Software Engineering Manager, Retail Foundations

Apple Inc.; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple in Austin, Texas is seeking an experienced Software Engineering Manager for Retail Foundations. The role combines hands-on coding with people management to design and maintain foundational systems and platforms powering Apple Retail engineering.

You will lead a small team of engineers, drive architectural decisions, and ensure delivery of scalable, secure cloud-based services, primarily in Java, while collaborating with cross-functional partners and senior leadership.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field, or equivalent professional work experience.
• 5+ years of proven software development experience.
• 2+ years of direct people management experience leading 3+ software engineers.
• 3+ years of experience designing, implementing, and shipping distributed systems with secure cloud API/RPC design.
• 3+ years of experience with relational, NewSQL, and NoSQL databases, including schema design and query optimization.
• Proficiency in OOP principles, data structures, algorithms, and GoF design patterns with focus on distributed systems.
• Experience with Java and one of Rust, C++, or Go, including concurrency and performance optimization.

Responsibilities

• Operate as a strong technical lead with a manager's hat, writing code, reviewing designs, and remaining actively engaged in day-to-day engineering work.
• Guide a small team of engineers through architecting, designing, testing, documenting, improving, and maintaining code.
• Collaborate across Retail Engineering teams and with senior leaders to plan and design scalable solutions.

Skills

Software development

People management

Distributed systems

Databases (SQL/NoSQL)

OOP & design patterns

Java

Rust/C++/Go

Education

B.S. in Computer Science / Computer Engineering or related field

Job description

Software Engineering Manager, Retail Foundations

Austin, Texas, United States Software and Services

Apple is where individual imaginations gather together, committed to the values that lead to great work! Every new product we build, service we create, or Apple Store experience we deliver is the result of us making each other’s ideas stronger. That happens because each of us believes we can make something wonderful and share it with the world.Retail and Marcom Engineering, an IS&T team, builds and operates the systems and experiences that connect Apple's products with its customers. The team owns the technology behind both Apple's online and physical stores and drives the interactive marketing experiences and tools that keep creative operations moving. Together, those functions deliver the technology behind every product story Apple tells and every purchase a customer makes.The Apple Retail Engineering team builds the software systems that power all the magical experiences we offer our Apple Store customers, whether digital or in-person. As a part of this organization, the Retail Engineering Foundations group focuses on developer productivity, shared runtime systems, and common frameworks & platforms for all Retail Engineering teams. When you join Retail Foundations as a Software Engineering Manager, you’ll help plan, design, and manage frameworks, platforms, and systems that countless Apple customers and employees rely on every day. Together, we’ll explore all the ways to improve how the Apple Store operates, freeing our employees to do what they do best and crafting magical experiences for our customers.

Description

As a hands‑on Software Engineering Manager, operate as a strong technical lead with a manager's hat — writing code, reviewing designs, and remaining directly engaged in the day-to-day engineering work of your team, while also guiding a small team of engineers early in their careers through architecting, designing, testing, documenting, improving, and maintaining code, primarily in Java (and other languages as needed). The focus will be on foundational systems, frameworks, and platforms for Retail Engineering. You will partake in every aspect of your projects, from planning to design to implementation and future iterations, and you will be encouraged to play an extended role in collaboratively planning and designing solutions that address the requirements of many Retail Engineering teams. The ideal candidate is self‑motivated, proactive, and results‑driven with a servant‑leader mindset. Attention to detail, dedication to providing high‑quality solutions, modelling engineering excellence, and the ability to guide their team towards the timely delivery of cross‑functional projects are all crucial qualities for working at Apple as a Software Engineering Manager. The ideal candidate will also possess excellent communication and collaboration skills to work with all Retail Engineering teams, various internal and external partners, and senior leaders of Apple.

Minimum Qualifications

• B.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent professional work experience.
• 5+ years of proven experience developing software in a professional capacity.
• 2+ years of direct people management experience leading 3+ software engineers.
• 3+ years of experience designing, implementing, and shipping distributed systems, with working knowledge of secure cloud API/RPC design.
• 3+ years of experience with relational, NewSQL, and NoSQL databases, including schema design and query optimisation.
• Proficiency in OOP principles, data structures, algorithms, and software design patterns (e.g., GoF), with a proven focus on leading teams implementing testable, maintainable, and extensible distributed systems.
• Experience with Java and one of Rust, C++, or Go, including mastery of concurrency, memory management, and performance optimisation techniques.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, mastery of long‑form writing, and leadership presentations.
• Track record of delivering distributed systems projects with multiple, globally distributed stakeholders, while actively hiring, growing, and mentoring junior and senior software engineer team members.
• Comfortable using CI/CD tools to build, test, deploy, and release containerised software applications on cloud‑based Kubernetes platforms (e.g., AWS EKS, GCP GKE, Azure AKS).
• Extensive knowledge of networking concepts & protocols (e.g., HTTP/HTTPS, CDN, edge computing, load balancing, OSI model, etc.).

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, colour, 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.