Machine Learning Research Engineer, NLP, Input Experience

Apple Inc.; Cupertino, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 185,000 - 325,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation

Job summary

Apple Inc. in Cupertino, CA seeks a Machine Learning Research Engineer specializing in NLP and input experience to push agentic ML product development at scale.

You will bridge research and product, design data and evaluation pipelines, and collaborate across human interfaces, internationalization, and system integration.

Demonstrated leadership and advanced ML/NLP expertise are required; competitive compensation, relocation support, and comprehensive benefits are offered.

Qualifications

• Masters or PhD in CS, EE, Physics, Statistics or related field; or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience in technical leadership or engineering management.
• Strong foundation in Data Science and ML stack.
• Familiarity with product ML/NLP lifecycle.
• Familiarity with SFT, RLHF, Data Synthesis, PEFT, LLM-judge evaluation.

Responsibilities

• Enable next-generation agentic ML product development systems at scale.
• Bridge gap between research and product reality, aligning with product goals and user needs.
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners in human interfaces, user studies, internationalization, and system integration.
• Develop and refine data, tooling, modeling, and evaluation pipelines for agentic workflows.

Skills

Data Science

ML Stack

Leadership

NLP lifecycle

RLHF

SFT

PEFT

Data Synthesis

Education

Master's or PhD

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

Claude

Copilot

LLM tools

Job description

Machine Learning Research Engineer, NLP, Input Experience

Cupertino, California, United States Machine Learning and AI

From our origins in iPhone keyboard input, the Input Experience NLP team has expanded our broad charter: enhancing the user experience with robust language understanding and personalized text composition, across all Apple platforms and languages. Generative AI is a transformative technology, and we are just beginning to harness its potential to help users digest information and express themselves more clearly. On our team, you will help build the future and shape its evolution. Our team is responsible for key Apple Intelligence portfolios such as personalized Writing Tools, Summarization (Mail, Messages, Notifications, etc.) , Found In, Smart Actions as well as the entire keyboard backend: autocorrection, inline completions, proofreading, across all Apple platforms. Building on years of innovation in intelligent systems and on-device machine learning, we are now scaling efforts in bringing powerful foundation models (on-device and server) directly into everyday workflows.We are looking for an engineering manager who can work at the intersection of ML, NLP and software engineering, specifically focused on innovating and evolving our data, tooling, modeling and evaluation pipelines with agentic harnesses, to scale globally. We are shifting the entire paradigm of ML product development across feature definition, data synthesis, model training, auto-evaluation, model probing, evaluation and user feedback to agentic workflows. You will have the opportunity to define and execute state-of-the-art paradigm for a swathe of high-impact features and languages, creating ML playbooks for scale, and influencing the rest of Apple. You will also be responsible for building and refining the personalized agent trajectory pipelines for data and evaluation across synthetic personas and languages. The role provides an opportunity to join an ambitious, collaborative team in a unique position to bridge the gap between cutting-edge ML research and features used by millions. You will work closely with cross-functional partners in human interfaces, user studies, internationalization, and system integration. You are not just developing technology; you are crafting experiences that feel like magic to the end user.

Description

As an engineer, you will enable the next-generation of agentic ML product development systems at scale using Apple Foundation Models. You will sit at the intersection of cutting-edge research and product reality, bridging the gap between raw model performance and the nuanced needs of Apple customers worldwide. You will explore, design, and implement emerging techniques, ensuring alignment with product goals, privacy requirements, and performance metrics in a hands‑on role. The role requires technical depth across ML & NLP, with a solid understanding of building scalable ML pipelines. You will redefine the ML development process across features and languages: problem formulation, experimentation, evaluation, fine‑tuning, and continuous improvement that expand both the depth of Apple Intelligence’s capabilities and the breadth of its support for our global customer base.

Minimum Qualifications

• Masters or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Statistics or related field; or equivalent practical experience
• Prior experience with technical leadership or engineering management
• Strong foundation in Data Science and ML Stack.
• Familiarity with product ML/NLP lifecycle
• Familiarity with techniques such as SFT, RLHF, Data Synthesis, Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning, LLM-judge evaluation

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with deploying large ML models for real world products and leading high-performing teams
• Experience curating, filtering, and synthesizing high-quality training datasets at scale
• Familiarity with ML pipelines that need to scale across languages
• Experience developing and training models for agentic workflows, tool calling and advanced reasoning techniques
• Familiarity with working and managing complex, large-scale codebases, with a strong emphasis on writing high-quality, maintainable, and well-tested code.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude, Copilot, or similar) to accelerate experimentation, code development, and research workflows

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 $184,700 and $324,800, 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

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.

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