Software Engineer - Private Cloud Compute, On-Device Client Frameworks

Apple; Greater London; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple is looking for a Software Engineer to join the Private Cloud Compute team, focusing on building privacy-preserving cloud inference platforms for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. You will design and implement Swift frameworks that optimize high-level inference requests while maintaining user privacy and system integrity.

The ideal candidate has experience with system-level frameworks for iOS/macOS, strong Swift skills, and understanding of concurrency and memory management. Apple values diversity and is committed to fair hiring practices.

Qualifications

• Experience developing complex, system-level frameworks for iOS and macOS.
• Strong proficiency in Swift necessary.
• Deep understanding of concurrency and memory management.

Responsibilities

• Design and evolve on-device client SDKs and XPC services.
• Implement high-throughput, low-latency request paths.
• Own concurrency and resource management across async/await and GCD.
• Build telemetry and privacy-audited logging systems.
• Collaborate with server-side teams and mentor junior engineers.
• Profile on real hardware to optimize performance metrics.

Skills

Swift Programming

Objective-C

C/C++

Concurrency

Asynchronous Network Programming

Job description

Summary

The Private Cloud Compute (PCC) team builds Apple's privacy‑preserving cloud inference platform — the system that lets generative‑AI features on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro reach into the cloud without compromising user privacy.

We are looking for a Software Engineer to join the team that builds the on‑device client side of that pipeline: the system frameworks and sandboxed services that every Apple Intelligence and Foundation Models request flows through before it ever leaves the device.

This is system‑level Apple platform work. You will design and ship the Swift frameworks that turn high‑level inference requests into a compact wire protocol, manage long‑lived connections, and stream multimodal output back to client apps — all under strict process isolation and privacy guarantees. Your code will run on every device that uses Apple Intelligence — and the bar for correctness, performance, and privacy is set accordingly.

Description

• Designing and evolving the on‑device client SDKs and the XPC services they sit behind, balancing API ergonomics for client teams with the strict process‑isolation and attestation guarantees required by PCC.
• Implementing high‑throughput, low‑latency request paths: protobuf serialization of inference payloads, payload compression, multi‑turn session state and lifecycle, retry/cancellation semantics, and streaming of incremental model output back to clients.
• Owning concurrency and resource management across async/await, AsyncStream, and GCD — including correct cancellation, back‑pressure, and lifetime management of long‑lived XPC connections.
• Building the telemetry, signposts, and privacy‑audited logging that let on‑call engineers diagnose request failures across device, cloud, and inference layers without exposing user data.
• Collaborating closely with the PCC server‑side, Foundation Models, attestation, and platform‑frameworks teams; writing design documents, leading reviews, and mentoring engineers on Apple platform fundamentals.
• Profiling on real hardware with Instruments and driving down memory, latency, and energy costs in the request path — these libraries run on every device, on every inference, so every microsecond matters.

Minimum Qualifications

• Experience developing complex, system‑level frameworks, daemons, or background services for iOS and macOS (beyond standard UI‑focused app development).
• Strong programming proficiency in Swift, alongside experience with Objective‑C or C/C++ for lower‑level system integration.
• Deep understanding of concurrency (Swift Concurrency, GCD), memory management, and asynchronous network programming.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing or evolving wire protocols (e.g., Protocol Buffers), data‑streaming pipelines, or connection management.
• Hands‑on experience with Apple's Inter‑Process Communication (XPC) to bridge sandboxed applications and system services.
• Familiarity with secure communication protocols, cryptography, or privacy‑preserving architectures.
• Working knowledge of ML concepts and frameworks and proficiency in performance profiling with Instruments, and experience implementing robust client‑side telemetry and logging using native Apple APIs.
• Familiarity with end‑to‑end systems that span device, network, and server tiers, and comfort reasoning about failure modes across that boundary.

At Apple, we are committed to treating all applicants fairly and equally. As a registered Disability Confident employer, we will work with applicants to make any reasonable accommodations. Apple will consider for employment all qualified applicants with criminal backgrounds in a manner consistent with applicable law.