Senior Software Engineer - Intelligence Platform Data Foundations, Proactive

You will design, build, and optimize the data persistence and synchronization systems that bring personalized context to Apple Intelligence across every Apple device while keeping that data private and on device. You'll work across the Apple OS stack, from low-level storage and system frameworks up to the experiences customers touch every day, solving large-scale indexing and processing problems where performance, memory, and battery all matter.

You'll partner closely with machine learning and feature teams to bring named entities and user-interaction signals into the platform, championing strong-typing best practices and Apple's exceptionally high bar for user privacy along the way.

As a senior member of the team, you will take end-to-end ownership of critical components of the platform, from initial design through long-term maintenance and evolution. You will propose and drive new designs and architectures that shape the platform's technical direction, and provide design guidance and technical expertise to partner engineering teams across the company. You will also help modernize how we build — raising the bar for engineering and code-review practices and automating them with the latest agentic coding tools.

To succeed, you'll be a strong systems and backend engineer and a creative problem solver who thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative environment, enjoys learning across domains, and takes pride in shipping reliable code that runs on the devices millions of people rely on.

Design, build, and optimize on-device data persistence and synchronization systems spanning iOS, macOS, visionOS, watchOS, and tvOS.
Solve large-scale indexing and data-processing problems with performant, resource-efficient solutions across the full stack.
Partner with machine learning and feature teams to onboard named entities and user-behavior data streams into the platform.
Champion strong-typing best practices and enforce Apple's high bar for user privacy across every layer of the data platform.
Diagnose and resolve correctness, performance, and reliability issues with foundational system services in a distributed, multi-device environment.
Provide design guidance and technical expertise to partner engineering teams across the company.

B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, or equivalent experience.
Expertise in at least one compiled language (C/C++/Objective-C, Swift, Go, Java, Rust, etc.)
Extensive experience with backend and systems-level programming
Demonstrated experience building production data infrastructure such as databases, storage, serialization, or synchronization systems.
Strong skills in concurrency and multi-threaded software design.
Ability to write reliable, resilient, performant, and well-tested code.
Strong problem-solving, debugging, and technical communication skills.
Experience delivering production software within large engineering projects.

Experience building database or search integrations.
Experience with distributed systems and data synchronization across devices or nodes.
Familiarity with machine learning concepts and experience collaborating with ML teams.
Experience with performance profiling and tracing tools.
Experience with macOS or iOS development.
Familiarity with data serialization formats and schema/strong-typing design.
Passion for building privacy-preserving, high-performance foundational technologies underlying intelligent system experiences.

At Apple, creative ideas grow into extraordinary products, services, and user experiences. As AI continues to unlock entirely new device capabilities, building the next generation of intelligent system experiences starts with understanding the context of the user.

The Intelligence Platform Data Foundations team builds the data modeling, persistence, and synchronization infrastructure that brings personalization to intelligent experiences across iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro, and more.

This is your opportunity to design the foundational systems powering features like Spotlight Search, Siri, and Apple Intelligence by integrating the user's personal context while fiercely protecting their privacy. If you love working at the intersection of high-performance systems and real customer impact, we'd love to meet you.

At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $150,400 and $277,600, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.

Apple employees also have the opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple’s discretionary employee stock programs. Apple employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You’ll also receive benefits including: Comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for certain educational expenses — including tuition. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation. Learn more about Apple Benefits

Note: Apple benefit, compensation and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program.

Apple is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We seek to promote equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. Learn more about your EEO rights as an applicant

At Apple, we believe accessibility is a fundamental human right. You’ll find that idea reflected in everything here — in our culture, our benefits and our digital tools. By welcoming as many perspectives as possible, we help you build a career where you feel like you belong.

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Apple accepts applications to this posting on an ongoing basis.