Media Tuning Engineer

The successful candidate will be responsible for defining and executing the "Apple Sound" across our entire product ecosystem. This role requires a rare convergence of technical mastery and artistic intuition. Someone who possesses both a golden ear for critical listening and the engineering rigor to translate those perceptions via world-class digital signal processing. You aren’t just adjusting gains and frequencies; you are defining the sonic identity for products like iPhone, Vision Pro, and AirPods, ensuring that every note and voice remains true to the artist's intent while pushing the boundaries of what is possible in small-form-factor acoustics. As a Media Tuning and Applied ML Engineer, you will serve as the final gatekeeper for audio quality. You will navigate the complex intersection of physics and software, utilizing advanced problem-solving to overcome hardware constraints. By curating the datasets that feed our machine learning models and establishing the subjective benchmarks for AI-enhanced audio, you will ensure that our next generation of intelligent features from spatial rendering to real-time speech enhancement feels natural, immersive, and unmistakably Apple. This is a high-impact role that demands a strong aesthetic opinion, the ability to advocate for excellence in a fast-paced cross-functional environment, and a relentless commitment to the user’s sensory experience. Signal Processing & Tuning: Apply equalization, dynamic processing, compression, and limiting to achieve high-fidelity sound across diverse hardware platforms. ML Model Evaluation: Help curate and assess high-quality audio datasets for the training and deployment of ML systems (e.g., source separation, speech enhancement, and generative audio). Technical Execution: Create and submit final tunings using Apple-defined tools and processes, ensuring seamless integration into product firmware. Demonstration & Feedback: Develop and present comprehensive audio demonstrations of tuning iterations to cross-functional leadership, incorporating feedback into rapid design cycles. Engineering Collaboration: Partner with audio software engineers to improve signal processing techniques and provide critical feedback on internal tuning tools and external vendor solutions. Strategic Benchmarking: Establish subjective quality standards and "golden sets" to validate the performance of AI/ML-enhanced audio features. Cross-Functional Ownership: Operate within demanding production schedules, coordinating with hardware, software, and product design teams to resolve complex acoustic challenges. 5 years professional experience in music/audio production, mastering, or high-fidelity system tuning will also be considered. Deep technical understanding of equalization, dynamics, time-domain processing, speakers, microphones and audio signal flow. Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to translate subjective auditory experiences into actionable engineering requirements. Most of our engineers have advanced degrees in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or an equivalent field, but if you’ve followed a different path to expertise in Audio engineering, we still want to hear from you. Experience shipping high-complexity, high-volume consumer electronics (e.g., headphones, smart speakers, or wearable audio). Familiarity with modern audio ML tasks such as speech synthesis, source separation, and generative soundscapes. Proficiency in MaxMSP, Python, MatLab or similar environments for data curation and audio analysis as well as standard audio production software. Professional background in film/video post-production, broadcast, or studio recording. Proven ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously under tight deadlines in a cross-functional environment.

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