Staff Machine Learning Research Engineer, App Store Search

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

Job summary

Apple's ASE Search team is seeking extraordinary ML researchers and engineers to design next-generation search and conversational discovery features for Apple's devices and services. You will lead the design and development across the full product stack, including query understanding, retrieval, and context-aware generation.

Join a motivated team delivering impactful experiences across App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, Podcasts, and Books, while upholding Apple’s privacy and performance

Qualifications

• 3+ years of relevant industry experience building large-scale ML & data systems.
• Familiarity with search or recommendation systems, conversational engines, or related domains.
• Strong knowledge of generative AI systems including Large Language Models, Transformers, Reinforcement Learning, RAG, and agentic patterns such as ReAct, Chain-of-Thought, Tool Use, and Multi-Agent orchestration.
• Experience with one or more distributed ML training frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Ray, or JAX, and inference engines like TensorRT or vLLM.
• Technical leader with exceptional communication skills and a track record of solving complex, ambiguous problems in a highly collaborative environment.

Skills

Large-scale ML & data systems

Search systems knowledge

Generative AI / LLMs

Distributed ML training frameworks

Technical leadership & communication

Education

MS or PhD in Computer Science or related

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Ray

JAX

TensorRT

vLLM

Job description

Description

The Apple Services Engineering (ASE) team is one of the most exciting examples of Apple’s long-held passion for combining art and technology. People here create the experiences loved by users across App Store, Apple TV, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple Books. The scale is massive delivering content and entertainment in over 35 languages to more than 150 countries, while meeting Apple’s high bar on quality and performance. The team is responsible for building secure, robust, end-to-end solutions across server and client to solve challenging problems. Thanks to Apple’s unique integration of hardware, software, and services, engineers here work with a single unified vision of deep commitment to strengthening Apple’s core principles such as customer focus, privacy, and relentless innovation. Although services are a bigger part of Apple’s business than ever before, these teams remain small, nimble, and cross-functional, offering an opportunity to work with passionate people, contribute ideas, and ship innovative software. Here, you’ll do more than just join a team — you’ll be creating positive impact in people’s lives.

Description

The ASE Search team is a vital part of Apple ecosystem, powering search for App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, Podcasts, Books, iTunes and more, on a wide set of platforms such as iOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, Safari, and 3rd party devices. Driven by passion for the extraordinary rather than the easy, our team of problem solvers, is dedicated to helping users discover media and content in exciting new ways. We are looking for extraordinary and motivated machine learning researchers and engineers to join us in our journey. As a Senior/Staff Machine Learning Research on the ASE Search team, you will lead the design and development of next-generation search and conversational discovery features for Apple's ground breaking devices and platforms.

Minimum Qualifications

• 3+ years of relevant industry experience building large-scale ML & data systems
• Familiarity with search or recommendation systems, conversational engines, or related domains
• Strong knowledge of generative AI systems including Large Language Models, Transformers, Reinforcement Learning, RAG, and agentic patterns such as ReAct, Chain-of-Thought, Tool Use, and Multi-Agent orchestration
• Experience with one or more distributed ML training frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Ray, or JAX, and inference engines like TensorRT or vLLM
• Technical leader with exceptional communication skills and a track record of solving complex, ambiguous problems in a highly collaborative environment

Preferred Qualifications

• MS or Ph.D. in Computer Science or related subject area
• Proven ability to build & scale Search & Conversational systems, applying 7+ years of hand-on experience across the full product stack — including query understanding, semantic retrieval, multi-stage ranking, indexing, intent classification, and context-aware generation.
• Deep expertise in Search & Conversational systems, bringing in 7+ years of hands-on experience building capabilities such as query understanding, retrieval, ranking, indexing, autocomplete, intent resolution, and context-aware generation across multiple domains.
• Proficient in developing robust big data pipelines in Scala or Python using distributed processing frameworks like Apache Spark.
• Familiarity with scalable, reliable distributed backend services including Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and container orchestration
• Familiarity with A/B experimentation and data-driven product development