Senior Solution Architect, Traffic Infrastructure ASE

Apple; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple ASE Traffic is seeking a Solution Architect to partner with engineering teams integrating with our managed traffic products. You will understand customer traffic architectures, design integration paths onto Apple's traffic offerings, and translate requirements into concrete plans.

A strong networking background, Kubernetes ingress/egress experience, and Envoy/service mesh knowledge are essential for success.

Qualifications

• Solid networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, load balancing, TLS/mTLS).
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes ingress/egress patterns.
• Working knowledge of Envoy and service mesh technologies (Istio, Linkerd, or others).
• Strong ability to gather requirements from customers and translate ambiguity into a clear technical plan.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience presenting technical solutions to engineers.

Responsibilities

• Partner with customer engineering teams to clarify traffic and load balancing requirements.
• Assess customer Kubernetes deployments and design ingress/egress integration patterns.
• Advise on Envoy configuration and mesh adoption best practices.
• Identify gaps between customer needs and Traffic product capabilities and prioritize fixes with engineering.
• Produce clear technical solution designs, migration plans, and documentation for customers.
• Review customer integration designs for correctness, resiliency, and best practices.

Skills

Networking basics

Kubernetes

Envoy/Service mesh

Requirements gathering

Technical communication

Job description

Summary

ASE Traffic builds and operates Apple's managed load balancing, service mesh, and gateway offerings for routing and securing traffic across borders, trust zones, and agentic workflows. We're looking for a Solution Architect to be the primary technical partner for engineering teams across Apple who are integrating with our Traffic products. In this role, you will work directly with customer teams to understand their traffic and networking requirements, translate those requirements into concrete integration plans, and identify and help close feature gaps along the way. You'll need a strong foundation in networking fundamentals, hands-on experience with Kubernetes ingress/egress patterns, and working knowledge of Envoy and service mesh concepts. Above all, you should enjoy working closely with people, translating ambiguous requirements into clear technical solutions, and driving those solutions to completion.

Description

As a Solution Architect on ASE Traffic, you will act as the bridge between our platform and the engineering teams who depend on it. You'll meet with customer teams to understand their current traffic architecture, application topology, and networking requirements, then design integration paths onto Apple's managed traffic products.

Key Responsibilities

Partnering directly with customer engineering teams to gather and clarify their traffic, load balancing, and service mesh requirementsAssessing customer Kubernetes deployments and designing appropriate ingress/egress integration patternsAdvising customers on Envoy configuration and mesh adoption best practicesIdentifying gaps between customer requirements and current Traffic product capabilities, and working with engineering to prioritize and close themProducing clear technical solution designs, migration plans, and documentation that customer teams can execute againstReviewing customer integration designs for correctness, resiliency, and adherence to traffic best practicesServing as an escalation point for customers running into integration issuesWorking cross-functionally with Traffic engineering, SRE, and partner teams to ensure customer solutions are supportable long-termContributing to internal documentation, reference architectures, and self-service guidance to scale solutioning beyond 1:1 engagements

Minimum Qualifications

Solid networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, load balancing, TLS/mTLS)Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, especially ingress/egress traffic patternsWorking knowledge of Envoy, and/or other service mesh technologies (Istio, Linkerd, or others)Strong ability to gather requirements from customers and translate ambiguity into a clear technical planExcellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience presenting technical solutions to engineers of varying seniority

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with load balancing strategies, service discovery, and rate limiting at scaleExperience with distributed systems design and analyzing systems for performance or reliability issuesFamiliarity with API design for network-related services and inter-process communication (sockets, gRPC, message queues)Experience supporting live, customer-facing services in a production environmentAbility to navigate ambiguity, manage competing priorities, and drive multi-team initiatives to completionAbility to foster trusting relationships across a diverse set of internal customer teamsExperience with traffic solutions over 3rd-party cloud providers is a plus