Keeping Spotify’s playlist roadmap moving with a Crisp backend engineer
How a Crisp backend engineer stepped into Spotify’s Playlist Experience team, built a new production service from scratch and made existing playlist services faster and more stable.
The Challenge: Keeping Momentum While Two Engineers Were on Leave
Spotify’s Playlist Experience team is responsible for the creation and curation of user-created playlists, one of the most used parts of the product. In early 2026, two of the team’s engineers were about to go on parental leave at the same time.
The team still had an ambitious roadmap, including a brand new backend service, and high-traffic services that needed continuous care. They needed someone who could get productive quickly, work as part of the team and take real ownership of the work.
The Approach: An Integrated Member of the Team
Crisp’s Max Wenzin joined the team as a backend engineer from February to August 2026. Rather than working on the side, Max worked as a full member of the team: taking part in planning and retrospectives, collaborating closely with teammates and balancing asking questions with working independently.
1. A New Production Service, From Scratch to Approved
Max’s main assignment was to design and build a new backend service from scratch. He connected it to Spotify’s existing playlist systems, delivered a working end-to-end workflow and took it all the way through production setup and stakeholder approval.
2. Improving the Services Millions Rely On
Alongside the new service, Max contributed to the team’s existing, critical playlist services:
- Native gRPC added to a high-traffic service.
- A cache prewarm system that cut deploy-time cache warming from tens of seconds to under three.
- Less noise, clearer signals: error logging reduced by millions of lines per day.
- Safer releases through improved canary stability on critical playlist services.
The Results
- The team kept its pace while two engineers were on parental leave.
- A new backend service went from idea to production, approved by stakeholders.
- Faster deploys, quieter logs and more stable canaries on critical playlist services.
The team’s engineering manager highly recommends Max, noting that he made a very good impression throughout the contract and got up to speed quickly.
Need an Engineer Who Can Hit the Ground Running?
Whether you need to cover for parental leave, build something new or strengthen a team for a period, Crisp’s engineers join as real team members and take ownership from day one. Get in touch and let’s talk.
