Backend Engineer, QoS Apple Services Engineering

Apple, Inc.; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple, Inc. is seeking a senior backend and systems engineer for the Apple Services Engineering team responsible for powering large-scale services across App Store, Apple TV, Apple Music, and more.

You will build secure, scalable backend services, data pipelines, and observability tools to ensure reliability across Apple’s global cloud infrastructure. The role emphasizes building high-quality software, mentoring engineers, and applying emerging technologies like generative AI to solve

Qualifications

• Experience building and scaling high-performance backend services and APIs (GraphQL/REST/gRPC).
• Experience building large-scale data pipelines with Spark or Flink.
• Designing cloud-native, distributed systems with microservices and Kubernetes.
• Strong fundamentals in relational and NoSQL databases.
• Commitment to high-quality software with CI/CD and performance tuning.
• Experience with observability tools like Splunk, Grafana, Prometheus.

Skills

Backend engineering

Data pipelines

Cloud-native systems

Microservices

Security fundamentals

Observability tooling

Mentoring

Generative AI

Databases (SQL/NoSQL)

Job description

The Apple Services Engineering (ASE) team is one of the most exciting examples of Apple’s long-held passion for combining art and technology. We are the people who power the App Store, Apple TV, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple Books. And we do it on a massive scale, meeting Apple’s high expectations with high performance to deliver a huge variety of entertainment in over 35 languages to more than 150 countries. Our engineers build secure, end-to-end solutions. We develop the custom software used to process all the creative work, the tools that providers use to deliver that media, all the server-side systems, and the APIs for many Apple services. Thanks to Apple’s unique integration of hardware, software, and services, engineers here partner to get behind a single unified vision. That vision always includes a deep commitment to strengthening Apple’s privacy policy, one of Apple’s core values. Although services are a bigger part of Apple’s business than ever before, our teams remain small, nimble, and cross-functional, offering greater exposure to the array of opportunities here.

Description

Join the team that serves as the central nervous system for Apple’s services. We build and operate the large-scale observability platforms that monitor the health of Apple TV, the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, Podcasts, Fitness , and more, ensuring the experience is as reliable and delightful as our customers expect. This is a software engineering role where you will build the tools that proactively identify and diagnose service disruptions across Apple’s global cloud infrastructure.

This is a unique opportunity to see how all of Apple’s services work, with the freedom to make a significant impact.

Our real-time data pipelines and services are the first to detect potential issues, and the analytics we generate provide the trusted record of service health, delivering critical insights that inform executive-level decisions. We created this capability from the ground up, and as Apple’s services continue to grow, our team is expanding to provide this same level of insight for new and massive lines of business.

Minimum Qualifications

Core Backend & Systems Engineering

• Experience building and scaling high-performance backend services and APIs (e.g., GraphQL, REST, gRPC). We primarily use JVM languages (Java, Scala, Kotlin) but value polyglot engineers with experience in Go, Python, or Swift.
• Experience designing and building large-scale data pipelines for batch or stream processing using frameworks like Apache Spark or Apache Flink.
• Proficiency in designing and building cloud-native, distributed systems, with experience in microservices, container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes), and event-driven patterns (e.g., Kafka).
• Strong fundamentals in data systems, with experience using both relational and NoSQL databases.
• A commitment to building high-quality software and owning it from start to finish, demonstrated through practices like thorough testing, effective CI/CD, and performance tuning.
• Experience with modern observability practices and tooling (e.g., Splunk, Grafana, Prometheus), with a talent for diagnosing and troubleshooting complex issues in large-scale systems.
• A strong understanding of security fundamentals and a commitment to building secure, resilient software.
• A passion for mentoring other engineers and fostering a team culture of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.
• A passion for product excellence and for deeply understanding customer needs to build better solutions.
• Curiosity for applying emerging technologies, like generative AI, to solve engineering challenges.
• A track record of building and delivering exceptional software. This can come from a variety of places: a related technical degree, a non-traditional educational path, or equivalent practical experience. We believe your work and passion speak for themselves.
• An understanding of security fundamentals and a commitment to building secure, resilient software.
• Strong fundamentals in data systems, with experience using both relational and NoSQL databases.

Preferred Qualifications

These qualifications are not required, but they would help you make an even bigger impact.

• Proficiency in designing and building cloud-native, distributed systems, with experience in microservices, container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes), and event-driven patterns (e.g., Kafka).
• Experience with modern frontend development, including web frameworks (e.g., React, Vue, Svelte) or native application development for macOS/iOS using Swift.
• Curiosity for applying emerging technologies, like generative AI, to solve engineering challenges.
• Experience designing and building large-scale data pipelines for batch or stream processing using frameworks like Apache Spark or Apache Flink.
• Experience with modern observability practices and tooling (e.g., Splunk, Grafana, Prometheus), with a talent for diagnosing and troubleshooting complex issues in large-scale systems.