Software Engineer, Music Search

Apple • Seattle, WA

2d

About The Position

The Apple Services Engineering AI/ML organization is hiring a Software Engineer to join the Music Search team. Our team builds the core intelligence that powers search discovery experiences in the Apple Music, Siri, Spotlight, 3p, and beyond, helping users effortlessly find and enjoy the content they love. We are a collaborative, high-impact team that values innovation, craftsmanship, and end-to-end ownership from idea to launch. Our systems combine large-scale data, modern retrieval and ranking models, and a deep commitment to user privacy. Join us, you’ll develop scalable systems and machine learning models that drive search relevance, personalization, and understanding of content at scale. Working closely with cross-functional partners in product and design, you’ll translate cutting-edge research in advanced machine learning and generative AI into secure and delightful production features used by millions every day.

Requirements

• Strong programming skills in Python, Java and Go for building scalable distributed and ML systems.
• Experience in machine learning, NLP, IR, or more recently Large Language Model (LLMs).
• Ability to translate product goals into technical solutions, improving user experience.
• Strong communication, collaboration, and analytical problem-solving skills.
• In-depth knowledge of search and information retrieval fundamentals, including indexing and ranking.
• Experience with retrieval and ranking algorithms and building big data pipelines using Hadoop, Java, Scala, Spark and more.
• Industrial experience in search, classification, recommendation systems, or related fields.
• Familiarity with A/B testing and data-driven product development.
• Passion for creating products loved by customers at Apple.
• Bachelor’s degree or higher (or equivalent practical experience) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with search or recommendation systems, and semantic retrieval or vector databases.
• Expertise in large scale distributed and client-server systems.
• Passion for developing intelligent, human-centered experiences to enhance content discovery.

Responsibilities

• Design and deploy large-scale ML systems that power search and discovery across Apple platforms.
• Apply complex distributed systems engineering, machine learning, natural language understanding, and generative AI to model user intent and deliver relevant, personalized results.
• Build and optimize complex multi-team systems including systems that process large data, rapid query execution, data processing, ML models, retrieval pipelines, and ranking systems that operate at global scale and under strict privacy standards.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to bring advanced Search technologies into production—shaping how users find music they love.

What This Job Offers

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