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Senior Software Engineer, Ads

Apple· Software and Services
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Cupertino, California$216.2k - $394kFull-timePosted 1w ago

About the role

On-device systems and platform engineering for Apple’s advertising solutions. Focus on OS daemons, frameworks, and SDKs that fetch, rank, and filter ad candidates, enforce policy and privacy, and operate at scale across Apple’s ecosystem. Not a UI role; requires cross-process communication, concurrency, on-device business logic, and privacy-by-architecture at scale.

Responsibilities

  • Set technical direction and architecture for on-device ad delivery systems spanning multiple teams and surfaces — App Store, Apple News and Stocks, and Apple Maps
  • Identify and resolve the hardest, most ambiguous technical problems in the stack: those with significant scope, unclear ownership, or no existing precedent
  • Design, implement, and debug performant, privacy-preserving on-device components that operate at scale inside daemons, frameworks, and SDKs, and hold the org's bar for what production-ready means
  • Drive cross-functional alignment with engineering, product, and business partners to shape and sequence the multi-quarter roadmap for on-device ad delivery
  • Proactively identify systemic technical risk — architectural debt, fragile abstractions, scaling limits — before it becomes a launch blocker, and drive the org to address it
  • Mentor and grow senior engineers; act as a technical multiplier by reviewing designs, unblocking teams, and raising the quality bar across the group
  • Represent the team in cross-org architecture and design reviews, and influence technical decisions beyond your immediate team's boundaries

Qualifications

  • Deep, expert-level understanding of OS fundamentals (process/memory management, scheduling, file systems), on any platform — Apple experience not required
  • Extensive professional software development experience in a C-like language, including systems with significant scale and reliability requirements
  • Expert-level understanding of cross-process communication and concurrent programming — multi-threading, synchronization, locking, and reasoning about races/deadlocks in production systems
  • Track record of designing and operating high-performance client SDKs or libraries at scale — including caching, versioning, breaking changes, and feature-flagged rollouts, with demonstrated judgment on tradeoffs
  • Demonstrated experience owning architecture and technical direction for complex, long-lived codebases, including legacy components, and driving multi-team initiatives to resolve structural issues in them
  • Proven ability to operate with significant ambiguity, set technical direction without a playbook, and drive alignment across engineering, product, and business stakeholders
  • History of mentoring and growing other senior engineers; excellent written and verbal communication, including with non-technical partners
  • Bachelors Degree or equivalent experience.
  • Ad tech; Apple-platform fundamentals incl. Swift/Obj-C; designing/maintaining public APIs or SDKs for external developers; CoreData/libdispatch/XPC/Swift concurrency/daemons; telemetry/observability; client-server networking; experience setting technical strategy for a multi-team org

Skills

Required:OS fundamentalsC-like language developmentCross-process communicationSDKs/ libraries at scaleArchitecture ownershipMentorship and leadershipCommunication with non-technical partners

Benefits

  • Comprehensive medical and dental coverage
  • Retirement benefits
  • Discounted products and free services
  • Educational expense reimbursement including tuition
  • Discretionary bonuses or commissions (possible)
  • Relocation assistance (possible)
  • Employee stock purchase plan participation
  • Stock-based incentives (discretionary RSUs)
Last updated Oct 16, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Apple

Discover the innovative world of Apple and shop everything iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV, plus explore accessories, entertainment, and expert device support.

Discover the innovative world of Apple and shop everything iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV, plus explore accessories, entertainment, and expert device support.

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