Applied Research Software Engineer

Apple • San Jose, CA

1d

About The Position

The Applied Research Software Engineer is a core contributor and technical leader on an interdisciplinary team of specialized researchers and engineers focused on emerging technologies. The role leads end-to-end incubations, from early ideation through deployment, applying state-of-the-art machine learning research, algorithmic innovation, and agentic systems to challenges with immediate and long-term impact.

The work is hands-on, highly cross-disciplinary, and focused on connecting research with product development to create user experiences. The engineer supports technology investigations and moves across productization stages, from prototyping through shipping. The role combines interdisciplinary pathfinding with realizing projects as features in Apple’s next-generation products; it is not focused on maintaining an existing system within a large team.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Computer Science or an adjacent technical field.
• At least 6 years of engineering experience building and maintaining data-intensive systems, including feature pipelines, training infrastructure, or evaluation frameworks.
• Strong proficiency in Python and C++, with experience in complex, multi-language systems.
• Expertise in deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
• Familiarity with state-of-the-art machine learning approaches, such as vision-language models, diffusion models, and reinforcement learning.
• Demonstrated ability to identify the right problems, take calculated risks, and ship at scale.
• Deep intellectual curiosity, ability to work at the frontier of new technologies, and excellent communication skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a specialty discipline such as robotics and machine perception, computer vision, graphics, or simulation.
• Interest in contextual, personalized computing and related principles of cognitive science and psychology.
• A strong point of view on the future of human-AI interaction and motivation to help create ethical, privacy-centric products.
• Experience with real-time or near-real-time systems and deeply integrated architectures spanning local SoCs through cloud compute.
• Familiarity with hardware bring-up, data communication protocols, or sensor integration.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end technology incubations, from early ideation through deployment.
• Apply machine learning research, algorithmic innovation, and agentic systems to impactful challenges.
• Support technology investigations and help bridge research and product development.
• Work across productization stages, from prototyping through shipping.
• Align company leaders and cross-functional collaborators through excellent communication.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior