Hardware Reliability Engineer – Ecosystem

Cupertino Until 10/3/2026 3+ years exp First posted August 4, 2026 Last posted August 4, 2026
Job description

We are looking for you to work with our diverse ecosystem hardware engineering teams! As the Reliability team, we are responsible for ensuring and improving the durability and reliability of Apple's products. To achieve that, we partner with multiple engineering teams from the beginning (concept) to the end (field returns) of a product lifecycle by helping to explore new technologies and understand how customers will use our products. If you have a passion for constant learning and innovative engineering products, you will fit right in. You will develop and implement creative reliability tests on new hardware programs, quantify reliability risk, support failure analysis resulting from these tests, and advise the executive team on the best path forward. Our work ensures that our products meet the rigorous expectations of our customers and survive whatever our customers can throw at them – we break things so you don’t have to. Come join our team! Our team works specifically on iPad accessories and input devices – products such as Keyboards, Folios, Pencils, etc, and the interactions these products have with their respective systems. We work closely with the design, manufacturing, and quality teams to evaluate the performance of our products through the suite of reliability tests that we design and use these results to motivate design and process changes iteratively to ultimately deliver better products to our customers. We have a hand in every softgoods product that is released and both design the tests and analyze the test results to suite each products’ specific use cases and product definitions.

Description

You will be responsible for ensuring our products meet the rigorous expectations of our customers and survive what life may throw at them. To do so, you will be working with cross-functional teams from concept to mass production to identify risks in the design, develop tests to evaluate the performance of the product with regards to those concerns, work with the team to understand failures, and recommend and verify the efficacy of the corresponding corrective actions. You will need to rigorously justify your tests with well characterized user behaviors and thorough understanding of field stresses, and a strong technical background to not only participate in failure analysis (FA), but also drive FA and lead the team through complex problem solving. We will push the performance of our products to the limits of the material and design, and in those cases, you will need to prepare comprehensive risk assessments to fully quantify any field exposure we may have.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree in a hardware-focused field (ME, MS, CE, EE, etc.) with 3+ years of industry experience
Experience performing product characterization including mechanical stress tests, shock/drop/vibration testing, environmental testing, etc.
Proven written and verbal communication skills
Proficiency in iWork and Microsoft Office, including but not limited to Keynote, Powerpoint, Excel, etc.

Preferred Qualifications

Statistical experience such as Weibull, JMP, or familiarity with accelerated test models
Familiar with Failure Analysis techniques (Optical Microscopy, X-ray/CT, Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy, etc.), and the ability to use failure analysis methodology to derive a root cause of failure
Understanding of Design of Experiments
Imaginative approach to Failure Modes and Effects Analysis
Ability to make clear and concise slides and presentations when vital
Ability to use AI tools to improve work efficiency.
Strong attention to detail and curiosity of how technologies work
Collaborative attitude and ability to cross-functionally work effectively
Ability to travel internationally without restrictions (up to 10%)
Curiosity about how technologies work.

About this role

Summary

Ensure product durability through testing, failure analysis, and risk assessment of hardware products.

Job title

Hardware Reliability Engineer – Ecosystem

Experience level

3+ years

Minimum experience

3+ years exp

Industry

technology

Location requirements

Cupertino, on-site; remote not allowed

Salary

Not specified

Management role

No

Skills & keywords

Required skills

mechanical stress testsvibration testingenvironmental testingfailure analysis

Preferred skills

statistical analysisfailure analysis techniquesdesign of experimentsAI tools

Specializations

reliability testingfailure analysishardware designfield testingrisk assessment
Locations

Structured locations inferred from the posting.

Cupertino, CA, USA

On-site City