Distinguished Engineer - Answers, Knowledge, & Information

Apple • Seattle, WA

4d

About The Position

Apple is where individual imaginations gather together, committing to the values that lead to great work. Every new product we build, service we create, or Apple Store experience we deliver is the result of us strengthening each other's ideas. That happens because each of us believes we can make something wonderful and share it with the world, changing lives for the better! In the Siri and Information Intelligence organization, we work hard to bring the best user experiences powered by Apple Intelligence. One central part of the user experience is understanding the user's personal context and information-seeking needs: this means the experience understands the user deeply (their content, their behaviors, their preferences, etc.), and uses the deep understanding to help users accomplish things in an intelligent, intuitive, and private way, as well as delivering the most accurate, fresh, and rich experience to satisfy their information needs. We also develop generative AI-based models and systems to power Apple Intelligence features, which simplify users' lives, make them more productive, and enable them to consume all the information delivered on Apple devices more effectively and efficiently with less effort. Description In this role, you will drive LLM-based question answering, personal content search, and Apple Intelligence features to provide users with concise, accurate, and grounded information to help them complete their tasks quickly on Apple devices. You are expected to take advantage of the Apple ecosystem, which blends cutting-edge hardware, software, and strong privacy/security guarantees, integrate this with the phenomenal power of Reinforcement Learning for post-training of generative models, and then deliver truly delightful user experiences that are uniquely Apple. You will be responsible for devising the generative AI technology vision and strategy, developing advanced RL algorithms and synthetic/human data pipelines, evangelizing it, executing the plan, improving the quality of LLM-based models across multiple Apple Intelligence features, and delivering the end-user experience. You will have the opportunity to work with a wide range of organizational partners across foundation modeling, design, product and marketing, software engineering, and foundation modeling to impact billions of Apple users worldwide profoundly.

Requirements

• 10+ years of R D experience leading engineering/applied research/ML experiences in search, natural language processing/understanding, Conversational AI.
• MS or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning with a specialty in reinforcement learning, or a related field.

Nice To Haves

• Deep expertise in the field of information retrieval, machine learning, and natural language processing processing and understanding, and in particular, reinforcement learning-based post-training on LLM models, reward modeling, RLHF, RLAIF, Chain-of-thought, and agentic AI R D.
• Strong product intuition and ownership
• Excellent communication skills
• Growth mindset and ability to learn new technologies

Responsibilities

• Devising the generative AI technology vision and strategy
• Developing advanced RL algorithms and synthetic/human data pipelines
• Evangelizing the plan
• Executing the plan
• Improving the quality of LLM-based models across multiple Apple Intelligence features
• Delivering the end-user experience

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical and dental coverage
• Retirement benefits
• A range of discounted products and free services
• Reimbursement for certain educational expenses — including tuition
• Eligibility for discretionary bonuses or commission payments
• Relocation

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees