Sr. Platform Software Engineer, AI & Data Platforms (AiDP)

Apple • Sunnyvale, CA

23h

About The Position

Apple’s Data Services team builds and operates data platforms for large-scale data science applications across multiple lines of business. The team works with open-source technologies and manages large streams of Apple-scale data across multiple cloud environments. This role focuses on developing and deploying large-scale data platforms and products, including semantic and hybrid search and streaming applications, using technologies such as S3, Kafka, Flink, Spark, LLMs, and AI/ML.

The successful candidate will bring energy and innovation, stay curious about distributed computing and big data technologies, and automate and document work. They will independently investigate and resolve production issues, manage competing priorities, and help improve system stability, security, efficiency, and scalability. The role also includes capacity planning, evaluating new products and features, administering backup systems, and providing 24x7 on-call support for urgent critical issues. The team values cultural diversity and aims to reflect the multicultural variety of Apple’s customers.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of software development and deployment experience in a Kubernetes environment.
• At least 3 years of experience deploying applications using Ansible, Docker, Jenkins, or related tools.
• At least 5 years of experience building robust HTTP REST-based APIs and backend services.
• Experience building highly available software services or platforms in the big data space.
• Experience designing and managing large-scale data processing pipelines using Kafka, Spark, and streaming technologies.
• Proficiency in Python.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering, or equivalent work-related experience.
• Strong troubleshooting skills and ability to investigate and resolve issues independently.
• Ability to manage multiple competing priorities and deliver solutions in a timely manner.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent, with at least 5 years of overall industry experience designing and managing large-scale production deployments on-premises and on AWS or GCP.
• Validated experience in software design, testing, and source code management.
• Experience developing with Python and/or Go.
• Strong background in CI/CD practices and open-source software development.
• Experience using Go, Python, Java, or other JVM languages to support automation and operational excellence.
• Experience with public embedding models and large language models, including pre-training, fine-tuning, and optimizing data insights for accuracy and recall.
• Experience managing ETL pipelines, defining measurable SLAs, and handling near-real-time upstream and downstream data processing.
• Experience designing and implementing RAG pipelines, AI agents with the CrewAI API, and autonomous workflows.
• Familiarity with LLM APIs and integrating ML inference into production services.
• Expertise in Docker, Kubernetes or equivalent, Helm, and Kustomize through Flux or GitOps practices.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools such as Ansible, Terraform, and Crossplane.
• Proactive focus on improving uptime and availability for mission-critical services.
• Proficiency in Linux/POSIX operating systems, shell scripting, and networking technologies.
• Experience managing and monitoring large-scale cloud services using Kubernetes probes, Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana, and Mosaic.
• Mastery of logging and observability technologies for tracking system metrics.
• Ability to address performance, scalability, reusability, and flexibility in distributed database architecture.
• Familiarity with ETCD, Kafka, and Spark in large-scale production systems.
• Strong communication skills for cross-functional collaboration.
• Comfort working in fast-paced environments while evaluating emerging technologies.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy large-scale data platforms and products across multiple cloud environments.
• Build large-scale semantic and hybrid search systems and streaming applications.
• Provide incident resolution for technical production issues and investigate root causes.
• Automate work and maintain accurate, up-to-date documentation, including configuration, procedures, justifications, training materials, and status reports.
• Provide guidance to improve the stability, security, efficiency, and scalability of systems.
• Determine future capacity needs and investigate new products and features.
• Administer and ensure proper execution of backup systems.
• Provide 24x7 on-call support for urgent critical issues.
• Collaborate with Apple staff, management, program managers, and engineering partners.

What This Job Offers

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