Data Engineer, Real-Time ML & Data Platforms

Apple Inc.; Cupertino (CA); On-site; USD 129,000 - 195,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock programs

Relocation assistance

Education reimbursement

Medical and dental coverage

Job summary

Apple seeks a software engineer in Cupertino to design and operate scalable data pipelines and ML systems for Apple Ads, using Spark, Kafka, Iceberg, and related technologies. You will work across real-time and batch processing to deliver reliable data-driven advertising experiences.

You should thrive in an Agile environment, collaborate with product teams, mentor others, and contribute to on-call reliability while improving privacy-conscious, cost-effective solutions.

Qualifications

• 1+ years of industry experience building scalable data pipelines and machine learning systems or distributed software at scale.
• Strong CS and software engineering fundamentals.
• Proficiency in Rust, Python, Java, or Scala.
• Experience with distributed systems and data processing technologies (Spark, Kafka, Flink).
• Experience building and scaling systems on premise and in the cloud.
• Solid understanding of data structures, algorithms, and system design principles.
• Ability to communicate effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Hands-on experience using LLMs (Claude, Gemini) in daily engineering work.
• BS/MS in CS, SWE, DS, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Engineer secure, scalable data and ML systems across real-time, near-real-time, and batch contexts using Spark, Kafka, Iceberg, and beyond.
• Own design and delivery of core components — from pipeline architecture to ML model development, training, and deployment.
• Drive reliability, performance, and efficiency improvements across your systems.
• Apply understanding of business analytics and engineering to create reusable, efficient solutions.
• Use LLMs and AI coding agents daily to accelerate implementation, testing, and debugging.
• Collaborate with world-class engineers and product managers; mentor others as you gain seniority.
• Contribute to on-call, monitoring, and continuous reliability improvements; lead incident response.
• Work in a sprint-based Agile environment and support a culture of reliability and growth.

Skills

Data pipelines

Machine learning systems

Rust

Python

Java

Scala

Spark

Kafka

Flink

Distributed systems

Cloud & on-prem

Algorithms

LLMs in engineering

Education

BS/MS in Computer Science/Software Engineering/Distributed Systems

Tools

Iceberg

Cassandra

Keyspaces

ElastiCache

Spark

NoSQL datastores

Job description

Apple seeks a software engineer in Cupertino to design and operate scalable data pipelines and ML systems for Apple Ads, using Spark, Kafka, Iceberg, and related technologies. You will work across real-time and batch processing to deliver reliable data-driven advertising experiences.

You should thrive in an Agile environment, collaborate with product teams, mentor others, and contribute to on-call reliability while improving privacy-conscious, cost-effective solutions.