Software Engineer - Apple Services Engineering

Summary

Apple Services Engineering (ASE) teams power the App Store, Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Apple Books, Fitness+, the iTunes Store, and more. We do this on a significant scale, delivering a huge variety of software in over 35 languages to more than 150 countries. Our engineers build secure, end-to-end solutions. They develop the custom software used to process all the creative work, the tools that providers use to deliver that media, all the server-side systems, and the APIs for many Apple services. Thanks to Apple's unique integration of hardware, software, and services, engineers here partner to get behind a single unified vision. That vision always includes a deep commitment to strengthening Apple's privacy policy, one of Apple's core values. Although Services are a bigger part of Apple's business than ever before, our teams remain small, nimble, and highly cross-functional, offering greater exposure to the array of opportunities here.

Description

What happens when the world’s most innovative engineers collaborate with the world’s most creative storytellers? TV gets reinvented. Meet the re-inventors: Apple Services' Media Engineering (ASE Media).
ASE Video teams have embarked on a journey to build the next-generation sports and media experience. In the ASE Video teams, we work every day to create products that enrich people’s lives. The teams build and manage the Apple TV app as well as tvOS, which redefined and refined the way people watch movies, TV shows, sports, and so much more. The ASE Video group is looking for a Software Engineer to join our Universal Media Engineering team. The Universal Media Engineering team leads the data platform and related tools that power the Apple TV app.
We are looking for enthusiastic, self-starting individuals who can bring new ideas and innovations to the platform and push the boundaries of scalability, latency, and quality. We're looking for a software engineer who is passionate about building highly scalable backend systems, developing internal platforms, and applying modern AI technologies to solve complex engineering problems. Does this sound like you? If so, we want to speak with you.
As a software engineer, you will be responsible for designing and building services that directly impact millions of users. You'll collaborate closely with a diverse set of teams that include engineering, project management, business operations, design, and curation, working towards a common vision of delivering the best possible Apple TV experience for our customers.
Beyond delivering production-quality software, you'll play an important role in accelerating the adoption of AI-powered development practices and intelligent applications. You'll identify opportunities to incorporate generative AI into products, engineering workflows, and operational processes, helping teams deliver software faster, improve reliability, and unlock new capabilities.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and operate highly scalable backend services, internal platforms, APIs, data pipelines, and AI-powered applications that improve operational efficiency and automate business workflows.
Collaborate with product managers, engineers, and business stakeholders to define technical solutions for complex business problems.
Partner with engineering teams to identify opportunities where AI can improve developer productivity, software quality, and operational efficiency.
Participate in architecture and design discussions, balancing long-term technical strategy with pragmatic delivery.
Prototype, evaluate, and productize AI-powered capabilities, including intelligent workflows, operational and developer tooling.
Write high-quality, well-tested, and maintainable code and continuously raise the engineering quality bar.
Monitor production systems, troubleshoot complex issues, and drive improvements to reliability, observability, and performance.
Champion the adoption of AI-assisted engineering practices by sharing best practices, evaluating new technologies, and helping teams integrate AI into their day-to-day development processes.

Minimum Qualifications

5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with demonstrated ability to own features throughout the software development lifecycle, from design and development through production support.
Experience designing and developing scalable, highly observable, and resilient backend services and RESTful APIs.
Strong proficiency in Java (and one or more backend programming languages such as Kotlin, Go, or Python).
Solid understanding of distributed systems, concurrency, networking, and service-oriented architectures.
Experience with databases, data modeling, and cloud-native application development.
Experience with containerized applications, CI/CD pipelines, and modern software development practices.
Hands-on experience building production applications powered by Large Language Models (LLMs), including integrating models into backend services and working with concepts such as prompting, retrieval, structured outputs, or tool/function calling.
Strong analytical, communication, and collaboration skills.
Ability to solve problems given incomplete or partial data and/or requirements.
Driven to deliver high-quality solutions consistently and quickly.
Bachelor’s degree in CS/CE/EE or a related technical field, or equivalent industry experience.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience building large-scale distributed systems, data pipelines, or event-driven architectures.
Familiarity with one or more of these technologies: NoSQL databases (Cassandra, DynamoDB), messaging systems (Kafka/RabbitMQ), Solr/Elasticsearch, Redis, SQL (PostgresSQL, MySQL), Spring Framework/Spring Boot, Docker, Kubernetes etc.
Experience building advanced LLM applications using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, semantic search, AI agents, and production-grade evaluation and guardrails.
Experience integrating foundation models through platforms such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Hugging Face, or self-hosted open-source models.
Experience evaluating AI systems using model evaluation frameworks, prompt testing, guardrails, observability, and performance benchmarking.
Experience mentoring peers and influencing technical direction through collaboration, technical leadership, and knowledge sharing.

Pay & Benefits — San Diego, 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 $142,300 and $263,300, 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 — Cupertino, 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 $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.