Software Engineer (Transactional), AI & Data Platforms (AiDP)

Summary

Apple's AI & Data Platform (AiDP) Data Services organization is seeking a motivated database systems engineer to join our Data Services SRE team, focused on our transactional database fleet. Engineers on this team develop and contribute to platform tooling that manages relational and distributed-SQL/document engines powering some of Apple's most critical internet services at massive scale. In AiDP, your work will benefit hundreds of millions of users.

AI & Data Platforms (AiDP) is IS&T's engine for AI-powered innovation. The team brings together data, application development, and machine learning — including generative AI — along with data services and customer success functions, to help IS&T build solutions more efficiently and streamline the adoption and embedding of generative AI across Apple.

Description

The AiDP Data Services SRE team builds engine-agnostic platform capabilities — provisioning, backup/restore, observability, and self-service — spanning Oracle, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and CockroachDB. This role involves supporting data migration efforts across hybrid-cloud environments with minimal downtime and guaranteed data integrity, following established runbooks and adhering to local data residency and regulatory requirements. This role requires good communication and collaboration with Core Storage teams and colleagues across a distributed team.

Responsibilities

Apply core SRE concepts — monitoring, alerting, and incident management — with growing independence

Build working knowledge of transactional database concepts (consistency models, isolation levels, crash and recovery semantics) across Oracle, PostgreSQL and MongoDB

Support performance engineering efforts (profiling, tuning) across transactional engines, under guidance from senior team members

Assist with service management across bare metal, virtualized (EC2, Ali Cloud ECS), and containerized (K8s) style platforms

Execute and support data migration tasks across hybrid clouds, including validation and rollback support
Build understanding of operating systems and datacenter architecture concepts relevant to transactional workloads

Produce and maintain clear documentation — runbooks, architecture diagrams, and migration playbook updates
Support compliance with local data residency and regulatory requirements applicable to China-based infrastructure

Minimum Qualifications

3 years of experience in a Site Reliability Engineering / Infrastructure focused role

Hands-on production experience with at least one of Oracle, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, including exposure to On Call and Incident Management

Exposure to running infrastructure with reliance on automation tooling, across Datacenter and Cloud architectures (third party cloud)

Good understanding in one or more of the following programming languages: Python or Go

BS or MS in Computer Science / related fields or equivalent work experience

Preferred Qualifications

Some operational experience with stateful services on Kubernetes

Solid troubleshooting skills, a resourceful first-principles approach to problem solving, and good technical writing habits

Exposure to database-as-a-service control planes, provisioning APIs, or self-service tooling

Experience assisting with cross-cloud / hybrid-cloud data migrations for transactional systems

Familiarity with observability concepts (SLIs/SLOs), backup, and DR practices for OLTP/distributed-SQL engines

Solid troubleshooting skills, a resourceful first-principles approach to problem solving, and good technical writing habits

Pay & Benefits — Sunnyvale, 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 $225,300, 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.