Senior Software Engineer, ML Build & Release Quality - Private Cloud Computing

Summary

Apple Service Engineering is seeking an exceptional Senior Software Release Engineer to take on a high visibility, high impact role at the center of our next-generation datacenter and Private Cloud Compute initiatives. This is a role for a senior engineer who wants to define how world-class distributed systems are tested, validated, and scaled at one of the most ambitious infrastructure efforts in the industry.

You will be a technical leader and key contributor to the foundation of Apple's future cloud architecture, working directly with the systems that power Apple Intelligence and Private Cloud Compute. You will drive critical testing and validation initiatives across highly performant, energy efficient platforms built on Apple Silicon, and will play a central role in ensuring the quality, reliability, and scalability of next-generation datacenter technology that reaches hundreds of millions of people.

Description

As a Senior Software Release Engineer on the Private Cloud Compute team, you will be responsible for driving the test strategy, automation infrastructure, and validation frameworks that underpin some of Apple's most critical and technically complex distributed systems. You will operate at the intersection of hardware and software, working across the full stack to ensure that next-generation datacenter technology is performant, reliable, and ready to scale.

You will be expected to bring senior-level technical leadership to every initiative you own, from defining test architecture to driving resolution of the most complex system-level issues. You will collaborate directly with hardware and platform teams to validate novel compute platforms before they reach production and will build the tooling and automation infrastructure that enables the broader engineering organization to move with speed and confidence.

In this highly collaborative and cross-functional role, you will partner with architecture teams, SOC architects, platform engineers, and software teams across Apple to adapt, validate, and scale software on novel compute platforms. If you are a senior engineer who thrives on solving hard problems, owning critical initiatives end-to-end, and building systems that have never been built before, this is the role for you.

Responsibilities

Responsible for daily build qualification and recommendations to staging and production
Own the build pipeline for LLM on Private Cloud Compute
Manage model weights across OS release trains and faster server-side model updates
Automate staged rollouts across OS releases and Private Cloud Compute releases
Partner with Foundation Models, AIML, evals, privacy, security, and OS release teams on major launches
Lead incident response and postmortems for inference release issues

Minimum Qualifications

10 or more years in release engineering, build infrastructure and production releases
BS in Computer Science or equivalent experience. MS or PhD a plus.
Expertise with large-scale build systems and C++/Swift/Python toolchains
CI/CD at scale with sharp judgment on cost, cache, and flake reduction
Track record shipping on tight, non-negotiable deadlines tied to OS or hardware launches

Preferred Qualifications

Experience validating ML or LLM workloads running on hardware accelerators such as GPUs, NPUs, or Apple Silicon in a cloud or datacenter environment.
Familiarity with Apple development tools, Swift, or Objective-C.
Experience building test infrastructure for systems at the hardware-software boundary, including firmware, drivers, or low-level platform software.
Knowledge of energy efficiency and performance profiling techniques for high performance computing workloads.
Experience contributing to or defining test strategy at an organizational level, not just within a single team or product area.
Prior experience working in a private cloud, hyperscale datacenter, or edge compute environment.

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.

Application Deadline

Apple accepts applications to this posting on an ongoing basis.