Senior Software Engineer, Intelligent Automation & Developer Platforms

Cupertino Until 9/22/2026 10+ years exp First posted July 24, 2026 Last posted July 24, 2026
Job description

At Apple, we work every day to create products that enrich people’s lives. The Apple Ads team builds privacy-focused advertising platforms that operate at massive scale across Apple Services. We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to help build intelligent internal platforms, automation frameworks, and developer tools that improve quality, and engineering productivity across Apple Ads. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on building AI/LLM-powered internal tooling and automation systems across mobile, backend, API, and data platform ecosystems. The ideal candidate combines strong software engineering fundamentals with experience building scalable automation, developer infrastructure, and full-stack engineering platforms.

Description

In this role, you will help build AI/LLM-powered internal tools that act as the intelligent immune system for Apple Ads—continuously understanding signals across products, detecting risk patterns early, and enabling autonomous validation and recovery workflows before issues impact users. You will work on unifying fragmented solutions across multiple Apple Ads business lines into a single intelligence layer integrated with a unified validation platform, replacing bespoke tooling with a scalable and adaptive ecosystem accessible through prompts, APIs, and MCP servers. This role is focused on leveraging existing AI models and platforms to build intelligent internal developer tools rather than developing or training AI/ML models. We are looking for candidates who can operate effectively in ambiguous environments, drive clarity across complex problem spaces, and influence cross-functional teams through strong technical leadership and excellent communication skills, including experience partnering with senior engineers and engineering leadership.

Minimum Qualifications

10+ years of experience building scalable test automation frameworks and leading QE strategy across complex distributed systems spanning web, mobile, APIs, and data platforms
Strong programming expertise in Python or Java, with deep experience in modern automation frameworks such as Playwright or Selenium, mobile testing ecosystems including iOS/XCTest/XCUITest, and distributed systems such as Hadoop, Hive, and HDFS
Proven ability to drive adoption of emerging technologies such as AI/LLMs, MCP, and agentic systems to enable intelligent automation and self-serve developer workflows
Expertise in debugging complex system-level issues, validating APIs and data pipelines, and driving root cause analysis across integrated services and platforms
Demonstrated ability to influence engineering standards, operate effectively in ambiguous environments, and collaborate with senior engineers and engineering leadership across cross-functional teams

Preferred Qualifications

Experience designing AI driven or agent based automation systems, including MCP aligned architectures
Experience building scalable validation strategies for data platforms, including streaming systems (Kafka, Spark)
Strong background in API testing, data validation, and building self service QE platforms
Experience in advertising technology or similar large scale, high complexity ecosystems
Proven track record of leading cross org initiatives and driving alignment across multiple teams

About this role

Summary

Build scalable automation frameworks, AI-powered tools, and developer platforms at Apple Ads.

Job title

Senior Software Engineer, Intelligent Automation & Developer Platforms

Experience level

10+ years

Minimum experience

10+ years exp

Industry

software

Location requirements

must be in Cupertino; remote not allowed

Salary

Not specified

Management role

No

Skills & keywords

Required skills

PythonJavaPlaywrightSeleniumiOSXCTestXCUITestHadoopHiveHDFSAI/LLMsAPI testingdata validation

Preferred skills

AI driven automationagent based automationMCP architecturesstreaming systemsKafkaSparkadvertising technology

Specializations

automationAI/LLMsfull-stackdeveloper toolsdistributed systems
Locations

Structured locations inferred from the posting.

Cupertino, CA, USA

On-site City