Senior Backend Software Engineer, Platform Engineering, Services Data Science & Analytics

Apple Apple · Big Tech · Austin, TX · Software and Services

Senior Backend Software Engineer for Apple's Services Data Science & Analytics Platform Engineering team. The role involves designing, building, and operating backend services that form the foundation of the DS&A data platform, focusing on high-performance, reliability, and scalability for large-scale analytics.

What you'd actually do

  1. You will own core platform services end-to-end — from API design and query routing through caching infrastructure and data lineage — ensuring they perform reliably at the scale and latency demands of one of the world's largest analytics organizations.
  2. You'll collaborate closely with Data Engineering, Data Science, Machine Learning Engineering, Insight Engineering, and Core Engineering teams, making architectural decisions that directly shape the scalability and durability of DS&A's analytical foundation.
  3. Over time, you'll influence platform strategy, mentor engineers across the team, and help drive the technical roadmap for how DS&A manages, governs, and serves its data at scale.

Skills

Required

  • Python
  • Node.js/TypeScript
  • async programming
  • type safety
  • FastAPI
  • Express
  • distributed systems
  • API design
  • REST
  • gRPC
  • GraphQL
  • caching architectures
  • cache invalidation
  • Snowflake
  • Trino
  • Spark
  • PostgreSQL
  • Kubernetes
  • Prometheus
  • Grafana
  • OpenTelemetry

Nice to have

  • data catalog
  • metadata systems
  • lineage systems
  • Apache Iceberg
  • CI/CD pipeline design
  • AI/ML infrastructure
  • integrating LLM-powered capabilities into platform services

What the JD emphasized

  • 8+ years of experience building and operating high-performance, production-grade backend API services
  • Expert proficiency in Python or Node.js/TypeScript
  • Demonstrated experience designing and operating distributed systems with strict reliability and latency SLAs
  • Strong proficiency with API design and service-to-service communication patterns
  • Hands-on experience with multi-layer caching architectures
  • Extensive experience building systems that integrate with distributed and high-performance data stores
  • Proficiency with Kubernetes
  • Strong observability practice