Backend Engineer

Our backend services handle millions of transactions across recruiting workflows, payroll processing, benefits enrollment, and compensation management. As a Senior Backend Engineer, you’ll architect and own Java micro-services at the core of these platforms. The work is technically demanding: high-concurrency event-driven systems, complex domain modeling with country-specific business rules and distributed transactions with strong consistency requirements.

Collaboration is central to how we work. You’ll partner with product managers and cross-functional engineering teams to understand problems deeply before reaching for solutions. The best engineers here are the ones who ask “why” before “how.”

If you care deeply about precision, data integrity, and crafting platforms where scale meets human empathy, come join us to do the best work of your life.

When you engineer for People Systems, your users are Apple’s most vital asset: its People. We are seeking an exceptional Senior Backend Engineer with a passion for clean domain architecture, high-concurrency Java micro-services, and resilient event-driven systems., B.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent professional work experience.

5+ years proven experience developing software in a professional capacity. Longer experience preferred.

2+ years proven experience with Java, including proficiency in concurrency, memory management, and performance optimization techniques.

Proficiency in OOP principles, data structures, algorithms, and software design patterns (e.g. GoF), with a proven focus on implementing testable, maintainable, and extensible backend code.

Java Ecosystem experience building production applications with the Spring ecosystem (e.g. Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Spring Security, Spring Data, Spring Cloud, etc.), including proficiency in dependency injection, auto-configuration, reactive programming with WebFlux, and designing microservices using Spring-based patterns.

Distributed Systems & Architecture experience designing, implementing, and shipping high-scale, high-performance, highly available, fault-tolerant, and secure cloud-based distributed systems.

Distributed Systems & Architecture experience in API design and implementation, including proficiency in RESTful API principles, gRPC, GraphQL, contract-first design (e.g. OpenAPI/Swagger, Protobuf, etc.), API versioning strategies, gateway patterns, rate limiting, and designing APIs for backward compatibility and long-term evolution.

Data Engineering experience with distributed data orchestration & computing systems (e.g. Airflow, Spark, Flink, etc.), including designing and managing complex data workflows, batch and real-time stream processing pipelines, and ensuring data pipeline reliability and fault tolerance at scale.

Preferred Qualifications

Track record of leading software projects within a team as a tech lead (TL), while mentoring software engineers.

Hands-on experience leveraging GenAI coding tools (e.g., Claude, Copilot, Codex) to accelerate the software development lifecycle, enhance code quality, and streamline debugging and testing processes.

AI/ML experience designing and operating ML infrastructure and MLOps pipelines, including model serving and inference systems, feature stores, model registries, A/B testing frameworks, and automated model retraining and deployment workflows.

AI/ML experience with Natural Language Processing and Generative AI systems, including Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures, embedding pipelines, vector databases (e.g. Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector, etc.), fine-tuning, and prompt engineering for production applications.

Distributed Systems & Architecture experience with message-driven and event-driven architectures, including proficiency in messaging systems (e.g. Kafka, RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ, etc.), event sourcing, CQRS patterns, and designing reliable asynchronous communication between distributed services.

Distributed Systems & Architecture experience with caching strategies and in-memory data technologies (e.g. Redis, Memcached, Hazelcast, Ehcache, etc.), including proficiency in cache invalidation patterns, distributed caching architectures, and session management for high-throughput applications.

Do you want to help build some of the largest and most consequential enterprise and customer technology systems in the world? Join Apple’s Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) organization.

IS&T is the engine behind everything Apple does for customers and for the people who build for them. It’s Apple’s central nervous system. Supporting 2.5 billion active Apple devices, processing billions of secure transactions, and keeping the technology that defines modern life running flawlessly, IS&T makes the impossible feel effortless.

G&A Solutions Engineering (GSE) is IS&T’s dedicated technology partner for Apple’s general and administrative functions - including people, finance, facilities, legal, and security. The team builds and delivers integrated technology solutions that keep these functions running efficiently and securely at global scale. GSE also works closely with business teams to develop custom tools that improve productivity and bring greater automation and consistency to G&A operations across Apple., At Apple, we believe the people who build our products deserve systems built with that same care. That belief is what drives People Systems. Behind every revolutionary hardware launch, breakthrough service, and magical customer experience are the passionate people who make it all possible.

This is our pursuit: to be the unseen force behind a world-class employee experience for the most exceptional people on Earth - realized through obsessively crafting and caring for the systems that hire, reward, and support our talent as they grow, thrive, and do the best work of their lives.