Sr. Software Engineer, Infrastructure Services (Control Plane)

Socket.dev; California (MO); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple is seeking passionate engineers to design, build, and operate the distributed control plane and orchestration systems for its planetary-scale cloud infrastructure. You will work on the distributed control plane, microservices, and APIs, solving complex consensus challenges and automating network fabrics at scale.

You will collaborate across teams to deliver reliable, scalable services and contribute to the internal developer ecosystem that supports Apple’s world-spanning infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Strong proficiency in Go, Java, or C++, plus scripting (Python/Bash).
• Solid CS fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, multithreading.
• Solid networking knowledge: TCP/IP, routing, BGP, network virtualization.
• Experience designing and operating scalable distributed systems and microservices.
• Ability to diagnose and resolve production issues in large-scale systems.
• Excellent communication to articulate architectural decisions.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate the distributed control plane and orchestration for networks and storage at planetary scale.
• Architect scalable microservices and automate network fabrics at scale.
• Collaborate with teams to solve complex distributed consensus problems.
• Deliver reliable, user-friendly cloud infrastructure services.

Skills

Go/Java/C++

CS fundamentals

Networking fundamentals

Git & build systems

Distributed systems

APIs REST GRPC

Problem-solving

Communication skills

Tools

Kubernetes

etcd

Raft

ZooKeeper

Redis

Cassandra

Job description

Do you want to help build some of the largest and most consequential enterprise and customer technology systems in the world? Join Apple’s Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) organization. IS&T is the engine behind everything Apple does for customers and for the people who build for them. It’s Apple’s central nervous system. Supporting 2.5 billion active Apple devices, processing billions of secure transactions, and keeping the technology that defines modern life running flawlessly, IS&T makes the impossible feel effortless.” Do you love building solutions to handle global complexity and immense scale? Imagine what you could do here. Infrastructure Services is part of IS&T and the foundation of Apple's global network operations — managing data center equipment and systems to deliver compute, storage, and networking services for teams across Apple, including its internal developer community. From individual facilities to a worldwide network, Infrastructure Services ensures the technology underneath everything works without question

Description

We are looking for passionate engineers who love building super-scalable, reliable, and user-friendly systems to support one of the world’s largest cloud infrastructures. In this role, you will design, build, and operate the distributed control plane and orchestration systems that manage virtualized networks, compute, and storage at planetary scale. If you thrive on solving complex distributed consensus problems, architecting scalable microservices from scratch, and automating network fabrics at scale, we’d love to talk to you.

Minimum Qualifications

• Strong proficiency in Go, Java, or C++, along with experience in scripting languages (e.g., Python, Bash).
• Strong foundation in Computer Science fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, multithreading, and distributed system design.
• Solid understanding of Networking Fundamentals: TCP/IP, L2/L3 routing and switching concepts, BGP, overlay networks, and network virtualization.
• Proficiency with Git, modern build systems, and configuration management infrastructure.
• Experience designing, developing, and operating scalable distributed systems, microservices, and high-throughput APIs (REST, gRPC, Protobuf).
• Understanding of distributed system challenges: state consensus, eventual consistency, partition tolerance, caching, and database design.
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize, troubleshoot, and resolve critical production issues in large-scale distributed environments.
• Strong organizational and interpersonal skills to articulate architectural decisions, balance trade-offs, and hit bold milestone targets.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building SDN controllers, network operating systems (e.g., SONiC, OpenConfig, YANG), or orchestration platforms (e.g., Kubernetes controllers/operators).
• Hands‑on experience with distributed data stores (e.g., etcd, Raft, ZooKeeper, Redis, Cassandra).
• Experience with automated network provisioning, zero-touch provisioning (ZTP), and large-scale fleet telemetry.