Motion Sensing System Architect

Apple; Emeryville (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple seeks a leader to own the motion sensing system architecture across its products. You will drive the feature roadmap, translate requirements into system specs, and model the full signal chain to guarantee performance.

You will ensure sensor integration meets mechanical, thermal, and manufacturing constraints, while communicating risks and recommendations to leadership. The role requires deep expertise in MEMS sensing, signal processing, validation planning, and multi-physics modeling, with

Qualifications

• Ph.D. and proven track record shipping motion sensor products.

Responsibilities

• Drive the motion sensing feature roadmap by evaluating emerging technologies, user needs, and product opportunities.

Skills

MEMS sensing systems

Signal processing

Modeling and simulation

Sensor fusion

Machine learning

Validation planning

Education

Ph.D

Tools

ANSYS Maxwell

COMSOL

MATLAB

Python

JMP

Job description

Motion sensors bridge the physical and digital realms, enabling seamless user interaction and motion features across Apple products. The Motion Sensing Hardware Team integrates MEMS and magnetic sensing technologies throughout Apple's product portfolio in a collaborative environment that fosters creativity and engineering excellence. Invention and patent creation are encouraged to revolutionize product design through innovative technologies and exceptional user experiences.

As a member of this team, you will own the end-to-end sensing system architecture - from transducer physics through signal chain and algorithm - shaping how motion sensing capabilities are defined, developed, and delivered from concept through high-volume manufacturing.

Description

You will own the motion sensing system architecture for state-of-the- sensors (magnetic, inertial, and pressure) across Apple products. Your primary responsibility is to drive the feature roadmap, define feature requirements, and systematically decompose them into system requirements and sensor module specifications. You will build and validate quantitative end-to-end models capturing the full signal chain - physical, electrical, and algorithmic - to ensure that sensor specifications and intermediate figures of merit guarantee feature-level performance. Beyond requirements definition, you will own sensor integration into the product system, leveraging modeling and simulation to optimize sensor placement and working cross-functionally to ensure placement meets performance, mechanical, and manufacturing constraints. You will define comprehensive validation plans, execute them rigorously, and generate high-quality reports to communicate results, risks, and recommendations to leadership and cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Drive the motion sensing feature roadmap by evaluating emerging technologies, user needs, and product opportunities.
• Define feature requirements and systematically translate them into system-level requirements, intermediate figures of merit, and sensor module specifications - maintaining full traceability across the requirements hierarchy.
• Build and validate quantitative end-to-end models of the sensing signal chain (physical, electrical, algorithmic) to guarantee that sensor specifications deliver required feature performance.
• Own sensor integration into the product system; leverage modeling and simulation to evaluate and optimize sensor placement for performance, ensuring mechanical, thermal, and electromagnetic constraints are met.
• Work cross-functionally with mechanical, electrical, industrial design, and product design teams to align on sensor placement and integration trade-offs.
• Define comprehensive validation plans spanning characterization through production; execute validation campaigns and drive closure of open issues.
• Generate high-quality engineering reports and share findings, status, risks, and mitigation strategies with leadership and cross-functional teams through thorough documentation and clear presentations.
• Determine the sensitivity of user-facing features to variation in sensor specifications; perform impact analyses to assess proposed requirement and specification changes.
• Perform architectural trade-off analyses across performance, manufacturability, size, schedule, and cost to guide module and system integration teams.
• Develop repeatable, reproducible, and automated measurement methods to enable thorough validation on tight development schedules.
• Diagnose engineering issues with rigorous scientific method, driving to definitive root cause.
• Support engineering builds with performance validation, yield optimization, and failure analysis coordination.
• Drive multi-source sensor performance matching and work with suppliers to proactively resolve specification-matching issues; travel to supplier and manufacturing sites as needed.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ph.D + Proven track record shipping motion sensor or sensing system products.
• Experience in architecture, design, characterization, and validation of MEMS sensing systems (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer), including theory of operation, signal processing, fabrication, packaging, and design trade-offs.
• Deep, multi-disciplinary understanding of EE, ME, transducer physics, and system engineering principles.
• Proficiency in modeling, simulation, and analysis tools (ANSYS Maxwell, COMSOL, MATLAB, Python, JMP); experience designing and running FEA or Monte Carlo simulations.
• Experience in sensor placement optimization through modeling (FEA, magnetic/inertial simulation) within product-level constraints.
• Strong fundamentals in signal processing, probability, and statistics; competency in sensor fusion, machine learning, and mathematical modeling is an asset.
• Experience defining and executing validation plans from characterization through production readiness.
• Experience building and testing complex multi-physics systems and deliv