Data Platform SRE, AI & Data Platforms (AiDP)

Apple Inc.; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple Inc. in Austin, Texas is seeking a Data Platform SRE to develop and operate large-scale big data platforms. The role involves supporting critical applications including analytics and AI/ML apps, optimizing performance, and automating operations for reliability.

This position requires strong programming skills in Java, Scala, Python, or Go, and 3+ years of engineering experience with distributed systems. Join Apple to contribute to AI-powered innovations and help shape the future of technology.

Commitment to diversity is included in their equal opportunity employment practices.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of software engineering experience with big data platforms.
• Strong programming skills in Java, Scala, Python, or Go.
• Experience with designing and operating large-scale distributed data processing systems.

Responsibilities

• Develop and operate large-scale big data platforms.
• Support critical applications including analytics and AI/ML apps.
• Optimize platform performance and cost efficiency.

Skills

Java

Scala

Python

Go

Apache Spark

Incident Management

Unix/Linux

Data Lake Technologies

Tools

Apache Iceberg

Kubernetes

Airflow

Job description

Data Platform SRE, AI & Data Platforms (AiDP)

Austin, Texas, United States Software and Services

Do you want to help build some of the largest and most consequential enterprise and customer technology systems in the world? Join Apple’s Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) organization. IS&T is the engine behind everything Apple does for customers and for the people who build for them. It’s Apple’s central nervous system. Supporting 2.5 billion active Apple devices, processing billions of secure transactions, and keeping the technology that defines modern life running flawlessly, IS&T makes the impossible feel effortless. Do you love building solutions to handle global complexity and immense scale? Imagine what you could do here.AI & Data Platforms (AiDP) is IS&T's engine for AI-powered innovation. The team brings together data, application development, and machine learning — including generative AI — along with data services and customer success functions, to help IS&T build solutions more efficiently and streamline the adoption and embedding of generative AI across Apple.

Description

As a Data Platform SRE, you will be responsible for developing and operating our big data platform using open source or other solutions to aid critical applications, such as analytics, reporting, and AI/ML apps. This includes working to optimize performance and cost, automate operations, and identifying and resolving production errors and issues to ensure the best data platform experience.

Responsibilities

• Develop and operate large-scale big data platforms using open source and other solutions.
• Support critical applications including analytics, reporting, and AI/ML apps.
• Optimize platform performance and cost efficiency.
• Automate operational tasks for big data systems.
• Identify and resolve production errors and issues to ensure platform reliability and user experience

Minimum Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional software engineering experience with large-scale big data platforms, including strong programming skills in Java, Scala, Python, or Go.
• Proven expertise in designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed data processing systems with a strong focus on Apache Spark.
• Hands‑on experience with table formats and data lake technologies such as Apache Iceberg, ensuring scalability, reliability, and optimized query performance.
• Skilled at coding for distributed systems and developing resilient data pipelines.
• Strong background in incident management, including troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and performance optimization in complex production environments.
• Proficient with Unix/Linux systems and command‑line tools for debugging and operational support.

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in designing, building, and operating critical, large‑scale distributed systems with a focus on low latency, fault‑tolerance, and high availability.
• Experience with contribution to Open Source projects is a plus.
• Experience with multiple public cloud infrastructure, managing multi‑tenant Kubernetes clusters at scale and debugging Kubernetes/Spark issues.
• Experience with workflow and data pipeline orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow, DBT).
• Understanding of data modeling and data warehousing concepts.
• Familiarity with the AI/ML stack, including GPUs, MLFlow, or Large Language Models (LLMs).
• A learning attitude to continuously improve the self, team, and the organization.
• Solid understanding of software engineering best practices, including the full development lifecycle, secure coding, and experience building reusable frameworks or libraries.

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.

Learn about accessibility in Apple’s workplace.

Learn about reasonable accommodations for job applicants.

Apple accepts applications to this posting on an ongoing basis.