Sr Software Engineer, Applied AI and Test Automation - Camera Software

Apple • Cupertino, CA

23h

About The Position

On Apple's Camera Software team, you will work hands-on with the most popular camera in the world and shape the way millions of people capture and experience their photos and videos every day. Our QA test and automation engineers work together to ensure our customers get the camera experience they expect from one of Apple's most iconic technologies. As a Senior Software Engineer on our Camera Software team, you'll work directly with camera testers and engineering teams to build our next-generation camera validation systems. You'll bring your creativity and engineering experience to determine how agentic AI, multimodal vision, robotics, or other novel test automation systems will help us scale the capacity, effectiveness, and impact of the team. Apple's Camera Software team is looking for an experienced software testing and automation engineer with a proven track record of delivering effective automated software validation systems. As a Senior Software Engineer, you will lead the architectural design and implementation of novel production-quality test automation solutions to make our camera software validation measurably more effective and efficient across every Apple device with a camera. You bring sound problem-solving and architectural judgment, and you challenge assumptions and give feedback constructively. You can reason from the business problem backward and invent new approaches when established techniques fall short. You've demonstrated the ability to rapidly prototype and iterate on ideas, use data to drive decisions, and work exceptionally well with team members to refine, operate, and scale your solutions. To architect and create our world-class camera validation systems, you'll combine your strong software engineering skills with extensive applied experience in areas such as agentic engineering and evals, multimodal AI and visual validation, intelligent test orchestration, robotic device automation, and human-in-the-loop workflows that scale expert review. You'll also draw on your deep engineering experience and a results-oriented mindset to recognize when traditional test automation or manual testing is the better fit for a given validation scenario. This is a rare opportunity to make a major impact on the future of Camera Software quality and to meaningfully contribute to the way millions of people experience Apple's camera technology every day.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional software engineering and architecture experience.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience building and evaluating modern AI/ML and agentic technologies to solve real-world validation problems.
• Strong track record of designing, building, debugging, and reliably operating effective software test automation solutions that measurably improved defect detection and/or release throughput.
• Deep knowledge of QA testing methodologies and strategy, with experience in one or more of test-result analytics, automated triage, flakiness measurement, and signal-to-noise improvement in automated reporting.
• Experience automating or validating software against physical hardware, devices, or instrumented lab environments.
• Experience building and operating automated test execution at scale, including CI/CD pipelines and unattended test infrastructure.
• Excellent problem-solving and cross-functional collaboration skills in a fast-paced environment where priorities may shift with the release cycle.
• Experience mentoring engineers and giving clear, constructive technical feedback.
• Strong programming skills in at least one of Python, Swift, Objective-C, or C++.
• BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, AI/ML, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent work experience.

Nice To Haves

• Demonstrated experience building reliable agentic or intelligent automation systems, including evaluation frameworks, automated graders, and failure analysis.
• Deep experience with multimodal AI and visual evaluation systems, including vision-language models, computer vision, and automated detection of visual defects in UI or captured output.
• Knowledge of image and video processing applications, camera processing pipelines, photo and video formats, and metadata interpretation.
• Experience automating and testing software on Apple hardware devices, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV, using XCTest/Swift and/or Python/pytest.
• Experience designing and building physical test rigs, robotic actuation, or controlled lighting and scene environments.
• Proven ability to advocate persuasively for a technical position among strong, conflicting opinions.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architectural design and implementation of novel production-quality test automation solutions.
• Combine strong software engineering skills with applied experience in agentic engineering and evals, multimodal AI and visual validation, intelligent test orchestration, robotic device automation, and human-in-the-loop workflows.
• Recognize when traditional test automation or manual testing is the better fit for a given validation scenario.
• Mentor engineers and give clear, constructive technical feedback.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: High school or GED