Sr. Content Support Engineer, ASE

Apple Inc.; Cupertino (CA); On-site; USD 175,500 - 263,800; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Relocation assistance

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

Apple Services Engineering is seeking a Content Support Engineer with a passion for music, books, and podcasts. You will join a cross-functional team supporting Apple Music, Apple Books, and Apple Podcasts, developing features, fixing issues, and ensuring high content quality across services.

The role focuses on debugging complex distributed pipelines, improving incident response, and building observability tools. Strong SQL, Python/Java, and Kafka/Cassandra expertise are essential.

Qualifications

• 5+ years debugging technical issues in distributed systems or streaming data platforms.
• Proficient in SQL and modern streaming/big-data ecosystems such as Flink, Kafka, Cassandra, Spark.
• Strong Python or Java scripting and debugging skills.
• Experience with streaming pipelines, latency, lag, and checkpoint recovery.
• Kafka topics, partitions, consumer groups, and offset management expertise.
• Cassandra data persistence, replication, and consistency troubleshooting.
• Ability to self-start, plan, prioritize, and meet deadlines.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, and collaboration across teams.
• Git version control proficiency and BS requirement.

Responsibilities

• Serve as primary contact for technical groups and customers to address support issues.
• Analyze incidents, perform root cause investigations, and review with Engineering.
• Monitor and troubleshoot pipelines; implement workarounds when needed.
• Debug and resolve complex issues across distributed streaming platforms and data pipelines.
• Manage Kafka topics, partitions, consumer groups, and offset handling to ensure healthy data flow.
• Investigate Cassandra issues: persistence, replication, and consistency.
• Collaborate with Engineering and SREs to enhance incident/problem management.
• Document bugs, write scripts (Python/Java) to automate diagnostics and remediation.
• Build observability tooling: dashboards, alerts, and tracing to preempt issues.

Skills

SQL

Python/Java

Distributed systems

Debugging

Interpersonal skills

Communication skills

Git

Self-starter

Education

BS in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field/equivalent experience

Tools

Kafka

Cassandra

Apache Flink

Spark

Grafana

Splunk

Sentry

OGG (Oracle GoldenGate)

Job description

Cupertino, California, United States Software and Services

We are Apple Services Engineering! ASE is the organization responsible for products like Apple Music, Podcasts, Apple TV, tvOS, App Store, iCloud, Business & Education, as well as technologies like Commerce, Search & Recommendations, and so much more. Our teams also build and manage cloud infrastructure, supporting teams and services across Apple. We’re proud to do all our work on a massive scale, delivering services in multiple languages and global markets. We’re organized functionally, aligning people with similar expertise and focus on cohesive teams. We have verticals focused on a product, and horizontals that provide technology and platform solutions. Organizing this way allows us to take on new products, bring our technologies to other teams at Apple, and enable you to do your best work.

Digital Supply Chain Content Support Engineering is where content (books, music, podcasts, apps, videos), processing, CMS tools, and support processes meet. We’re the heart and soul of the engineering team that builds the world’s largest media store. Our stores reach hundreds of millions of customers worldwide and have revolutionized how people enjoy music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, and podcasts. You’ll work on the Apple Music, Apple Books, and Apple Podcast ecosystems, helping to launch new features, fix bugs, keep our systems running smoothly, and spot any coding issues.

Description

We are seeking a Content Support Engineer with a passion for music, books, and podcasts. An ideal candidate will demonstrate a commitment to enhancing customer experience and the quality of content and service that is synonymous with Apple. You will excel beyond industry norms by showcasing creativity in problem‑solving, adaptability to new technical areas, and a dynamic thinking approach. We foster innovation and embrace new technology to enhance Apple’s hardware performance and user experience. Apple’s exceptional integration of hardware, software, and services enables engineers to collaborate on a unified vision. This vision consistently emphasizes strengthening Apple’s privacy policy, a core value of the company. Join us and contribute to the development of the next remarkable Apple product! You will join an integral support and operations team within the Apple Services Engineering (ASE) organization, collaborating closely with our engineering teams to support various projects and features across the ASE ecosystem. Additionally, you will work cross‑functionally with our internal business and operations teams in testing, monitoring, and providing support for these projects and features. Utilizing both technical and interpersonal skills will be crucial for your success in this role.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary point of contact for all technical groups and customers to address support issues and requests
• Conduct technical analysis of incidents, perform root cause investigation and review with Engineering teams
• Report, monitor, and troubleshoot the pipeline, and implement necessary workarounds
• Debug and resolve complex issues across distributed and streaming data platforms, including latency spikes, consumer lag, and state/checkpoint failures
• Monitor and troubleshoot Kafka topics, partitions, consumer groups, and offset management to maintain healthy data flow
• Investigate and resolve Cassandra issues related to data persistence, replication, and consistency
• Collaborate with Engineering teams and SREs to develop, implement, and improve Incident Management and Problem Management processes
• Work with Project Managers and Operations on new projects and developer communications
• Analyze workflows, file detailed bug reports, and follow through until issues are resolved
• Write and maintain scripts (Python/Java) to automate diagnostics, monitoring, and remediation tasks
• Build and maintain observability tooling (dashboards, alerts, tracing) to proactively catch issues before they impact production

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in debugging technical issues, with at least 2+ years in distributed systems or streaming data platforms
• Proficient in SQL and experience with modern streaming and big‑data ecosystems (Apache Flink, Kafka, Cassandra, Spark)
• Excellent scripting knowledge with Python or Java
• Experience debugging streaming pipelines: latency analysis, lag monitoring, state management, and checkpoint/savepoint recovery in Flink
• Proficiency with Kafka including topics, partitioning, consumer groups, and offset management
• Cassandra expertise: data persistence patterns, replication strategies, and troubleshooting consistency issues
• Proven ability to self‑start, learn, plan, prioritize, and deliver to deadlines
• Excellent interpersonal skills, especially the ability to filter and distill meaningful information to the right audience
• Self‑starter with a strong sense of personal responsibility
• Understands priorities and doesn't compromise quality
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Git repository and version control expertise
• Minimum BS in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field/equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience implementing and administering observability tools: Splunk, Grafana/Mosaic, Sentry, and tracing systems
• Familiarity with HDFS and batch‑to‑streaming data migration patterns
• Knowledge of Oracle Golden Gate (OGG)
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and deployment strategies across multiple environments

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 $175,500 and $263,800, 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.