Machine Learning Engineer - Proactive

Apple Inc.; Cupertino, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 278,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple in Cupertino, California is seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to help build the next generation of intelligent search and AI experiences while preserving user privacy. You will work with large language models, semantic retrieval systems, and ranking models to design, optimize, and deploy personalized experiences across Apple's ecosystem.

Responsibilities include designing, optimizing, and deploying semantic retrieval, embedding, reranking, and retrieval-augmented generation

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
• Background in machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, information retrieval, search, recommender systems, or generative AI.
• Experience with semantic retrieval, embedding models, reranking, or retrieval-augmented generation systems.
• Programming skills in Python and/or C/C++, with experience building production-quality software using modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow.

Responsibilities

• Work with semantic retrieval systems and ranking models to design, optimize, and deploy relevant, personalized, and context-aware experiences across Apple's ecosystem.
• Build semantic retrieval, embedding, reranking, and retrieval-augmented generation systems that improve search quality and AI-powered experiences.
• Improve the underlying software infrastructure and optimize solutions for low-latency inference.
• Partner with engineers, researchers, product managers, and designers to bring AI capabilities from research into production, driving technical strategy and exploring new applications of foundation models, multimodal AI, agentic retrieval, and personalized intelligence.

Skills

ML background

NLP & IR knowledge

Python proficiency

C/C++ proficiency

Production software

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, ML, or AI

Tools

PyTorch

JAX

TensorFlow

Semantic retrieval

Embedding models

Reranking

Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Job description

Cupertino, California, United States Machine Learning and AI

At Apple, machine learning powers experiences that anticipate what people need before they ask. We're looking for a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to help build the next generation of intelligent search and AI experiences technology that understands user intent, context, and personal information while preserving privacy. In this role, you'll work with large language models, semantic retrieval systems, and ranking models to design, optimize, and deploy relevant, personalized, and context-aware experiences across Apple's ecosystem.

Description

You'll work with semantic retrieval systems, and ranking models to design, optimize, and deploy relevant, personalized, and context-aware experiences. You'll build semantic retrieval, embedding, reranking, and retrieval-augmented generation systems that improve search quality and AI-powered experiences. You'll improve the underlying software infrastructure, optimize solutions for low-latency inference, and adapt large foundation models into smaller, highly capable models that operate efficiently under on-device memory, compute, power, and latency constraints.

Responsibilities

• Work with semantic retrieval systems and ranking models to design, optimize, and deploy relevant, personalized, and context-aware experiences across Apple's ecosystem.
• Build semantic retrieval, embedding, reranking, and retrieval-augmented generation systems that improve search quality and AI-powered experiences.
• Improve the underlying software infrastructure and optimize solutions for low-latency inference.
• Partner with engineers, researchers, product managers, and designers to bring AI capabilities from research into production, driving technical strategy and exploring new applications of foundation models, multimodal AI, agentic retrieval, and personalized intelligence.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
• Background in machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, information retrieval, search, recommender systems, or generative AI.
• Experience with semantic retrieval, embedding models, reranking, or retrieval-augmented generation systems.
• Programming skills in Python and/or C/C++, with experience building production-quality software using modern machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
• Experience building and deploying semantic search, retrieval, or ranking systems at scale in a production environment.
• Hands-on experience with retrieval-augmented generation, dense retrieval, or neural reranking pipelines.
• Experience adapting or distilling large foundation models into compact, efficient models for on-device deployment.
• Familiarity with model optimization techniques such as quantization, pruning, or knowledge distillation.
• Experience designing and running offline evaluations and online experiments (A/B testing) to measure search quality, ranking, or model performance.
• Strong understanding of query understanding, intent modeling, or personalization in search or recommendation systems.
• Experience working across cross-functional teams to ship AI-powered features in consumer products

At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $150,400 and $277,600, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.
Apple employees also have the opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple’s discretionary employee stock programs. Apple employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You’ll also receive benefits including: Comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for certain educational expenses — including tuition. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation. Learn more about Apple Benefits

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.