Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Ads Relevance & Quality

Apple Inc.; Cupertino (CA); On-site; USD 216,200 - 324,800; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical and dental coverage

Employee stock programs

Education reimbursement

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Apple Ads is seeking a seasoned Machine Learning Engineer to advance ad relevance, trust, and content quality across queries and impressions. You will build NLP and multi-modal models to detect offensive content, understand semantics, and match keywords to ads at a global scale.

You'll collaborate with product, policy, and infra teams while leveraging privacy-preserving data. A strong background in ML, NLP, and transformer-based pipelines is required, with a focus on production-ready systems in

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience applying machine learning at scale in ad tech, content moderation, search ranking, or recommendation systems.
• Strong NLP skills including offensive content detection and semantic matching.
• Experience with Transformer-based architectures (e.g., BERT, DistilBERT) and training pipelines in TensorFlow or PyTorch.
• Familiarity with fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) for downstream tasks such as classification, content moderation, or semantic relevance.
• Familiarity with quality and fairness evaluation frameworks (precision, recall, coverage, policy alignment, etc.).
• Hands-on experience with A/B testing, experimentation frameworks, and performance debugging in production.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL.
• MS in Computer Science, Machine Learning, NLP, or a related technical field

Responsibilities

• Design and implement machine learning models to evaluate and improve ad relevance, trust, and quality for user queries
• Build NLP and multi-modal models that detect offensive, unsafe, or policy-violating content at scale
• Develop methods for semantic query understanding, ads understanding, relevance scoring, and keyword-to-ad matching
• Collaborate closely with product and policy teams to translate content integrity standards into measurable ML objectives
• Work with large-scale, privacy-preserving datasets to discover and operationalize new quality signals
• Conduct offline/online experiments to measure impact on user trust and satisfaction across Ads
• Partner cross-functionally with infrastructure, product, and moderation teams to deploy models at production scale

Skills

NLP expertise

Transformer models

Python

SQL

A/B testing

ML at scale

Communication skills

Education

MS in Computer Science / ML / NLP

PhD (preferred)

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Scala/Java

Job description

At Apple, we focus deeply on our customers' experience. Apple Ads brings this same approach to advertising, helping people find exactly what they're looking for and helping advertisers grow their businesses! Our technology powers ads and sponsorships across Apple Services, including the App Store, Apple News, and MLS Season Pass.

Everything we do is designed for trust, connection, and impact: We respect user privacy, integrate advertising thoughtfully into the experience, and deliver value for advertisers of all sizes-from small app developers to big, global brands. Because when advertising is done right, it benefits everyone!

Apple's Ads team is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Machine Learning Engineer to join the Ads Relevance and Quality team. This team is responsible for ensuring high-quality, trustworthy ad experiences by building intelligent systems to evaluate ad relevance, detect low-quality or offensive content, and optimize user satisfaction.

You will work at the intersection of applied ML, NLP, and content quality - designing models and systems that understand queries, flag inappropriate content, and raise the bar for ad relevance and user trust across billions of queries and impressions.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement machine learning models to evaluate and improve ad relevance, trust, and quality for user queries
• Build NLP and multi-modal models that detect offensive, unsafe, or policy-violating content at scale
• Develop methods for semantic query understanding, ads understanding, relevance scoring, and keyword-to-ad matching
• Collaborate closely with product and policy teams to translate content integrity standards into measurable ML objectives
• Work with large-scale, privacy-preserving datasets to discover and operationalize new quality signals
• Conduct offline/online experiments to measure impact on user trust and satisfaction across Ads
• Partner cross-functionally with infrastructure, product, and moderation teams to deploy models at production scale

Preferred Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience applying machine learning at scale in domains such as ad tech, content moderation, search ranking, or recommendation systems
• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, NLP, or a related technical field
• Additional experience in Scala or Java

Minimum Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience applying machine learning at scale in domains such as ad tech, content moderation, search ranking, or recommendation systems
• Strong expertise in natural language processing, including offensive content detection, semantic matching
• Experience with Transformer-based architectures (e.g., BERT, DistilBERT) and training pipelines in TensorFlow or PyTorch
• Familiarity with fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) for downstream tasks such as classification, content moderation, or semantic relevance
• Familiarity with quality and fairness evaluation frameworks (precision, recall, coverage, policy alignment, etc.)
• Hands-on experience with A/B testing, experimentation frameworks, and performance debugging in production
• Proficiency in Python and SQL
• Strong problem-solving and communication skills with a focus on translating abstract trust/safety goals into deployable solutions
• MS in Computer Science, Machine Learning, NLP, or a related technical field

Pay & Benefits

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