Senior Software Engineer - UI Rendering

Summary

Apple's Compositing, Color, and Display Software organization provides the graphics software foundation for all of Apple's innovative products, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, and Apple Watch. Our goal is to enable developers and HI designers to create exceptional visual experiences by efficiently utilizing hardware acceleration and color technologies through compositing and display. The technologies we develop are central to enabling enhanced experiences across our platforms, including acceleration for Liquid Glass UI material and presenting content with the highest color fidelity.

Are you excited to bring new UI experiences to millions of people around the world across our products? Are you passionate about solving complex graphics challenges in innovative ways, to deliver beautiful, responsive experiences at scale? Do you enjoy working collaboratively on a common goal to bring the best experience to our customers? If all this resonates with you, this is the job for you.

Description

We are looking for an exceptional Lead Engineer with deep graphics rendering expertise and a proven track record of driving complex engineering projects across organizational boundaries. In this role, you will serve as the technical lead for major graphics and rendering initiatives, shaping the CoreAnimation rendering pipeline, Metal command generation, and low-level compositing architectures powering visual experiences across Apple's product ecosystem—from Apple Watch, Home, and Apple TV devices to iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision platforms.

At the intersection of design, frameworks, and low-level platform systems, you will act as a force multiplier across engineering teams. You will architect complex, performance-critical software and lead multi-team collaborations with UI Frameworks, System Experience, Human Interface (HI) Design, and GPU/Hardware teams to bring new UI materials (such as blur and glass effects), system animations, and platform experiences to life. Simultaneously, you will champion systemic optimizations that reduce rendering latency across CPU and GPU pipelines, maximize battery efficiency, and eliminate visual corruptions across diverse hardware configurations.

Responsibilities

* Cross-Functional Engineering Leadership: Act as technical lead on large engineering initiatives spanning multiple teams—including UI Frameworks, System Experience, HI Design, Metal, and GPU Hardware—architecting scalable solutions for complex graphics and rendering challenges.
* CoreAnimation Pipeline & Metal Command Generation: Own UI rendering architecture and feature implementation within CoreAnimation across all Apple platforms, directing pipeline analysis, optimization, and efficient Metal command generation.
* Multi-Platform Experience & Material Innovation: Partner with HI designers and framework teams to drive rendering support for new UI materials (e.g., blur, Liquid Glass effects), system animations, and visual design language evolution across Apple Watch, Home accessories, iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision products.
* Latency & Battery Engineering: Architect systemic performance improvements to minimize rendering latency across CPU and GPU pipelines and optimize power efficiency for UI rendering across the device lineup.
* Visual Quality & System Health: Drive rendering quality, correctness, and visual fidelity by diagnosing and eliminating glitches, flickering, frame drops, and visual corruptions in multi-layered rendering contexts.
* Technical Strategy & Modern Workflows: Guide long-term technical strategy and influence hardware/software roadmaps for future rendering capabilities, while leveraging modern engineering practices—including agentic coding workflows—to accelerate architectural iteration and team delivery.

Minimum Qualifications

* 5+ years of experience in software development, including software release management and integration processes
* 3+ years of experience with real-time rendering and computer graphics
* Demonstrated track record of leading complex, multi-team engineering projects from concept to shipping.
* Strong expertise in C/C++ programming, and GPU-accelerated rendering pipelines.
* Hands-on experience with modern graphics APIs (Metal, Vulkan, or DirectX) and low-level rendering optimization.
* Foundational understanding of Operating Systems, Computer Architecture, and CPU/GPU programming including memory subsystems
* Strong debugging and triaging skills for complex, multi-layered systems issues
* Excellent collaboration skills with cross-functional teams on complex large-scale projects
* Proven ability to architect complex, performance-critical software systems and align cross-functional technical strategy.
* Demonstrated expertise in graphics performance analysis, profiling, and optimization across CPU/GPU boundaries.
* Practical experience incorporating modern AI-assisted workflows and agentic coding tools into software engineering practices.
* Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications

* Deep expertise with tile-based rendering GPUs architecture and advanced graphics programming
* Experience with low-level Metal/Vulkan/D3D12 command generation, multi-threaded rendering architectures, or CPU/GPU synchronization models.
* Experience with client/server or multi-process graphics architectures
* Experience shipping consumer graphics products at scale
* Experience with automated testing frameworks for graphics rendering
* Technical leadership experience corresponding to ICT5 scope on large-scale platform software projects.
* Deep knowledge of CoreAnimation, layer-based compositing systems, scene graph architectures, or multi-process graphics engines.
* Experience delivering graphics and UI rendering capabilities across diverse hardware constraints (mobile, wearable, spatial computing, home/embedded, desktop).
* Knowledge of color management, HDR presentation, wide color gamut workflows, or advanced shader programming (MSL/GLSL/HLSL).
* Familiarity with iOS, macOS, watchOS, or visionOS software development in Swift or Objective-C.

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 $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.