Software Engineer - Darwin Server, Core OS

Socket.dev; Cupertino (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple is seeking an engineer for the Darwin Server team to advance server and cloud technologies used in Apple operating systems. You will work on packaging, cloud integrations, observability, and security features for Private Cloud Compute.

You’ll participate in all stages of development, collaborate with client teams, and partner with Apple tech owners to enable server deployments across the platform.

Qualifications

• Experience with UNIX-like systems and OS fundamentals.
• Strong understanding of OS architecture and systems programming.
• Proficient in Swift, C, Rust, or Go (Swift preferred).
• Familiar with cloud provisioning/orchestration (cloud-init, Kubernetes) and packaging (OCI).
• Experience building system daemons/services and designing APIs.
• BS/MS in CS or equivalent knowledge and experience.

Responsibilities

• Participate in all phases of the software development cycle: problem definition, design, implementation, testing, and debugging.
• Work with client teams to build features required for Darwin to meet development and product needs.
• Partner with Apple technology owners to enable their tech for server environments.
• Engage cross-functionally to drive technical change across Apple.

Skills

UNIX-like systems

OS architecture

Swift

C

Rust

Go

Cloud provisioning

APIs design

Education

BS/MS in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

launchd

OpenTelemetry

Kubernetes

OCI/containers

Job description

DESCRIPTION

You will be responsible for working on a range of technologies that form the foundation of Apple’s operating systems, with a focus on improving these technologies for use in server and cloud environments. Projects you work on as part of the Darwin Server team could include:

• Building technologies to enable server application packaging and distribution (like OCI images or Flatpak)


• Enabling Darwin to be integrated with cloud management and orchestration technologies (similar to cloud-init or Kubernetes)


• Improving Darwin’s support for observability at scale (e.g. OpenTelemetry)


• Developing new security or privacy features to improve Private Cloud Compute

An engineer on the Darwin Server team would regularly:

• Participate in all phases of the software development cycle: from problem definition and design, through implementation, testing, and debugging


• Work with client teams to build the features required for Darwin to meet their development and product requirements


• Partner with technology owners throughout Apple to enable their technologies for use in server environments


• Engage cross-functionally to effect technical change across Apple

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience with UNIX-like systems


• Strong understanding of operating systems architecture and systems programming fundamentals


• Proficient in a systems programming language such as Swift, C, Rust, or Go (much of our newer work is in Swift).


• Familiarity with how operating systems integrate with cloud infrastructure — such as provisioning and orchestration (cloud-init, Kubernetes), application packaging (OCI, containers), and server observability/diagnostics


• Experience developing system daemons/services (e.g., launchd-managed services), libraries, or designing APIs


• BS/MS in Computer Science or equivalent knowledge and experience

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience building operating system infrastructure to support cloud computing


• Practical understanding of security and trust principles such as certificates, software signing, attestation, and policy-based configuration validation.


• Ability to systematically troubleshoot issues across the entire technology stack


• Perspective on how successful teams build and operate cloud technologies


• Involvement in open source technologies and development communities such as Darwin, FreeBSD, Linux, etc


• Passion for raising the bar for privacy and security in cloud computing