Lead AI/ML Engineer (GenAI & Agentic Systems)-iCloud

In Apple's iCloud services organization, efficiency is not simply a technical objective-it is a fundamental part of how we deliver reliable, scalable, and sustainable infrastructure for billions of users worldwide. The iCloud Efficiency team is responsible for improving how Apple's cloud services utilize compute, storage, and operational resources at massive scale. As infrastructure complexity grows, the opportunity to apply Generative AI, intelligent automation, and agentic systems becomes increasingly critical to accelerating operational excellence, improving engineering productivity, and optimizing resource efficiency.

As a Lead AI/ML Engineer focused on GenAI and Agentic Systems, you will work at the intersection of large-scale systems engineering, infrastructure automation, AI-assisted operations, and intelligent decision systems. You will provide technical leadership for streamlining GenAI efforts across the organization: establishing reusable patterns, defining production standards, and helping teams converge on durable, safe, and measurable AI-assisted infrastructure workflows. You will apply production state-of-the-art LLM systems, retrieval-assisted generation (RAG), skills-based automation, agentic workflows, evaluation and orchestration frameworks to transform how engineering teams operate, troubleshoot, forecast, and optimize cloud infrastructure. This role involves partnering closely with data engineering, data science, infrastructure engineering, software reliability engineering and finance teams to design and deploy AI-driven systems that improve efficiency across capacity planning, anomaly detection, operational workflows, deployment safety, and infrastructure optimization. Your work will directly influence the operational and financial efficiency of one of the world's largest private cloud environments supporting iCloud, Apple Intelligence, and Private Cloud Compute (PCC).

Description

The Lead AI/ML Engineer will play a critical role in advancing Apple's next generation of intelligent infrastructure operations through applied GenAI and agentic technologies. This role focuses on building practical, high-impact AI systems that improve engineering workflows and infrastructure decision-making. You will identify high-leverage operational problems, set architecture direction, design agentic solutions, and guide teams from prototype to production adoption. The goal is combining LLM reasoning, system context, automation frameworks, and engineering safeguards to improve speed, reliability, and efficiency. Success in this role will be measured by concrete outcomes: adoption of shared patterns and tools by multiple teams, measurable toil reduction, validated cost or capacity savings. You will help define how AI can safely and effectively augment engineering teams-from capacity optimization and deployment analysis to incident response, forecasting, and infrastructure planning.

Responsibilities:

Design and implement GenAI-powered solutions to improve infrastructure efficiency, operational workflows, and engineering productivity across iCloud services

Build and deploy agentic systems using technologies such as Claude, LLM orchestration frameworks, skills-based execution models, and intelligent automation pipelines

Develop AI-assisted workflows for capacity planning, anomaly detection, forecasting, deployment validation, and operational safety

Partner with SRE, infrastructure engineering, platform teams, and finance to identify high-value efficiency opportunities and convert them into scalable AI solutions

Create reliable and safe agent workflows with strong observability, guardrails, human-in-the-loop validation, and operational controls

Improve engineering decision-making by combining infrastructure telemetry, operational context, and LLM reasoning into actionable recommendations

Drive experimentation and adoption of AI-first engineering practices that reduce toil, improve reliability, and optimize cost structures

Contribute to the long-term strategy for AI-assisted infrastructure operations across Apple Cloud Services

Preferred Qualifications

Experience applying GenAI to infrastructure operations, SRE workflows, capacity planning, or engineering productivity systems

Experience building AI systems with operational guardrails, governance models, and safe deployment patterns for enterprise environments

Strong understanding of capacity forecasting, cost optimization, and infrastructure efficiency modeling at hyperscale

Background working in private cloud environments, large-scale storage systems, or global distributed infrastructure

PhD or advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Distributed Systems, or related field

Minimum Qualifications

5+ years of experience in software engineering, infrastructure engineering, or large-scale cloud services environments

Proven experience designing, building, or technically leading production GenAI, ML platform, developer productivity, infrastructure automation, or tooling systems

Hands-on experience with GenAI technologies, LLM application architecture, including retrieval, context engineering, tool use, workflow orchestration, agentic workflows, evaluation, observability, and failure handling

Demonstrated technical leadership across teams, including architecture reviews, roadmap influence, mentoring, and driving adoption of shared engineering practices

Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure operations, observability, deployment systems, and operational safety principles

Proven ability to translate ambiguous operational challenges into practical engineering solutions with measurable business impact

Strong software development skills in Python, Java, or similar languages

Exceptional analytical, systems thinking, and cross-functional communication skills

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field

Pay & Benefits

At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $216,200 and $394,000, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.

Apple employees also have the opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple's discretionary employee stock programs. Apple employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple's Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You'll also receive benefits including: Comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for certain educational expenses - including tuition. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation. Learn more about Apple Benefits

Note: Apple benefit, compensation and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program.