Lead AI/ML Engineer (GenAI & Agentic Systems)-iCloud

Apple Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 216,200 - 394,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical and dental coverage

Discretionary employee stock programs

Education-related reimbursement

Job summary

Apple Inc. is seeking a Lead AI/ML Engineer to improve iCloud infrastructure efficiency using Generative AI technologies. You will lead efforts in developing AI-driven systems that enhance operational workflows across teams.

Ideal candidates will have 5+ years in software/infrastructure engineering, strong skills in Python or Java, and a deep understanding of GenAI practices. This position offers competitive compensation and benefits in a dynamic work environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in software or infrastructure engineering.
• Proven technical leadership in GenAI deployments.
• Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure and automation.

Responsibilities

• Design GenAI-powered solutions for infrastructure efficiency.
• Implement agentic systems and workflows.
• Drive AI-first engineering practices across teams.

Skills

Software engineering

Infrastructure engineering

Cloud services

Python

Java

GenAI technologies

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science

Job description

Overview

San Francisco, California, United States Software and Services

In Apple’s iCloud services organization, efficiency is not simply a technical objective—it is a fundamental part of how we deliver reliable, scalable, and sustainable infrastructure for billions of users worldwide. The iCloud Efficiency team is responsible for improving how Apple’s cloud services utilize compute, storage, and operational resources at massive scale. As infrastructure complexity grows, the opportunity to apply Generative AI, intelligent automation, and agentic systems becomes increasingly critical to accelerating operational excellence, improving engineering productivity, and optimizing resource efficiency. As a Lead AI/ML Engineer focused on GenAI and Agentic Systems, you will work at the intersection of large-scale systems engineering, infrastructure automation, AI-assisted operations, and intelligent decision systems. You will provide technical leadership for streamlining GenAI efforts across the organization: establishing reusable patterns, defining production standards, and helping teams converge on durable, safe, and measurable AI-assisted infrastructure workflows. You will apply production state-of-the-art LLM systems, retrieval-assisted generation (RAG), skills-based automation, agentic workflows, evaluation and orchestration frameworks to transform how engineering teams operate, troubleshoot, forecast, and optimize cloud infrastructure. This role involves partnering closely with data engineering, data science, infrastructure engineering, software reliability engineering and finance teams to design and deploy AI-driven systems that improve efficiency across capacity planning, anomaly detection, operational workflows, deployment safety, and infrastructure optimization. Your work will directly influence the operational and financial efficiency of one of the world’s largest private cloud environments supporting iCloud, Apple Intelligence, and Private Cloud Compute (PCC).

Description

The Lead AI/ML Engineer will play a critical role in advancing Apple’s next generation of intelligent infrastructure operations through applied GenAI and agentic technologies. This role focuses on building practical, high-impact AI systems that improve engineering workflows and infrastructure decision-making. You will identify high-leverage operational problems, set architecture direction, design agentic solutions, and guide teams from prototype to production adoption. The goal is combining LLM reasoning, system context, automation frameworks, and engineering safeguards to improve speed, reliability, and efficiency. Success in this role will be measured by concrete outcomes: adoption of shared patterns and tools by multiple teams, measurable toil reduction, validated cost or capacity savings. You will help define how AI can safely and effectively augment engineering teams—from capacity optimization and deployment analysis to incident response, forecasting, and infrastructure planning.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement GenAI-powered solutions to improve infrastructure efficiency, operational workflows, and engineering productivity across iCloud services
• Build and deploy agentic systems using technologies such as Claude, LLM orchestration frameworks, skills-based execution models, and intelligent automation pipelines
• Develop AI-assisted workflows for capacity planning, anomaly detection, forecasting, deployment validation, and operational safety
• Partner with SRE, infrastructure engineering, platform teams, and finance to identify high-value efficiency opportunities and convert them into scalable AI solutions
• Create reliable and safe agent workflows with strong observability, guardrails, human-in-the-loop validation, and operational controls
• Improve engineering decision-making by combining infrastructure telemetry, operational context, and LLM reasoning into actionable recommendations
• Drive experimentation and adoption of AI-first engineering practices that reduce toil, improve reliability, and optimize cost structures
• Contribute to the long-term strategy for AI-assisted infrastructure operations across Apple Cloud Services

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in software engineering, infrastructure engineering, or large-scale cloud services environments
• Proven experience designing, building, or technically leading production GenAI, ML platform, developer productivity, infrastructure automation, or tooling systems
• Hands-on experience with GenAI technologies, LLM application architecture, including retrieval, context engineering, tool use, workflow orchestration, agentic workflows, evaluation, observability, and failure handling
• Demonstrated technical leadership across teams, including architecture reviews, roadmap influence, mentoring, and driving adoption of shared engineering practices
• Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure operations, observability, deployment systems, and operational safety principles
• Proven ability to translate ambiguous operational challenges into practical engineering solutions with measurable business impact
• Strong software development skills in Python, Java, or similar languages
• Exceptional analytical, systems thinking, and cross-functional communication skills
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience applying GenAI to infrastructure operations, SRE workflows, capacity planning, or engineering productivity systems
• Experience building AI systems with operational guardrails, governance models, and safe deployment patterns for enterprise environments
• Strong understanding of capacity forecasting, cost optimization, and infrastructure efficiency modeling at hyperscale
• Background working in private cloud environments, large-scale storage systems, or global distributed infrastructure
• PhD or advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Distributed Systems, or related field

Compensation and Benefits

At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. The base pay range for this role is between $216,200 and $394,000, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location. Apple employees also have access to discretionary employee stock programs, stock units, and the Apple Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Benefits include comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, discounted products and services, and education-related reimbursement for advancing your career. This role may be eligible for discretionary bonuses or relocation assistance. Learn more about Apple Benefits.

Note: Apple benefit, compensation and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program.

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.