A

Apple

Designs phones, computers and their operating systems

Hardware Systems Engineer

Full-Time
$184.7k - $277.6k/yr+ Restricted stock unit awards + Employee stock purchase plan + Discretionary bonuses or commission + Relocation
Mid
Master's
Cupertino, CA, USA
In PersonThe role is also available in various unanticipated locations throughout the USA.
Hardware EngineeringHardware Validation & Testing

About the job

Requirements
  • A Master’s degree or foreign equivalent in Electrical Engineering or a related field and 3 years of experience in the job offered or a related occupation.
  • 3 years of experience utilizing high-speed oscilloscopes, signal generators, and VNA/PNA to measure and analyze serial I/O signal integrity and electrical performance characteristics for receiver and transmitter validation.
  • 3 years of experience utilizing Thunderbolt and USB4 electrical compliance test specifications and compliance test suites to execute and document high-speed serial I/O electrical compliance validation against industry standards.
  • 3 years of experience designing and implementing stress-testing methodologies for high-speed serial I/O interfaces to identify design operating limits and receiver/transmitter margins after system integration.
  • 3 years of experience executing SerDes receiver electrical validation, including adaptive equalization characterization, clock recovery analysis, jitter measurement, and eye-diagram quality assessment.
  • 3 years of experience utilizing Python and C++ scripting languages to develop automation scripts for compliance test execution, high-volume eye-scan data collection, and factory-level test flow development.
  • 3 years of experience performing failure analysis and hardware debugging to troubleshoot compliance test hardware, fixtures, software, and Device Under Test issues affecting SerDes receiver/transmitter electrical performance.
  • 3 years of experience executing SerDes transmitter electrical validation, including pre-emphasis tuning, output swing characterization, jitter analysis, and electrical compliance testing for high-speed data interfaces.
  • 3 years of experience characterizing SerDes PHY receiver and transmitter blocks with register-level programming for system validation configuration, including signal integrity parameter optimization and margin analysis.
  • 3 years of experience performing high-speed electrical calibration per CTS and verification of high-speed test equipment, including 40GHz+ oscilloscopes and BERT systems, to ensure measurement accuracy and traceability.
Responsibilities
  • Support system-level SerDes compliance and high-speed I/O validation efforts across Mac programs.
  • Support the end-to-end compliance process for portable and desktop programs.
  • Contribute to flow bring-up, validation, and correlation.
  • Perform debugging in collaboration with Hardware and System teams to address silicon, hardware, and tunable issues for the USB-C interface.
  • Perform PHY adaptation validation with different channel scenarios to verify platform-level integration robustness of third-party and Apple IPs.
  • Perform hardware-level validation as well as simulation efforts to correlate with hardware validation.

About the company

Apple designs and sells consumer electronics, from iPhone smartphones and Mac computers to tablets and wearable devices. Its operating systems manage apps and built-in functions for communication and work, while iCloud stores files and synchronizes data across devices. Customers buy additional digital services through subscriptions such as Apple Music and Apple TV, and developers distribute software through the App Store. Apple earns money from hardware sales, subscriptions and digital transactions, selling directly to customers and through retailers and mobile carriers around the world. It was founded in 1976 and has its headquarters in Cupertino, California.

Company Size

10,001+

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

Cupertino, California

Founded

1976

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Business demand is growing: Apple reported $109.4 billion revenue in the June 2026 quarter, up 16% year over year.
  • Eligible US employees get learning support: Apple reimburses career-related tuition and runs Apple University classes.
  • Services earn richer margins: Apple reported 75.6% services gross margin in the June 2026 quarter, versus 40.1% for products.

What critics are saying

  • Assembly depends on Asian partners: Apple outsources substantially all final hardware assembly, reducing direct control over production.
  • iPhone concentrates demand risk: the product generated 49.6% of Apple revenue in the June 2026 quarter.
  • Student support shifts take evenings: Apple College Advisors typically work three evening shifts and one weekend shift weekly.

What makes Apple unique

  • Its chips link hardware and software: Apple designs M-series processors and developer frameworks tuned to their unified memory.
  • Stores double as service hubs: Apple combines device sales, Genius Bar technical help and in-person learning sessions.
  • It owns a spatial operating system: Apple Vision Pro runs visionOS, controlled through eyes, hands and voice.

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Benefits

  • Health Insurance
  • Dental Insurance
  • 401(k) Retirement Plan
  • 401(k) Company Match
  • Tuition Reimbursement
  • Performance Bonus
  • Relocation Assistance
  • Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

0%

1 year growth

0%

2 year growth

-5%
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