Sr. Software Engineer - Distributed Storage

Apple • Cupertino, CA

1d

About The Position

The Apple Services Engineering team builds systems that power customer-facing services, including iCloud, iTunes, Siri, and Maps. This role contributes to a highly reliable, self-managing, scalable storage layer designed to support exabyte-scale data and diverse access patterns, while providing a foundation for adopting and optimizing next-generation storage devices.

The team is creating a unified storage abstraction layer for Apple’s distributed object, block, and future file storage systems. The layer will provide a consistent API, common metadata model, scalable data distribution, and high-performance I/O for workloads in Apple Cloud. The engineer will develop core systems that manage data objects, placement, redundancy, and I/O across thousands of nodes, unifying different storage backends behind a single extensible abstraction. The work includes designing metadata services and data distribution algorithms, implementing replication and fault recovery, and developing client libraries and protocols. Components are designed to support self-healing, automatic rebalancing, and high-throughput, low-latency access.

Requirements

• Strong problem-solving skills rooted in data structures, distributed systems, and concurrency.
• At least 7 years of professional experience building and operating distributed systems.
• Demonstrated ownership and a history of delivering production systems.
• Proficiency in one or more systems languages, such as Java or Rust.
• Experience with asynchronous and thread-safe programming.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

• Background in object, block, or file system internals.
• Experience with modern storage devices such as zoned block devices, sequential-write media, or emerging high-density magnetic recording technologies.
• Master of Science in Computer Science.

Responsibilities

• Develop core components of a unified storage layer managing data objects, placement, redundancy, and I/O across thousands of nodes.
• Help define building blocks that unify object, block, and future file storage backends behind a single extensible abstraction.
• Design consistent metadata services and scalable data distribution algorithms.
• Implement robust replication and fault-recovery mechanisms.
• Develop client-side libraries and protocols that provide a uniform interface to workloads across Apple.
• Build components that support self-healing, automatic rebalancing, and high-throughput, low-latency access.

What This Job Offers

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