Software Engineer - Distributed Systems, Insights & Release Technologies

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

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical and dental

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Apple Inc. is seeking a passionate Backend/DevOps Engineer for the Insights & Release Technologies team in Cupertino, CA.

You will design and maintain large backend services, ensuring they are scalable, observable, and resilient to failures while collaborating with cross-functional teams to optimize engineering workflows. The role emphasizes architectural leadership, mentorship, and delivering high-availability systems that power millions of Apple users.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience in a distributed system focusing on design, deployment, and observability.
• Proficiency with Swift on Server, Go, or equivalent.
• Knowledge of containerization, orchestration, networking, observability tools, and security.
• Experience scaling systems, performance analysis, and capacity planning for global distributed systems.
• Excellent communication and mentoring skills across diverse teams.

Responsibilities

• Design large backend services that are robust, scalable, and observable.
• Build mechanisms to tolerate server failures and maintain service continuity.
• Deploy and manage services across multiple environments.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align on architecture and delivery.
• Reduce operational toil by automating runbooks and tooling for production issues.
• Lead architectural discussions and guide design decisions for robustness and scalability.
• Own incident management processes to ensure high availability and rapid response.

Skills

Swift on Server

Go

Distributed systems

Observability

Containerization

Kubernetes

Networking

Security

Mentoring

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Observability tools

Job description

Software Engineer - Distributed Systems, Insights & Release Technologies

Cupertino, California, United States Software and Services

Do you want to help define the future of delivering Apple software to customers? Join the Insights & Release Technologies team to develop productivity products and release technologies focused on optimizing engineering workflows, so that we can deliver amazing software and experiences to millions of Apple users faster. Our team has a passion for innovation and is looking for individuals with a genuine excitement to collaborate with others to solve complex problems with a focus on the user experience.

Description

We are looking for a passionate and experienced Backend / DevOps Engineer who cares deeply about architectural excellence and writing scalable, reliable code that is as beautiful as the products it powers. As a member of the team, you will lead technical discussions, mentor other engineers, and drive features from concept to launch.

Responsibilities

• Designing large backend services, building, and maintaining robust, scalable, and observable systems.
• Building mechanisms so the system keeps working even if individual servers break.
• Deploying and managing services across various environments
• Designing, building, and maintaining robust, scalable, and observable systems.
• Collaborating closely with cross-functional teams.
• Reducing operational toil by developing automation and tooling to prevent and rapidly resolve production issues.
• Leading architectural and design discussions to ensure our solutions are robust, scalable, and forward-thinking.
• Owning and refining systems incident management processes to ensure high availability.
• Mentoring and guiding other engineers by providing constructive feedback in code reviews and fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement.

Minimum Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience working in a distributed system with focus on designing, deploying and observability of system
• Technologies: Experience with Swift on Server, Go or equivalent.
• Infrastructure: Knowledge of containerization, orchestration technologies, networking, observability tools, and security.
• System Reliability: Expertise in scaling systems, performance analysis, and capacity planning for global, distributed systems.
• Collaboration: Excellent communication skills and a genuine interest in mentoring others and collaborating with teams across a wide range of technologies and disciplines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with databases (relational and NoSQL, such as Cassandra), scalability and performance improvements to read centric databases.
• Experience with server-side development and systems programming.
• Demonstrated ability to lead incident response for high-impact outages.
• Familiarity with using Generative AI (GenAI) or Large Language Models (LLMs) to accelerate operational tasks, such as automating runbooks, generating scripts, or analyzing incident data.

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, 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.