CIS 6930 Spring 26
Data Engineering at the University of Florida
Guest Speaker: Mikhail Sinanan
Date: Friday, February 13, 2026 Time: 8:30 AM - 9:00 AM EST Format: Fireside chat
About Mikhail
Mikhail Sinanan is a global technology leader who architects the systems behind some of the world’s most widely used digital experiences. He serves as the Global Head of Engineering for Audiobooks Supply Chain at Spotify, where he oversees the technical infrastructure responsible for the lifecycle of the global audiobooks catalog, from publisher ingestion to global distribution.
His career centers on scaling platforms that operate at the intersection of massive data and human creativity. As leader of Spotify’s Music Technologies and Platforms division, he scaled the data infrastructure 4x while reducing cloud spend by 40% through hardware and vendor optimizations. His teams built the foundational systems for flagship products such as Spotify for Artists and Wrapped.
Before Spotify, he led the modernization of payment systems at Capital One, driving $3B in incremental spend by returning credit to users faster. He has built award-winning experiences across iOS, smart speakers, wearables, and cars, earning multiple J.D. Power Awards and a Google Material Design Award.
Beyond code, Mikhail cares about inclusive leadership and developing the next generation of talent. He serves on the Board for Florida State University’s College of Business, advising on business analytics and information systems education.
His core focus areas are supply chain engineering, platform strategy, global scale, and inclusive leadership.
Pre-Session Preparation
Please review these resources before the session to understand Spotify’s data infrastructure:
Required Reading/Listening
| Resource | Description | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Spotify’s Data Platform Explained | Overview of how Spotify processes 1.4 trillion data points daily. Covers data collection, processing, and management architecture. | 15 min |
| NerdOut@Spotify: A Trillion Events | Podcast episode on handling 50M events/second, transitioning from Kafka to cloud solutions, and maintaining data quality at scale. | 38 min |
Optional Deep Dives
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| Spotify Engineering Blog | Latest posts on Spotify’s technical challenges and solutions |
| Backstage by Spotify | Open-source developer portal created by Spotify |
| Backstage 101 | Introduction to Backstage as an internal developer portal |
Come Prepared With Questions
Think about technical questions you’d like to ask Mikhail:
Data Platform Architecture
- How does Spotify’s data platform support both real-time features (like recommendations) and batch analytics (like Wrapped)?
- What role does Kafka play in Spotify’s event streaming architecture?
- How do you handle schema evolution across thousands of data producers?
Scale & Performance
- What strategies did you use to achieve 4x scale while cutting costs 40%?
- How do you manage data consistency across multiple geographic regions?
- What are the biggest bottlenecks when processing trillions of events?
Audiobooks Supply Chain
- What unique data challenges exist in audiobook delivery vs. music streaming?
- How do you handle metadata quality for millions of audiobook titles?
- What does “supply chain” mean in the context of digital content?
Engineering Culture
- How do you balance innovation with reliability at Spotify’s scale?
- What data quality practices does Spotify enforce across teams?
- How does Backstage help developers discover and manage data?
Connect
Mikhail is passionate about mentoring and connecting with the next generation of engineers. Here is a link to his Intro profile where you can reach out and connect. Please contact Dr. Grant for a promocode for a free 30 minutes session with Mikhail.