Senior Systems Engineer, Watch Software

Apple•Boulder, CO

About The Position

The watchOS Systems team is looking for a creative senior software engineer to help define the future of Apple Watch. Your core responsibility will be to build and optimize the foundational software that drives the device's performance and power efficiency. You will also have the unique opportunity to conduct investigative research, prototyping new technologies that will help define future hardware and software features. This role is perfect for a collaborative engineer who is passionate about the intersection of hardware and software and thrives on solving complex, open-ended problems. As a key engineer on this team, you will tackle a wide range of complex challenges and collaborate closely with Performance, Power, OS, and Hardware experts across Apple. Your responsibilities will be dynamic, ranging from architecting core OS features to acting as a performance specialist for other teams. This includes defining and implementing critical system-level functionality, such as new systems to manage the process lifecycle, reclaim memory, or lead the transition to a 64-bit OS architecture. You will also dive into other teams' code to diagnose and resolve significant power issues, and will build and maintain tools to help all engineers model and analyze performance and memory. Work at many layers of the system software stack, from firmware or kernel layers up to application layers, to create new experiences by leveraging hardware in new ways. Establish SW’s needs for future hardware, i.e. by modeling and projecting memory demand over the whole lifetime of a new SoC Engage in investigative and research-like projects to explore and prototype solutions for complex, open-ended problems. Diagnose and address functional and performance issues at the language, runtime, and kernel layers as well as in application and system daemons. Implement new software components, frameworks, and applications. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define, design, and ship new features.

Requirements

8+ years industry experience.
Deep technical understanding and hands-on experience with software development and lifecycle management.
Experience with low-level OS systems (e.g., kernel, Darwin, or drivers).
Deep experience with power and performance measurement and investigation techniques.
Solid computer science fundamentals.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills for collaborating with a technical team.
Experience defining and contributing to application or systems architecture.
Ability to work with technology partners at all levels of the stack, from hardware, sensors, and firmware to frameworks and applications.
Strong problem-solving and debugging skills, especially with ambiguous or undefined problems.

Nice To Haves

Experience in additional technical areas, like Graphics, UI or networking.

Responsibilities

Build and optimize foundational software for performance and power efficiency on Apple Watch.
Conduct investigative research and prototype new technologies for future hardware and software features.
Architect core OS features and act as a performance specialist for other teams.
Define and implement critical system-level functionality (e.g., process lifecycle management, memory reclamation, 64-bit OS architecture transition).
Diagnose and resolve significant power issues by analyzing other teams' code.
Build and maintain tools for performance and memory modeling and analysis.
Work across system software stack layers (firmware, kernel, application) to create new experiences by leveraging hardware.
Establish software needs for future hardware by modeling and projecting memory demand.
Engage in investigative and research-like projects to explore and prototype solutions for complex, open-ended problems.
Diagnose and address functional and performance issues at language, runtime, kernel, application, and system daemon layers.
Implement new software components, frameworks, and applications.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define, design, and ship new features.