work culture fosters collaboration while offering extensive professional development opportunities, including a generous allowance for growth and a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. With unique benefits like a robust Employee Equity Plan, free German courses, and a supportive relocation package, we ensure that every team member feels valued and empowered to thrive in their role as a Senior Machine Learning Engineer.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Software Engineer - Anti-Abuse
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at SoundCloud or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to SoundCloud.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like SoundCloud.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like SoundCloud that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Senior Software Engineer - Anti-Abuse
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at SoundCloud.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at SoundCloud and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at SoundCloud
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If SoundCloud uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
