Senior Network Software Engineer, Infrastructure Services

Apple Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 185,000 - 325,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple Backbone Engineering seeks a Senior Software Engineer to design, build, and scale SDN/SDI platforms for the global WAN. You will lead architecture of distributed controllers, telemetry pipelines, and control planes across multi-vendor networks.

You will work with Go, C, Python; implement high-performance microservices; participate in SRE practices and GitOps with Kubernetes.

This role offers competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering in large-scale distributed systems.
• Proficiency in Go, C, or Python.
• Experience with gRPC, Protocol Buffers, REST/TLS.
• Strong fundamentals in distributed systems, fault tolerance, and concurrency.
• Experience with declarative config modeling and automation for multi-vendor devices.

Responsibilities

• Design fault-tolerant SDN controllers and state synchronization for global traffic engineering.
• Architect declarative config generation and push engines for multi-vendor devices.
• Build controllers for routing/forwarding plane interaction across networks.
• Extend controllers to bridge IP and optical transport layers.
• Develop telemetry and observability pipelines using NetFlow, IPFIX, gNMI, and OpenTelemetry.
• Implement secure, low-latency microservices with Go/C/Python and GitOps deployment.

Skills

Go

C

Python

Distributed systems

gRPC

Protocol Buffers

REST

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS/CE

Tools

Prometheus

Grafana

OpenTelemetry

Job description

Senior Network Software Engineer, Infrastructure Services

San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States Software and Services

Do you want to help build some of the largest and most consequential enterprise and customer technology systems in the world? Join Apple’s Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) organization.IS&T is the engine behind everything Apple does for customers and for the people who build for them. It’s Apple’s central nervous system. Supporting 2.5 billion active Apple devices, processing billions of secure transactions, and keeping the technology that defines modern life running flawlessly, IS&T makes the impossible feel effortless.”Do you love building solutions to handle global complexity and immense scale? Imagine what you could do here.equipment and systems to deliver compute, storage, and networking services for teams across Apple, including its internal developer community. From individual facilities to a worldwide network, Infrastructure Services ensures the technology underneath everything works without question.

Description

The Apple Backbone Engineering group operates one of the world’s most extensive, critical, and high-performance Global Wide Area Networks (WAN). We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to design, build, and scale our next-generation Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI) platforms.In this role, you will lead the architecture and implementation of distributed WAN controllers, automated configuration generation and intent-push engines, real-time streaming telemetry pipelines, and distributed control planes that govern global traffic routing, path computation, and network resiliency. If you are passionate about distributed systems, routing protocol daemons, network element programmability, and building carrier-grade platforms from the ground up, come join our team.As a Senior Software Engineer on the Apple Backbone team, you will architect, build, and scale mission-critical software systems that govern Apple's global WAN and core network infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Distributed WAN Controllers & Control Planes: Design fault-tolerant SDN controllers and state synchronization systems for global traffic engineering, dynamic path optimization, and intent-based routing
• Configuration Modeling & Automated State Push: Architect declarative config generation, schema validation, and transactional push engines to multi-vendor network elements using OpenConfig/IETF YANG models and gRPC
• Routing & Forwarding Plane Interaction: Build software controllers that can create customized routing / forwarding table views and program the control / data planes on the physical and containerized routers using gRIBI or vendor specific SDKs and APIs.
• IP/Optical Cross-Layer Integration: Extend controller capabilities to bridge IP and optical transport layers
• Streaming Telemetry & Observability: Build reliable, high-throughput telemetry and analytics pipelines using NetFlow, IPFIX, gNMI, gRPC, BMP, and OpenTelemetry that is engineered to operate at Global scale ingesting several 100s of Millions of BGP routes and flow records
• High-Performance Microservices & Resiliency: Implement secure, low-latency services (Go, C, Python) with TLS/mTLS, adopting SRE best practices and GitOps-driven deployment (Kubernetes, Terraform, ArgoCD).

Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems and network software.
• Strong programming proficiency in Go (Golang), C, or Python (high-concurrency/systems programming).
• Hands-on experience developing secure, high-throughput microservices using gRPC, Protocol Buffers, and REST with TLS/mTLS.
• Solid foundation in distributed systems principles: consensus algorithms (e.g., Raft, Paxos), state synchronization, concurrency, and fault tolerance.
• Experience with declarative configuration modeling, schema validation, and automated config deployment/push workflows to network devices.
• Direct experience designing and building fault-tolerant mechanisms, including self-healing, active remediation, circuit breaking, load shedding, and blast-radius mitigation for network services.
• Deep foundation in computer science fundamentals, including distributed systems architecture, concurrency models, graph algorithms, and systems design
• Demonstrated ability to model complex failure domains, handle network partitions and split-brain scenarios, and reason rigorously about system behavior under extreme load and degradation
• Direct experience developing SDN Controllers, Path Computation Engines (PCE), or WAN Traffic Engineering platforms in hyperscale or carrier networks.
• Proven track record with modern observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry) and robust CI/CD pipelines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong working knowledge of core routing protocols and architectures (BGP, MPLS, TCP/IP).
• Deep Domain knowledge in Software-Define Networking (SDN) control and data planes, overlay networks and Linux Networking constructs such as eBPF, XDP, OVS.
• Hands-on experience with routing daemons (Juniper cRPD, FRR, GoBGP, BIRD) and multi-vendor NOS APIs (Junos, Cisco IOS-XR, Arista EOS, SONiC).
• Experience with streaming telemetry and programmability tooling (gNxI, OpenConfig/IETF models, BMP, NetFlow).
• Familiarity with next-generation optical transport networks, Open Line Systems (OLS), and coherent pluggables (400ZR/800ZR) from vendors like Ciena, Infinera, Cisco/Acacia, Nokia, or ADVA.
• Experience with Linux networking internals and container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, GitOps).
• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical industry experience.

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. Learn about accessibility in Apple’s workplace Learn about reasonable accommodations for job applicants

Apple accepts applications to this posting on an ongoing basis.