Principal Software Engineer - Apple Data Platform

Summary

Help us build the Apple Data Platform in China! We are establishing a new engineering organization from the ground up to build and operate Apple's next-generation data platform for customers in China. As the founding principal engineer on the team, you'll own the architecture of the platform that powers data, analytics, and AI workloads while meeting regional regulatory and data residency requirements. Working in close partnership with the global Apple Data Platform organization, you'll bring world-class platform capabilities to China, solve large-scale distributed systems challenges, and set the technical foundation that will support Apple's long-term growth in the region.

Minimum Qualifications

15+ years of experience designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, or platform technologies in production environments. Track record of owning architecture and delivering complex infrastructure or platform initiatives across multiple engineering organizations. Expert-level software engineering experience in Java, Go, Scala, Python, C++, or similar programming languages. Deep expertise in distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, Kubernetes, container orchestration, networking, and modern infrastructure platforms. Proven history of building and operating highly available, scalable, secure, and observable production systems at scale. Experience designing automation for deployment, infrastructure management, and operational excellence. Exceptional debugging and problem-solving skills in complex production environments. Experience setting technical direction across software engineering, infrastructure, SRE, security, and product organizations. Excellent communication skills and a record of influencing technical direction across globally distributed engineering organizations. BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience architecting large-scale data, analytics, AI, or machine learning platforms. Experience with technologies such as Kubernetes, Spark, Ray, Kafka, Trino, Iceberg, Airflow, or other modern data platform technologies. Experience deploying and operating platforms across public cloud providers such as Alibaba Cloud, AWS, or GCP, as well as private cloud or on-premises environments. Experience founding greenfield infrastructure or platform initiatives. Experience operating services in regulated environments with security, compliance, and data residency requirements. Experience building developer platforms, platform automation, and self-service infrastructure. Passion for building world-class infrastructure and helping establish a new engineering organization from the ground up.

Description

As a Principal Software Engineer within the Apple Data Platform organization, you will serve as the senior-most individual contributor responsible for establishing and evolving the Apple Data Platform in China. This is a unique greenfield opportunity to build a new regional engineering capability while working on one of Apple's most strategic infrastructure initiatives. You will own the design, implementation, deployment, and operation of core platform services that enable data, analytics, and AI workloads across China. Working closely with engineering teams across China and the United States, you will deliver global platform capabilities while ensuring the platform meets regional operational, security, and regulatory requirements. As a principal technical leader, you will set architectural direction, drive engineering excellence, define technical best practices, and build a highly reliable, scalable, and secure platform that serves customers across the region.

Responsibilities

Own the design, build, deployment, and operation of core components of the Apple Data Platform in China. Set the technical design and architecture of platform services, and shape the global Apple Data Platform architecture they align to. Partner closely with engineering teams across the United States and China to deliver new platform capabilities and maintain feature parity with the global platform. Set the bar for reliability, scalability, security, and operational excellence across platform services and infrastructure. Define and develop infrastructure automation, deployment tooling, and operational workflows that simplify platform management and improve engineering productivity. Resolve the hardest distributed systems problems across cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, networking, storage, and data platform services. Drive improvements in observability, monitoring, incident response, automation, and operational efficiency. Collaborate with engineering, infrastructure, security, product, and SRE teams across Apple to deliver a seamless platform experience. Own multi-year technical strategy and architectural direction, and establish the engineering standards and best practices for the growing China engineering organization. Grow senior and staff engineers through architecture reviews, code reviews, design discussions, and day-to-day technical leadership.