ML Researcher, Foundation Models

Apple Inc

Confirmed live yesterday Trusted

Quick summary

Work type
On-site
Location
New York, NY
Salary
$184,700–$324,800 / yr
Posted
114 days ago
Freshness
Confirmed live yesterday

Market check

Salary context

Above market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $229k
This role $255k
$157k most similar roles pay here $343k

This role pays more than 75% of similar roles. Most pay $202,800–$255,125 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $255k versus about $229k for comparable roles.

Based on 240 similar postings.

Employer

About Apple Inc

Apple Inc. is a multinational technology company known for designing and manufacturing consumer electronics, software, and online services, including the iPhone, Mac, iPad, and App Store. Industry: Consumer Electronics & Software

Apple Inc currently has 1984 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $175,000–$277,600 across 1590 roles with salary data.

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At a glance

TL;DR · ML Researcher, Foundation Models

As an ML Researcher, Apple Foundation Models, you will join a team building frontier foundation models optimized for Apple silicon and integrated OS experiences. You will work across the full training lifecycle, including pre-training and developing mid-training approaches to bridge general capability with task-specific performance. Your daily work involves solving complex problems in reward modeling, reasoning from first principles, and developing autonomous coding agents that operate in real repositories. You will tackle challenges such as RL for mathematical reasoning, scaling laws for compute allocation, and multi-turn RL for agentic systems. The role requires expertise in deep learning, Python, and frameworks like JAX, PyTorch, or TensorFlow. Key technical areas include RLHF, GRPO, PPO, reward modeling, code generation, distillation, alignment, sparse attention, and context compression to manage long-horizon tasks within the product area of agentic systems.

What you'll do

  • Pre-train and develop mid-training approaches for foundation models tailored for Apple silicon.
  • Implement reinforcement learning techniques like RLHF, GRPO, and PPO to improve model reasoning.
  • Develop autonomous coding agents capable of operating in real repositories and performing multi-step workflows.
  • Solve reward modeling problems to prevent reward hacking and handle sparse or delayed rewards.
  • Research scaling laws for RL compute allocation and progressive alignment across capability stages.
  • Train models to manage their own context during long-horizon tasks using techniques like sparse attention.
  • Perform distillation to combine independently optimized capabilities into a single, cohesive model.

What we're looking for

  • PhD or equivalent practical experience in Computer Science or a related technical field.
  • Demonstrated expertise in deep learning with publications at top ML/NLP conferences or a track record of applying techniques to products.
  • Proficiency in Python and at least one deep learning toolkit such as JAX, PyTorch, or TensorFlow.
  • Experience in reinforcement learning for LLMs including RLHF, GRPO, PPO, reward modeling, and scaling laws.
  • Expertise in code generation, repository-level code understanding, and agentic coding systems.
  • Experience with agentic systems involving multi-turn RL, tool-use planning, and long-horizon task execution.
  • Knowledge of distillation and alignment techniques such as on-policy or reward-tilted distillation.
  • Familiarity with long context and efficiency techniques like sparse attention and context compression.

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