Research Engineer / Scientist

Apple, Inc.; Cupertino (CA); On-site; USD 216,000 - 325,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonuses

Relocation assistance

Apple Benefits

Job summary

Apple is seeking skilled Machine Learning Engineers to transform cutting-edge research into scalable AI solutions. This role focuses on training data strategy, evaluation, and data systems for foundation models, with leadership responsibilities across teams.

You will influence data development from pre-training to post-training and ensure privacy and compliance. You will work with cross-functional partners including model training leads, product teams, security, legal, and compliance to deliver

Qualifications

• PhD and 5+ years or MS and 8+ years of experience in machine learning or data infrastructure.
• Deep ML expertise in LLMs or multimodal foundation models, with depth in evaluation or data systems.
• Strong statistics and experimental design, with ability to review designs in detail.
• A track record of training data or evaluation work that improved model quality.
• Technical leadership across teams: setting direction and mentoring engineers/researchers.
• Hands-on proficiency in Python and ML frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX.

Responsibilities

• Shape strategy for training data and evaluation across pre-training, mid-training, and post-training.
• Invest across data acquisition, curation, synthetic data, and evaluation coverage.
• Set standards for governance, release gating, contamination, and data documentation.
• Turn evaluation failures into data decisions and close capability gaps.
• Lead data ablations and scaling-law studies; define data mixture decisions.
• Lead decontamination across training data and protect held-out sets.
• Define evaluation portfolios for reasoning, coding, knowledge, and multi-turn workflows.
• Build product-aligned evaluation predicting user-perceived quality on Apple devices.
• Direct architecture of high-throughput data pipelines across cloud and HPC.
• Set data provenance, licensing, privacy, and takedown practices.

Skills

Python

ML fundamentals

Leadership

LLM evaluation

Statistics

Education

PhD in a related field

MS in a related field

Tools

PyTorch

JAX

Apache Beam

Spark

Job description

Cupertino, California, United States Machine Learning and AI

Apple is revolutionizing artificial intelligence by developing sophisticated foundation models that power intelligent features across our product ecosystem. We're seeking skilled Machine Learning Engineers to transform cutting-edge research into scalable, production-ready AI solutions. We are looking for engineers who are passionate about building systems that push the frontier of deep learning in terms of scaling, efficiency, and flexibility and delight millions of users in Apple products.We build the foundation models behind intelligent experiences across Apple products, from high-performance server models to highly efficient on-device models, all designed for Apple silicon and for private, personal use. How good these models get depends on the data they learn from and on how well we measure them.We are looking for a technical leader to drive training data and model evaluation across the foundation model training lifecycle, from pre-training and mid-training through post-training. You will influence our strategy for data development: data at scale, at high quality, compliant with privacy and policy requirements, and targeted through curation and synthesis based on product feedback. You will also drive evaluation that steers model training and predicts real user experience.

Description

This position combines machine learning research, model evaluation, and distributed data systems. Success is measured by the model improvements our data produces, and by evaluations that are reliable, predict real user experience, and guide training decisions.You will work through trade-offs when data, evaluation, and training priorities compete, and bring data and evaluation insights into model decisions: which capabilities to prioritize, which data and mixture changes to adopt, and whether a model is ready for release. You will partner with model training leads, product teams, and security, legal, and compliance teams.You are a recognized technical expert who leads across teams through technical depth and influence. Depending on your background, the role may include managing a team.The responsibilities below cover the full scope of the area. Your focus will be the subset that best matches your background, and it can grow over time.- Production model strategy- Closing the loop between evaluation, data, and training- Evaluation- Data systems and curation- Technical and team leadership

Responsibilities

• Shape strategy for training data and evaluation across pre-training, mid-training, and post-training, aligned with the production model roadmap.
• Help decide where to invest across data acquisition, curation, synthetic data, and evaluation coverage, including what to build, buy, or source from vendors.
• Set standards that other teams adopt for benchmark governance, release gating, contamination, and data documentation.
• Turn evaluation failures into data decisions: decide which capability gaps to close through acquisition, curation, or synthetic generation, and verify the result.
• Lead data ablations and scaling-law studies, and define how data mixture decisions are made and validated.
• Lead decontamination across pre-training, mid-training, and post-training data, including synthetic and vendor data. Define the standard, measure residual contamination, and protect held-out evaluation sets from overuse.
• Define the evaluation portfolio for reasoning, coding, knowledge, and multi-turn agentic workflows, and decide where to build new benchmarks and where to adopt existing ones.
• Lead model-based judging, including how judges are validated, versioned, and checked for bias.
• Build product-aligned evaluation that predicts user-perceived quality on Apple devices, and partner with annotation teams and vendors to correlate automated metrics with human judgment.
• Direct the architecture of high-throughput systems that acquire, process, and curate petabytes of text, code, and multimodal data (image, audio, video) across cloud and high-performance compute.
• Set the quality bar for algorithmic data curation, including semantic deduplication, heuristic and model-based quality filtering, and synthetic data generation.
• Drive data provenance, licensing, privacy, and takedown practices for training data with security, legal, and compliance teams.
• Raise the technical bar across data and evaluation through design reviews, mentoring, and hiring, and drive adoption of shared systems and tooling across teams.
• Where the role includes a team, manage and grow it.
• Communicate findings, risks, and recommendations clearly to senior leadership and cross-functional partners.

Minimum Qualifications

• PhD and 5+ years or MS and 8+ years of experience in machine learning or data infrastructure, including leading technical work at scale.
• Deep machine learning expertise in LLMs or multimodal foundation models, with depth in either evaluation methodology or large-scale training data systems and curation, and working fluency in the other.
• Strong fundamentals in statistics and experimental design, and the credibility to review designs and experiments in detail.
• A track record of training data or evaluation work on large models that measurably improved model quality or changed how models are built.
• Technical leadership across teams: setting direction, mentoring senior engineers or researchers, and driving adoption of systems, benchmarks, or standards beyond your own team.
• Ability to influence senior leaders and cross-functional partners, and to turn complex results into clear decisions.
• Hands-on proficiency in Python and an ML framework such as PyTorch or JAX.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in a related field.
• Training data: experience across pre-training, mid-training, and post-training data, including data ablations and scaling-law studies, and with non-text modalities (images, audio, video) and source code at scale.
• Evaluation: experience designing standardized LLM benchmarks, LLM-as-a-judge frameworks, contamination detection and decontamination, or human evaluation programs with annotation teams and vendors.
• Systems: experience architecting distributed data pipelines (for example Apache Beam, Spark) on major cloud platforms, strong systems programming skills, and building evaluation or data platforms adopted across multiple teams.
• Governance: experience with data provenance, licensing, and privacy-preserving practices for training data.
• Experience managing a team of engineers or researchers.

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 $216,200 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

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Apple accepts applications to this posting on an ongoing basis.