Senior Data Engineer

Senior Data Engineer at Apple will architect and deploy scalable, AI-ready data pipelines to power analytics across Music, Video, and Books.

Responsibilities

• Design and scale modular data pipelines tailored for Apple Music's immense data footprint, delivering reliable self-service data products with clear contracts and SLAs for internal teams, data scientists, and external partners.
• Lead AI adoption and innovation by integrating AI-enabled tools, intelligent automation, and advanced analytics workflows; explore LLMs, RAG pipelines, and emerging tech to boost capabilities and efficiency; promote best practices for AI-enhanced data engineering across the organization.
• Build robust data quality and observability, establishing validation frameworks for untrusted third party feeds, automated data assertions, lineage tracking, anomaly detection, and production monitoring to ensure transparency and reliability.
• Collaborate with data scientists, analysts, and cross-functional stakeholders to deliver structured, high-performance datasets with clear SLAs, accelerating insights and reducing ad hoc engineering requests.
• Partner across Analytics, Operations, Engineering, and Partner teams, translating ambiguous requirements into resilient engineering solutions aligned with business priorities.
• Drive operational excellence and self-service analytics by advancing CI/CD practices, mentoring peers, and fostering a data engineering culture focused on quality, reliability, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in data engineering or systems architecture, with a proven track record owning production data systems at massive scale processing billions of records in high-volume environments.
• Strong Python and SQL skills with experience in distributed processing frameworks (PySpark/Spark), modular software design, and automated testing methodologies.
• Hands-on experience designing and operating CI/CD pipelines, automated deployment workflows, and version-controlled data infrastructure.
• Proven expertise in data quality management, taxonomy mapping challenges, and programmatic anomaly detection on large datasets.
• Demonstrated ability to lead projects, influence cross-functional teams, and translate stakeholder needs into scalable technical solutions in a matrix organization.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, capable of explaining complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences and influencing stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong logical reasoning, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field.

Technologies

• Python
• SQL
• PySpark
• Spark
• Apache Iceberg
• Delta Lake
• Tableau
• Superset
• SPARQL
• Graph databases
• LLMs
• RAG pipelines

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical and dental coverage
• Retirement benefits
• Discounted products and complimentary services
• Education expense reimbursement, including tuition
• Discretionary employee stock programs
• Eligibility for discretionary restricted stock unit awards
• Discounted Apple stock through the Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Discretionary bonuses or commissions
• Relocation assistance

Description

We are seeking a Senior Data Engineer to design and deploy robust, AI-ready data pipelines that underpin our analytics capabilities. This role requires rigorous systems engineering and strong business partnership, with a track record of operating at massive scale and the ability to build extensible, modular systems across Music, Video, and Books. Compensation range: USD 172,100 to 305,600 per year.