SDET - Wallet Payments & Commerce

Summary

Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, new ideas have a way of becoming extraordinary products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Every product we build or service we deliver is the result of people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives making each other’s ideas stronger. When we bring everybody in, we do the best work of our lives. Here, you will do more than join something — you will add something.

The Wallet, Payments & Commerce (WPC) Quality Engineering team is looking for a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) with strong testing fundamentals and a passion for automation and software quality. In this role, you will collaborate with a talented, inclusive, and cross-functional engineering team dedicated to qualifying best-in-class Apple Pay and Wallet experiences. You will have the unique opportunity to design robust automation frameworks, tackle complex integration challenges, and shape products that delight and inspire millions of customers around the world every day.

About the role

As a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) on the Wallet, Payments & Commerce (WPC) Quality Engineering team, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring the uncompromising quality, security, and reliability of Apple Pay and Wallet experiences. In this role, you will design, build, and scale automated testing solutions across server systems, end-to-end integration workflows, and user-facing features.

You will collaborate with a passionate team of engineers to establish and elevate testing methodologies, architect resilient automation frameworks, and integrate automated test suites seamlessly into our continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. You will take ownership of technical challenges—from simulating complex payment flows to qualifying integrations with diverse regional ecosystems—ensuring our systems scale efficiently and deliver flawless user experiences.

To succeed in this role, you bring strong programming and architectural fundamentals, a deep curiosity about how systems fail, and a passion for automation craftsmanship. You will partner cross-functionally with local and global development teams, product managers, and engineering project managers (EPMs) to drive quality early in the lifecycle and ship products that surprise and delight millions of customers worldwide.

Responsibilities

• Architect & Scale Test Automation: Design, build, and maintain scalable test automation frameworks, libraries, and internal tools for server-side services and end-to-end integration flows.
• Drive Shift-Left Engineering: Partner closely with software developers and architects early in the design phase to align on testability, define comprehensive test strategies, and catch defects early in the development lifecycle.
• Continuous Integration & Delivery (CI/CD): Integrate, monitor, and optimize automated test suites within modern CI/CD pipelines to enable rapid, high-confidence deployments.
• Deep-Dive Triage & Root Cause Analysis: Investigate, diagnose, and drive fast resolution for complex automation failures, flaky tests, and distributed system anomalies across diverse test environments.
• Innovate with Modern Tooling & AI: Explore and adopt emerging technologies—including leveraging AI tools and generative workflows—to streamline test authoring, failure triage, and daily QA efficiency.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Mentorship: Partner with product managers, EPMs, and global engineering teams to identify testing requirements, establish release criteria, and execute against milestones, while conducting code reviews and mentoring peers to foster engineering excellence.

Minimum Qualifications

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong programming fundamentals with proficiency in an object-oriented language such as Java, Kotlin, or Python, with an emphasis on clean code and maintainable design.
• Proven experience building and maintaining automated testing frameworks and test suites at scale across backend services or end-to-end integration flows.
• Deep understanding of software QA methodologies, including test strategy design, API/microservices validation (contract, integration, and component testing), and root cause analysis.
• Hands-on experience integrating test automation into modern CI/CD pipelines to enable continuous, automated test execution.
• Strong communication skills in both English and Mandarin, with the ability to articulate technical issues clearly and collaborate effectively with global cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Years of Domain Experience: 3+ years of dedicated experience in software development in test (SDET), backend automation engineering, or distributed systems testing.
• Advanced Testing & Mocking Paradigms: Hands-on experience with service virtualization and simulation tools and contract testing frameworks.
• Distributed Systems & Infrastructure: Solid understanding of operating systems, networking fundamentals (HTTP/HTTPS, REST, gRPC), and containerized cloud environments (e.g., Kubernetes, AWS), along with modern deployment strategies such as canary releases.
• Domain Context: Familiarity with high-availability distributed systems, financial technology, or digital payment ecosystems.
• AI-Assisted Engineering: Hands-on experience leveraging modern developer tools, including AI-assisted workflows and LLM-driven tooling, to optimize test authoring, failure triage, and QA productivity.
• Leadership & Navigation of Ambiguity: Demonstrated track record of leading technical initiatives, mentoring peers, and driving quality standards forward in fast-evolving, ambiguous environments.
• Collaborative Problem-Solving & Craftsmanship: Strong collaborative mindset—able to respectfully debate technical trade-offs to reach the best outcome for the product—with deep dedication to customer privacy, security, and exceptional user experience.