AI/ML - Machine Learning Engineer, Text Language Identification

Apple Inc.; Cupertino (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 278,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock programs

Discretionary bonuses

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Apple Inc. in Cupertino, CA seeks an AI/ML Engineer for text language identification. You will design and train models across languages, build multilingual data pipelines, and evaluate edge cases like code-switching and low-resource languages.

You will collaborate with researchers and engineers, exploring transfer learning and efficient inference for device and cloud deployment. Proficiency in Python and DL frameworks is required; Hugging Face experience is a plus.

Qualifications

• 2+ years in ML/NLP with hands-on training and evaluation of neural models.
• Proficient in Python and at least one major DL framework (PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX).
• Bachelor's or Master's in CS/ML/Computational Linguistics or related technical field.
• Experience with multilingual, multi-script, or cross-lingual datasets.

Responsibilities

• Design, train, and evaluate text language identification models across hundreds of languages, scripts, and locales.
• Build and maintain multilingual data pipelines for collecting, cleaning, and curating training data.
• Develop evaluation frameworks that cover short text, code-switching, transliteration, noisy input, and near-identical language pairs.
• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to integrate language identification into user-facing features.

Skills

Machine learning

NLP

Python

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/ML/Computational Linguistics

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

JAX

Hugging Face

Job description

AI/ML - Machine Learning Engineer, Text Language Identification

Cupertino, California, United States Machine Learning and AI

The Multilingual Intelligence team is looking for a machine learning engineer to build the next generation of text language identification systems. You will develop models that accurately detect and classify languages across diverse scripts, regions, and user contexts — forming the backbone of multilingual features used by millions of people worldwide. You will work alongside a team of world-class experts to explore novel modeling approaches, data strategies, and evaluation methodologies that push the boundaries of what's possible in language detection at scale.Passionate about Natural Language Processing, multilingual systems, and building ML that works for everyone regardless of the language they speak? Join us to make every device fluent in every language.

Description

Text language identification is a foundational capability that powers multilingual experiences across products — from translation and search to content recommendation and accessibility. As the number of supported languages grows and user expectations rise, the challenge is building models that are not only accurate but also fair, robust, and efficient across the full spectrum of the world's languages.We are looking for a machine learning engineer passionate about building high-quality, inclusive language technology. As a member of the team, you will work across the full model lifecycle — from data curation and model design to evaluation and deployment. You will collaborate with researchers, engineers, and linguists to ensure our language identification systems perform reliably for users everywhere, regardless of how they write or what language they use.The successful candidate should be a strong team player with excellent oral and written communication skills and a genuine passion for building ML systems that work for the world's linguistic diversity.

Responsibilities

• Design, train, and evaluate text language identification models that achieve high accuracy across hundreds of languages, scripts, and locales — including low-resource and mixed-language scenarios.
• Build and maintain robust multilingual data pipelines for collection, cleaning, augmentation, and curation of training data across diverse language sources.
• Develop comprehensive evaluation frameworks that go beyond standard benchmarks, covering edge cases such as short text, code-switching, transliteration, noisy input, and near-identical language pairs.
• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to integrate language identification capabilities into user-facing features, iterating based on real-world performance and feedback.
• Research and apply techniques such as transfer learning, multilingual pretraining, and data augmentation to improve coverage for underrepresented languages.
• Explore lightweight model architectures and optimization strategies to enable efficient deployment across a range of device profiles — from cloud to edge.
• Contribute to best practices for model experimentation, versioning, and reproducibility within the team.

Minimum Qualifications

• 2+ year experience in machine learning, NLP, or related fields, with hands-on experience training and evaluating neural models.
• Proficient programming skills in Python and at least one major deep learning framework such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree, or equivalent practical experience, in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computational Linguistics, or a related technical field.
• Experience working with multilingual, multi-script, or cross-lingual datasets.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with text classification, language identification, dialect identification, or similar NLP tasks involving multiple languages.
• Familiarity with embedding models, sentence representations, or contrastive learning methods.
• Understanding of model optimization techniques such as quantization, pruning, or knowledge distillation, and a general interest in efficient inference.
• Experience with low-resource languages, code-switching, or mixed-language input handling.
• Familiarity with Hugging Face ecosystem (transformers, tokenizers, datasets) and modern NLP pipelines.
• Ability to formulate a problem, design experiments, and implement end-to-end solutions in Python and Bash.
• Strong communication skills and a passion for working cross-functionally across Research, Engineering, and Product teams.

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.

Apple is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We seek to promote equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. Learn more about your EEO rights as an applicant

At Apple, we believe accessibility is a fundamental human right. You’ll find that idea reflected in everything here — in our culture, our benefits and our digital tools. By welcoming as many perspectives as possible, we help you build a career where you feel like you belong.

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Apple accepts applications to this posting on an ongoing basis.