Senior Cloud Infrastructure and AI Efficiency Engineer

Summary

The people here at Apple don’t just create products—they create the kind of wonder that’s revolutionized entire industries. We know our ability to continue creating the world’s most innovative products depends on people who represent the variety of the human experience and who inspire us with great thinking. Because the broader the backgrounds and perspectives, the bigger the ideas.

Description

Join the Cloud Infrastructure Business Operations team that is transforming the way Apple plans, strategizes and delivers its cloud resources, data centers, and hardware. We are seeking an experienced engineers to drive data and insights on planning the strategy for Apple’s infrastructure. We partner with engineering, finance, procurement and other supply chain teams to align engineering strategies.

Responsibilities

Build insights into cloud services: architecture, cost, utilization at Apple scale and collaborate on efficiency with service teams like iCloud, Music, Siri, or Apple TV+.
Work in a hybrid and multi-cloud environment across Apple’s private cloud services and public cloud providers spanning traditional compute, storage, AI training clusters, and inference serving at scale.
Unlock career growth beyond any single platform.
Partner with senior engineering and business leaders to translate complex, high-dimensional infrastructure data into clear business metrics for strategic recommendations that drive measurable financial and operational value for the infrastructure business.
Help build services that see privacy as a fundamental right and protect user data at all cost.
Be a force multiplier for engineering teams.
Go beyond reports and dashboards — use AI to deliver proactive, contextual insights and recommendations rooted in engineering best practices that helps engineering teams make better architectural decisions faster, at every stage of the development lifecycle.

Minimum Qualifications

10+ years in an engineering role — with a track record of owning and delivering complex initiatives end-to-end.
Able to research, architect and drive complex technical solutions, consisting of multiple technologies, cloud services and AI systems — from early prototype to production at scale.
Able to write SQL hands-on with AI, understand schema design, and recognize what makes queries expensive. Knows enough to ask data engineers the right questions, not just the broad ones.
Experience with compute containerization and orchestration technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) for pod-based service deployment, operations and lifecycle management.
Genuinely curious about AI — actively explores new tools and workflows, brings ideas about what the team should adopt next, and knows how to translate those ideas into concrete asks for platform teams to build or support.
Curiosity about GPUs, AI/ML systems and LLM-powered workflows — actively explores new tools and workflows, brings ideas about what the team should adopt next, and knows how to translate those ideas into concrete asks for platform teams to build and support.
Ability to define architecture by influencing the cross-functional and software development team, while partnering with business to ensure their strategic vision with software technology is met.

Preferred Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience. We value what you can do, not just where you studied.
The mindset and ability to work with large data and understand the observability and statistics space specifically.
Believes the rules of cloud efficiency are being rewritten — has experience with foundation models, agentic AI, and AI-native workflows, and inspired about how they change the way infrastructure is architected, measured, and optimized.
Stays close to the frontier, brings ideas back to the team, and shapes how Apple gets ahead of the shift rather than reacts to it.

5+ years designing, operating, and optimizing infrastructure across public and private cloud environments (AWS, GCP, or equivalent on-premise), with a strong intuition for how architectural decisions translate into cost and performance outcomes at scale.
Experience in cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) — including security, cost optimization, and governance best practices across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
Experience designing and deploying scalable, cloud-native architectures with a strong foundation in distributed systems, reliability, and fault-tolerant design.
Hands-on experience with FinOps and cost optimization — using tools like Cloudability or CloudHealth, and applying AI-assisted analysis to surface savings opportunities, model tradeoffs, and drive accountability across engineering teams.
Strong analytical foundation — proficient in trending, variance analysis, and forecasting, with the ability to build and communicate AI-augmented models that inform capacity planning and financial strategy.
Deep familiarity with Kubernetes — including optimization strategies for resource efficiency, bin packing, autoscaling, and cost-aware scheduling in multi-tenant and dedicated cluster environments.
Experience with cloud observability and telemetry tooling (e.g. CloudWatch, Datadog, Honeycomb) — able to connect signals from infrastructure health, performance, and cost into a coherent operational picture.
Experience building Finance or FinOps subject areas from the ground up — including unit economics, chargeback models, and the data pipelines and taxonomies that make cost attribution meaningful at scale.
Clear, compelling communicator — able to translate complex technical and financial narratives into crisp insights for both engineering and executive audiences, in writing and in the room.
Informed perspective on the AI landscape — follows the evolution of foundation models, emerging tooling, and industry adoption patterns closely enough to help shape how Apple prioritizes and invests in AI capabilities across its cloud infrastructure.

Pay & Benefits — San Francisco, California, United States

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 $184,700 and $324,800, 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.

Application Deadline

Apple accepts applications to this posting on an ongoing basis.

Pay & Benefits — Seattle, Washington, United States

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 $175,000 and $308,500, 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.