Foundation Models: Pretraining Data Research Engineer

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

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical and dental care

Retirement benefits

Apple stock programs

Education reimbursement

Job summary

Apple Inc. in Cupertino, CA is seeking a Machine Learning Research Engineer to advance pretraining data for foundation models. You will develop scalable data curation systems, analyze training data quality, and collaborate with model researchers to translate research into production-ready data infrastructure.

The role blends research, algorithm development, and production engineering to improve data efficiency, diversity, and scalability for large-scale model training across Apple products.

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong programming skills in Python and proficiency in developing production-quality software.
• Experience with large-scale data processing, distributed computing, or machine learning systems.
• Solid understanding of machine learning fundamentals and modern deep learning architectures.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to independently investigate complex technical challenges.

Responsibilities

• Research, design, and implement novel algorithms for large-scale pretraining data curation, including quality filtering, deduplication, data selection, and mixture optimization.
• Build and optimize scalable data processing systems capable of handling trillions of tokens across diverse data sources.
• Develop machine learning-based approaches for data quality assessment, synthetic data generation, and data efficiency optimization.
• Collaborate with foundation model researchers to design and execute training experiments, analyze model performance, and identify opportunities for improving model capabilities.
• Investigate the relationship between training data characteristics, model scaling, training dynamics, and downstream evaluation results.
• Translate research prototypes into efficient, reliable, and production-ready data systems.
• Stay current with advances in foundation model research and apply emerging techniques to practical data challenges.

Skills

Python programming

Distributed computing

Machine learning fundamentals

Problem solving

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS/ML

Tools

Spark

Ray

PyTorch

Job description

Apple Inc. in Cupertino, CA is seeking a Machine Learning Research Engineer to advance pretraining data for foundation models. You will develop scalable data curation systems, analyze training data quality, and collaborate with model researchers to translate research into production-ready data infrastructure.

The role blends research, algorithm development, and production engineering to improve data efficiency, diversity, and scalability for large-scale model training across Apple products.