Software Development Engineer (Developer Experience and Platform Tools)

Apple Inc.; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 278,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical and dental coverage

Retirement benefits

Discounted products and services

Educational expense reimbursement

Bonuses or commissions

Relocation

Job summary

Apple is seeking a Software Development Engineer for Developer Experience and Platform Tools in Cupertino, CA. You will own platform qualification, test automation, CI/CD pipelines, and release engineering across multiple compute platforms, collaborating with SRE, hardware, OS, and platform teams to automate releases.

The role emphasizes building scalable infrastructure, writing code, and improving performance for both x86 and Apple Silicon, including on-call responsibilities and a focus on

Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to design, debug, and test complex software systems.
• 3+ years of experience in related software development (or comparable academic experience).
• Experience designing and building CI/CD systems, build/release pipelines, or developer tooling used by other engineering teams
• Experience with test automation at scale: designing test frameworks, managing test infrastructure, and producing release signal engineers and other teams can trust
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, or equivalent related experience.
• Strong fundamentals of distributed systems, operating systems, and comfort (or curiosity) debugging at the OS and hardware boundary
• Familiarity with all aspects of software development, from architecture to deployment and maintenance
• Customer-focused thinking and strong problem-solving skills with attention to detail
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills to effectively collaborate with cross-functional partners across different time zones
• Enthusiasm about upholding Apple’s standards in product quality, design, and user experience

Responsibilities

• Own and develop our platform qualification and test automation service end to end — architecture, code, API, and data model — growing it into the authoritative signal for release readiness across our compute fleet
• Own CI/CD and release engineering for systems that lay foundation of multiple compute platforms — design the pipelines, promotion gates, artifact and versioning strategy, and rollout mechanics that take a change from commit to production across many sites
• Drive software qualification for hardware and software releases, including new server generations and OS/firmware releases on both x86 and Apple Silicon. Define what "qualified" means, automate the evidence for it, and shorten the qualification cycle from weeks to days
• Write and review code, generate and review design documentation
• Enjoy working on scalability, resilience, security, efficiency, and performance limits of infrastructure services. Be curious about how systems work and, more importantly, how they fail
• Approach complex issues with creativity, ready to take risks and course-correct effectively to impact the success of the platform
• Participate in on-call rotation and partner with the SRE team to triage, investigate, and resolve production issues
• Partner with hardware/software engineering, OS, and platform teams across Apple to make qualification a first-class, automated part of every release

Skills

Software design

Debugging

Test automation

CI/CD design

Distributed systems

Operating systems

Communication

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Equivalent related experience

Tools

Go

Python

Kubernetes

Job description

Software Development Engineer (Developer Experience and Platform Tools)

Cupertino, California, United States Software and Services

Envision your potential here at Apple, where fresh concepts swiftly transform into extraordinary products. Bring your passion and dedication to your role, and there's no limit to what we can achieve together. We're seeking a diligent and enthusiastic individual to join our exceptional team, and if that's you, we'd love to hear from you!The Apple Service Engineering (ASE) team is responsible for the systems and infrastructure that drive Apple's services, including iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV, Siri, and Maps, amongst others. Apple's unique integration of hardware, software, and services means you'll collaborate with top-tier engineers from various disciplines to design and deliver products our customers adore. Our services must scale globally, remain highly available, and "just work."The ASE Compute team is looking for a software engineer to own the tooling that lets our internal cloud compute platforms ship quickly and safely. You will own and evolve our platform qualification and test automation service — the system that decides whether a hardware or software release is fit for production — and own the CI/CD and release engineering practice for software that powers multiple internal compute platforms. This is a builder role: you'll write the tools, define the release pipelines, and then work with platform, SRE, and hardware engineering teams to qualify new server generations and OS releases across both x86 and Apple silicon server architectures.If you like being the catalyst who makes a magnitude of other engineers faster, and are excited about the idea of differentiating "the tests passed" and "we know this release is good," this is the role.

Description

In this role, as part of the ASE Compute Organization, you will:

• Own and develop our platform qualification and test automation service end to end — architecture, code, API, and data model — growing it into the authoritative signal for release readiness across our compute fleet
• Own CI/CD and release engineering for systems that lay foundation of multiple compute platforms — design the pipelines, promotion gates, artifact and versioning strategy, and rollout mechanics that take a change from commit to production across many sites
• Drive software qualification for hardware and software releases, including new server generations and OS/firmware releases on both x86 and Apple Silicon. Define what "qualified" means, automate the evidence for it, and shorten the qualification cycle from weeks to days
• Write and review code, generate and review design documentation
• Enjoy working on scalability, resilience, security, efficiency, and performance limits of infrastructure services. Be curious about how systems work and, more importantly, how they fail
• Approach complex issues with creativity, ready to take risks and course-correct effectively to impact the success of the platform
• Participate in on-call rotation and partner with the SRE team to triage, investigate, and resolve production issues
• Partner with hardware/software engineering, OS, and platform teams across Apple to make qualification a first-class, automated part of every release

Minimum Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to design, debug, and test complex software systems
• 3+ years of experience in related software development (or comparable academic experience)
• Experience designing and building CI/CD systems, build/release pipelines, or developer tooling used by other engineering teams
• Experience with test automation at scale: designing test frameworks, managing test infrastructure, and producing release signal engineers and other teams can trust
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, or equivalent related experience.
• Strong fundamentals of distributed systems, operating systems, and comfort (or curiosity) debugging at the OS and hardware boundary
• Familiarity with all aspects of software development, from architecture to deployment and maintenance
• Customer-focused thinking and strong problem-solving skills with attention to detail
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills to effectively collaborate with cross-functional partners across different time zones
• Enthusiasm about upholding Apple’s standards in product quality, design, and user experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience qualifying or releasing software against multiple CPU architectures (x86_64 and arm64/Apple silicon), including cross-compilation, multi-arch artifacts, and architecture-specific failure modes
• Experience with hardware bring-up or qualification programs — DVT/EVT-style validation pipelines, software performance benchmarking, burn-in and stress testing
• Experience with virtualized and containerized runtime environments; operational knowledge of Kubernetes
• Proficiency in Go and/or Python; comfort building services, CLIs, and web UIs
• Experience with release safety practices: canaries, progressive rollout, automated rollback, and release metrics
• Experience with measuring, analyzing, and optimizing performance and efficiency for large-scale compute platforms
• Ability to effectively communicate within a team and with project stakeholders

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 $150,400 and $277,600, 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
• reimbursement for certain educational expenses — including tuition
• discretionary bonuses or commission payments
• relocation

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.