Senior AI Engineer, Services Special Projects

Apple Inc

Confirmed live 2 days ago High trust

Quick summary

Work type
On-site
Location
San Francisco, CA
Salary
$184,700–$324,800 / yr
Posted
41 days ago
Freshness
Confirmed live 2 days ago

Market check

Salary context

Above market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $205k
This role $255k
$142k most similar roles pay here $344k

This role pays more than 84% of similar roles. Most pay $162,000–$247,731 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $255k versus about $205k 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 · Senior AI Engineer, Services Special Projects

Senior AI Engineer - Services Special Projects is a senior-level role focused on building, deploying, and operationalizing Small and Large Language Model (LLM) based applications within a production environment. You will own the full model lifecycle, including fine-tuning, infrastructure design, and MLOps practices to ensure reliable delivery of LLM-powered features. Key responsibilities involve developing CI/CD pipelines, managing serving infrastructure on Kubernetes, implementing safety guardrails, and ensuring data privacy. You will work with technologies such as Python, Java, Scala, Spark, Airflow, and various inference runtimes like TensorRT and ONNX. Additionally, you will utilize tools for vector search, feature stores, and model tracking. The role addresses the technical challenges of scaling LLM services while maintaining high standards for observability, governance, and performance optimization across complex distributed systems.

What does a AI Engineer earn in California?

Median $246150 from 84 postings across 12 companies.

See salary data

What you'll do

  • Build and optimize LLM-based applications using techniques like quantization, distillation, and compilation for production environments.
  • Develop scalable ML infrastructure, including CI/CD pipelines, Kubernetes deployments, and high-traffic RESTful or GraphQL APIs.
  • Manage the full model lifecycle from initial experimentation and fine-tuning to deployment, monitoring, and retirement.
  • Design and implement robust data pipelines for multimodal data ingestion using feature stores and lineage-tracked storage.
  • Establish model governance frameworks including audit trails, approval gates, and compliance controls.
  • Implement safety guardrails and privacy-preserving techniques to protect user data and ensure safe model outputs.
  • Develop observability tools to monitor performance metrics such as latency, throughput, and cost efficiency.
  • Mentor junior engineers and establish technical standards for MLOps practices across the organization.

What we're looking for

  • Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
  • 8+ years of experience in Machine learning and software engineering.
  • Proven track record of shipping production-grade ML/LLM systems.
  • Strong understanding of LLMs, fine-tuning, prompt engineering, and RAG patterns.
  • Experience building pipelines for multimodal data and integrating LLM inference with vector search technologies.
  • Hands-on experience deploying and optimizing LLMs using frameworks like Triton, vLLM, or SGLang on Kubernetes.
  • Proficiency in Python and working proficiency in Java or Scala.
  • Experience with MLOps tools including CI/CD pipelines, Airflow, and model versioning systems like MLflow or DVC.

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