Software Engineering Manager, Retail Engineering

Retail and Marcom Engineering, an IS&T team, builds and operates the systems and experiences that connect Apple's products with its customers. The team owns the technology behind both Apple's online and physical stores and drives the interactive marketing experiences and tools that keep creative operations moving. Together, those functions deliver the technology behind every product story Apple tells and every purchase a customer makes.

Within Retail Engineering, the Financing and Retail Services team builds and operates the backend systems that power some of the most critical online and store experiences worldwide.

As a Backend Engineering Manager on this team, you will lead a group of backend engineers responsible for systems that must be reliable, secure, and accurate at a global scale. You will bring deep hands-on engineering expertise alongside strong people leadership, driving technical strategy while staying closely engaged in architecture, design, and execution.

Description

You will lead a team of backend engineers building the distributed systems and services that power Apple Retail's store operations and customer-facing experiences. Your team's work sits at the core of how Apple Stores function. The services your team builds must be reliable, secure, and scalable to support millions of customer interactions every day. This is a hands-on technical leadership role that demands deep expertise in building distributed & highly secure systems at scale, paired with the ability to inspire a team and shape a long-term technical vision.

You will work in close partnership with product teams to translate customer and business needs into backend systems that are robust, extensible, and built to last. Your ability to bridge the gap between how engineering decisions shape the customer journey will be central to how you lead and influence.

Responsibilities:

Lead design and implementation of secure, high-scale distributed backend services that power Apple Retail store operations and customer experiences, with an emphasis on reliability, correctness, and performance.

Partner deeply with product managers and designers to shape roadmaps, surface technical constraints early, and co-own outcomes - ensuring engineering and product move as one team.

Stay hands-on with system architecture, code reviews, and technical problem-solving, serving as a credible, trusted technical voice for your team and partners.

Drive engineering excellence through strong practices in API design, service observability, automated testing, CI/CD, and secure-by-design development.

Manage scope, risk, and delivery across multiple concurrent projects with clear communication to stakeholders at all levels.

Hire, develop, and retain a high-performing team of backend engineers; invest meaningfully in each person's growth through regular 1:1s, coaching, and clear career development.

Collaborate across Retail Engineering, Platform, Security, and Operations teams to deliver well-integrated backend systems that meet compliance, security, and scalability requirements.

Communicate technical strategy, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to both engineering peers and non-technical stakeholders, building confidence and alignment at every level.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience building and operating backend systems in retail, commerce, or consumer-facing technology environments where scale, availability, and customer trust are paramount.

Strong executive communication and influencing skills.

Experience in leading and developing high-performing teams in a fast-paced, dynamic, and innovative environment.

Experience in leading significant technology transformations.

Minimum Qualifications

Technical Experience: 10+ years of backend engineering experience

Leadership Experience: 5+ years of people management experience, including hands-on technical leadership

Primary Language: advanced proficiency with Java or equivalent

Security Expertise: Strong understanding of application security principles - secure API design, secrets management, least-privilege access, and threat modeling

Systems Expertise: Distributed systems, high-scale, fault-tolerant design