Systems Performance Architect

Cupertino Until 9/21/2026 3+ years exp First posted July 23, 2026 Last posted July 23, 2026
Job description

Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, new ideas have a way of becoming products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Every single day, people do amazing things at Apple! Do you want to impact billions of users by developing an extraordinary product with a prime focus on accuracy, understandability, and performance of the product? Dynamic, Inspiring people and Innovative technologies are the norm here. The System Performance Architecture team is responsible for all aspects of performance spanning hardware (CPU, GPU, DRAM, storage), software (OS, drivers, applications), and other system characteristics (thermals, power, acoustics). This spans performance modeling, guiding architecture tradeoffs, performance verification, performance debug, and workload characterization. Our team is collaborative, creative and passionate about what we do and the value we add in future product designs. Come join us!

Description

We have an outstanding opportunity for a Performance Architect to contribute to the characterization and optimization of future Apple Silicon platforms. This position is a multi-disciplinary engineering role encompassing computer system design, workload analysis, and performance modeling. The candidate will need the skills to dissect complex workloads (specifically AI and ML), identify architectural bottlenecks, and influence the definition of our next-generation SoCs to advance our products' performance, power, and thermal efficiency.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelors Degree in EE or Computer Engineering and minimum 3 years of experience in Computer Architecture, performance analysis, or hardware modeling
Understanding of CPU/GPU/NPU microarchitecture concepts (pipelines, caches, coherence, etc.)
Experience in performance analysis and modeling
Expert in Python scripting /C++ coding Skills

Preferred Qualifications

Masters Degree in EE/Computer Engineering or equivalent of relevant working experience is preferred
Experience with workload characterization tools (e.g., hardware performance counters, instruction tracers, profilers)
Experience with GPU APIs, OpenGL, OpenCL, DirectX, Metal.
Expertise in one or more focused areas (CPU/GPU, System Architecture, Compiler/SW Stack). Areas could include core/shader micro-architecture, texture pipeline, caching, or memory subsystem design for the SoC. System Areas examples could include IO, Storage, or DRAM Subsystem.
Exposure to modeling in constrained environments (ie under thermal, power delivery, power management constraints)
Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences across hardware and software teams

About this role

Summary

Optimize Apple Silicon performance through workload analysis, modeling, and architecture influence.

Job title

Systems Performance Architect

Experience level

3+ years

Minimum experience

3+ years exp

Industry

technology

Location requirements

On-site in Cupertino, no remote work allowed.

Salary

Not specified

Management role

No

Skills & keywords

Required skills

performance analysisperformance modelingpythonc++computer architecture

Preferred skills

workload characterization toolsGPU APIsOpenGLOpenCLMetal

Specializations

performance modelingperformance analysiscomputer architectureAI workloadsML workloads
Locations

Structured locations inferred from the posting.

Cupertino, CA, USA

On-site City