Sr. / Staff Software Engineer, Data Lakehouse, Apple Data Platform

Socket.dev; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple's Data Platform Data Lakehouse team in Seattle is seeking an experienced engineer to lead the data lakehouse program and mentor teammates. You will drive technical and professional growth while delivering scalable data infrastructure.

You will collaborate with cross-functional partners to plan, implement, and operate services built on Apache Spark, Kafka, Flink, Iceberg, and Iceberg Rest Catalog, running on Kubernetes/EKS to support analytics and ML workloads across Apple.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in design and development of scaling, and operation of distributed systems.
• Proficient in Java or Scala.
• Proficient in Apache Iceberg and Iceberg Rest Catalog specification.
• Designing and developing scalable, reliable APIs.
• Hands-on approach with willingness to engage in daily technical work.
• Open-Source contributions are a plus.
• Strong debugging skills in large-scale distributed systems.
• Exceptional communication and collaboration across teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the data lakehouse team, guiding team members in technical and professional growth.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to plan, execute, and deliver technical projects.

Skills

Distributed systems design

Java/Scala proficiency

Iceberg Rest Catalog

API design

Open‑Source contributions

Debugging large‑scale systems

Communication & collaboration

Cross‑functional leadership

Education

Bachelor's, Master’s, or Ph.D. in CS or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

AWS EKS

Job description

The Apple Data Platform team, part of the Services organization, powers analytics and machine learning across Apple. Our mission is to deliver cutting-edge, reliable, and user-friendly infrastructure for data ingestion, storage, processing, and interaction, enabling teams to build data-intensive applications with ease and success. This role sits within the Data Lakehouse team, a part of the Apple Data Platform. The team provides a fully managed Lakehouse solution powered by Apache Iceberg, Iceberg REST Catalog, and custom-built services to manage data at scale. Our platform supports both analytical and machine learning workloads across Apple, serving key products and organizations including Siri, Search, Media, iCloud, News, Apple Intelligence, and Maps. We continuously innovate to meet evolving customer needs and market trends. We seek engineers passionate about building world-class infrastructure products. In this role, you will lead the data lakehouse team, guiding team members in both technical and professional growth. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to lead the planning, execution, and success of technical projects, with a focus on enhancing the experience for Apple’s internal customers.

Description

The ideal candidate will have outstanding communication skills, proven data infrastructure/platform design and implementation capabilities, strong business acumen, and an innate drive to deliver results. He/she will be a self-starter, comfortable with ambiguity and will enjoy working in a fast-paced dynamic environment.

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in design and development of scaling, and operation of distributed systems, including technologies like Apache Spark, Kafka, Flink, and Iceberg, along with resource management systems like Kubernetes or AWS EKS.
• Proficient in Java or Scala.
• Proficient in Apache Iceberg and Iceberg Rest Catalog specification
• Proven expertise in designing and developing scalable, reliable APIs.
• A hands-on approach with a willingness to engage in daily technical work.
• Contributions to Open-Source projects like Apache Iceberg are a plus.
• Skilled at debugging complex issues in large-scale distributed systems.
• Driven by a passion for building reliable, maintainable, and user-friendly products and services.
• Exceptional communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across multiple teams and functions.
• Bachelor's, Master’s, or Ph.D. in Computer Science or a related technical discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in public cloud platforms like AWS, S3, EKS, IAM.
• Contributor to open source technologies like Spark or Iceberg.
• Expertise in building Lakehouse for large scale data platforms.
• Experience with development of Iceberg Rest Catalogs like Apache Polaris, Graviton etc.