Principal Backend Infrastructure Engineer,

Do you want to make Apple products more intelligent for our users? The AIML Information Intelligence teams are building groundbreaking technology for algorithmic search and recommendation, machine learning, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence. The features we build are redefining how hundreds of millions of people use their computers and mobile devices to search and find what they are looking for. Apple's universal search engine powers search features across a variety of its products, including Siri, Spotlight, Safari, Music, App Store, Video, and many more. We are searching for a Principal Backend Infrastructure Engineer to define and drive the long-term technical strategy for our scalable, highly available, and robust search platforms. Build, evolve, and scale state-of-the-art infrastructure powering Apple's Search Platforms. Be a key technical leader contributing to the design, development, and operation of large-scale distributed systems. Work with machine learning researchers, backend engineers, and cross-functional teams to deliver step-function improvements in reliability, performance, and cost.

Description

We design and build infrastructures to support features that empower billions of Apple search users. Our team processes trillions of links to find the best content to surface to users through search. We also analyze pages to extract critical features for indexing and ranking. We apply statistical analysis to improve crawling, extraction quality, web and knowledge graph data, link selection, freshness, retrieval performance, and many others. You'll have the opportunity to work with large-scale systems with trillions of rows, many petabytes of data, and real-time data pipelines with incredible complexity.

Minimum Qualifications

Deep expertise in large-scale search and indexing systems, including hybrid lexical–semantic retrieval Strong background in distributed systems: highly available, low-latency, multi-region architectures Experience with AI and agentic systems, including knowledge platforms and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) Strong coding skills and background in algorithms and data structures Experience with backend development, performance tuning, and testing 10+ years of experience leading and driving complex, ambiguous projects at company-wide scope BS, MS, or Ph.D. in Computer Science or a related field

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with cloud services, Kubernetes, and cloud-native architectures Experience with real-time data and streaming platforms (Kafka, Flink, Pinot or equivalent) Experience with observability platforms including metrics, logging, and AI-assisted diagnostics Track record of driving reliability programs and reducing production incidents at scale Open-source leadership or community contributions in search, data, or infrastructure ecosystems Excellent interpersonal skills; able to work independently as well as influence across large organizations