AIML - Director, Data Science and Insights

Apple Inc.; Cupertino (CA); On-site; USD 305,000 - 487,200; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical and dental coverage

Retirement benefits

Employee stock purchase plan

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

Apple Inc. in Cupertino, California, is seeking a Head of Data Science and Insights to lead a large team of data scientists and influence software quality. Candidates should have extensive experience in data science evaluation, team leadership, and communication with senior executives.

This position involves driving evaluation methodologies and partnering with product teams to enhance features and maintain high customer expectations for quality and privacy.

Pay ranges from $305,000 to $487,200 based on skills and experience, complemented by benefits and stock options.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in data science and machine learning evaluation.
• 6+ years leading large technical teams.
• Demonstrated track record of managing 50+ data scientists or machine learning engineers.
• Deep experience in human evaluation methodology for consumer-facing products.
• Hands-on experience with LLM-based autograders and rubrics.
• Strong communication skills with engineers and senior leaders.

Responsibilities

• Set evaluation strategy for quality measurement.
• Lead a team of data scientists and machine learning engineers.
• Drive methodological agenda across evaluations.
• Partner with product and engineering teams to embed evaluation in cycles.
• Represent the team to executive leadership.

Skills

Data science

Machine learning

Human evaluation methodology

Ab testing

Team leadership

Communication skills

Education

Advanced degree in a quantitative field

Job description

AIML - Head of Data Science and Insights

Cupertino, California, United States Software and Services

Apple is where individual imaginations gather together, committing to the values that lead to great work. Every new product we build, service we create, or Apple Store experience we deliver is the result of us making each other’s ideas stronger. That happens because every one of us shares a belief that we can make something wonderful and share it with the world, changing lives for the better. It’s the diversity of our people and their thinking that inspires the innovation that runs through everything we do. When we bring everybody in, we can do the best work of our lives. Here, you’ll do more than join something — you’ll add something.

Description

As the head of Data Science and Insights, you’ll influence the direction of a wide variety of software features, models, and platforms, in close collaboration with teams across the company. Your experience will enable you to thoughtfully balance the various tradeoffs involved in creating successful features that meet Apple’s high customer expectations for both quality and privacy.

Responsibilities

• Setting the evaluation strategy that determines how Apple measures quality for Apple Intelligence, Siri, and the broader SWE portfolio of billion+ user features.
• Leading a large team of data scientists and machine learning engineers — recruiting, developing, and retaining strong technical talent across both disciplines.
• Driving the methodological agenda across human evaluation, logging, AB testing, and LLM-based autograders and rubrics, and ensuring those methods translate into measurable model and agentic feature improvements.
• Partnering with Apple Intelligence, Siri, and other SWE product and engineering teams to embed evaluation into product development cycles and turn evaluation results into shipped quality gains.
• Partnering with peer leaders inside AIML Evaluation platforms (AB, Annotation, Synthetic Data), Apple Foundation Models, Machine Translation, etc.
• Representing the team to executive leadership across AIML and SWE, including Senior Vice Presidents.

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in data science and machine learning evaluation, including 6+ years leading large technical teams
• Advanced degree in a quantitative field such as Statistics, Computer Science, Machine Learning, or similar
• Demonstrated track record of running organizations of 50+ data scientists and/or machine learning engineers
• Deep experience in human evaluation methodology, logging, and AB testing for consumer-facing products at scale
• Hands‑on experience building and deploying LLM‑based autograders and rubrics, and using them to drive proactive improvements in models and agentic features
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, able to communicate effectively with engineers and senior leaders, including Senior Vice Presidents

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience evaluating large consumer AI products such as conversational assistants, search systems, or agentic features
• Experience with logging infrastructure and instrumentation for AI product quality measurement
• Track record of growing senior leaders from within your organization and, where needed, recruiting senior data science and machine learning talent in competitive hiring markets
• Familiarity with evaluation frameworks for agentic systems and tool‑use
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, able to communicate effectively with engineers and senior leaders, including Senior Vice Presidents

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 $305,000 and $487,200, 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. This role may also be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation. Benefits include comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and reimbursement for certain educational expenses — including tuition. For formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for related tuition may also apply. Learning about Apple Benefits is available on the Apple website.

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.