Senior OS Engineer, Media Playback - Media, Graphics & Compute Technologies

Summary

Apple is where individual imaginations gather together, committing to the values that lead to great work. Every new product we build, service we create, or Apple Store experience we deliver is the result of us making each other’s ideas stronger. That happens because every one of us shares a belief that we can make something wonderful and share it with the world, changing lives for the better.

It’s the diversity of our people and their thinking that inspires the innovation that runs through everything we do. When we bring everybody in, we can do the best work of our lives. Here, you’ll do more than join something — you’ll add something.

Media, Graphics & Compute Technologies (MGCT) provides the media and graphics foundation across all of Apple’s innovative products, including iPhone, Apple Vision Pro, Apple TV, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac. The AVKit Engineering team within MGCT provides the media playback UI across Apple’s innovative products.

The team is responsible for implementing media application frameworks which support playback and editing of audiovisual media, as well as local media playback, video-on-demand, and live streaming. The AVKit framework is used across Apple products such as Safari, TV, Photos, Music, FaceTime, iMovie, and 3rd parties, across all platforms.

We are looking for a Senior Engineer with an excellent technical and programming background and great communication skills with working experience in the media domain to help us build innovative media playback experiences.

About the role

The AVKit Engineering team is looking for a top-notch, skilled senior engineer who is motivated to help design and build media playback UI across Apple’s products. You will design and implement new features, as well as UI APIs for both Apple and third-party adoption. You will also collaborate closely with other engineering and design teams to implement system media UIs.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and ship new features for AVKit's media playback UI, spanning iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro
• Design and build public APIs used by both internal Apple teams and third-party developers, balancing flexibility with a simple, intuitive developer experience
• Collaborate closely with Human Interface and partner engineering teams to define and implement system-level media UI that feels consistent across platforms
• Triage, debug, and resolve complex issues spanning the UI layer down through the underlying media and OS stack
• Drive performance and optimization improvements across the media playback pipeline, working across software layers as needed

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of programming experience, preferably in Objective-C and Swift
• Deep knowledge of Operating System design and concepts
• Excellent collaboration skills, with the ability to crisply and clearly explain advanced concepts
• Proficiency in developing with Cocoa or other application frameworks
• BS or MS in CS/CE or equivalent practical experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in triaging and resolving complex bugs
• Demonstrated problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication skills
• Excellent understanding of optimization and performance issues across OS software layers