System Architect Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States Hardware

Motion sensors bridge the physical and digital realms, enabling seamless user interaction and motion features across Apple products. The Motion Sensing Hardware Team integrates MEMS and magnetic sensing technologies throughout Apple's product portfolio in a collaborative environment that fosters creativity and engineering excellence. Invention and patent creation are encouraged to revolutionize product design through innovative technologies and exceptional user experiences. As a member of this team, you will own the end-to-end sensing system architecture — from transducer physics through signal chain and algorithm — shaping how motion sensing capabilities are defined, developed, and delivered from concept through high-volume manufacturing.

You will own the motion sensing system architecture for state-of-the-art sensors (magnetic, inertial, and pressure) across Apple products. Your primary responsibility is to drive the feature roadmap, define feature requirements, and systematically decompose them into system requirements and sensor module specifications. You will build and validate quantitative end-to-end models capturing the full signal chain — physical, electrical, and algorithmic — to ensure that sensor specifications and intermediate figures of merit guarantee feature-level performance. Beyond requirements definition, you will own sensor integration into the product system, leveraging modeling and simulation to optimize sensor placement and working cross-functionally to ensure placement meets performance, mechanical, and manufacturing constraints. You will define comprehensive validation plans, execute them rigorously, and generate high-quality reports to communicate results, risks, and recommendations to leadership and cross-functional teams.

• Drive the motion sensing feature roadmap by evaluating emerging technologies, user needs, and product opportunities.
• Define feature requirements and systematically translate them into system-level requirements, intermediate figures of merit, and sensor module specifications — maintaining full traceability across the requirements hierarchy.
• Build and validate quantitative end-to-end models of the sensing signal chain (physical, electrical, algorithmic) to guarantee that sensor specifications deliver required feature performance.
• Own sensor integration into the product system; leverage modeling and simulation to evaluate and optimize sensor placement for performance, ensuring mechanical, thermal, and electromagnetic constraints are met.
• Work cross-functionally with mechanical, electrical, industrial design, and product design teams to align on sensor placement and integration trade-offs.
• Define comprehensive validation plans spanning characterization through production; execute validation campaigns and drive closure of open issues.
• Generate high-quality engineering reports and share findings, status, risks, and mitigation strategies with leadership and cross-functional teams through thorough documentation and clear presentations.
• Determine the sensitivity of user-facing features to variation in sensor specifications; perform impact analyses to assess proposed requirement and specification changes.
• Perform architectural trade‑off analyses across performance, manufacturability, size, schedule, and cost to guide module and system integration teams.
• Develop repeatable, reproducible, and automated measurement methods to enable thorough validation on tight development schedules.
• Diagnose engineering issues with rigorous scientific method, driving to definitive root cause.
• Support engineering builds with performance validation, yield optimization, and failure analysis coordination.
• Drive multi-source sensor performance matching and work with suppliers to proactively resolve specification‑matching issues; travel to supplier and manufacturing sites as needed.

• BS and a minimum of 10 years relevant industry experience.
• Practical understanding of motion sensors (magnetic, inertial, pressure) and relevant physics.
• Experience in architecture and system-level design of sensing systems.

• PhD with 5+ years of hands‑on experience and a proven track record shipping motion sensor or sensing system products.
• Experience in architecture, design, characterization, and validation of MEMS sensing systems (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer), including theory of operation, signal processing, fabrication, packaging, and design trade‑offs.
• Deep, multi-disciplinary understanding of EE, ME, transducer physics, and system engineering principles.
• Proficiency in modeling, simulation, and analysis tools (ANSYS Maxwell, COMSOL, MATLAB, Python, JMP); experience designing and running FEA or Monte Carlo simulations.
• Experience in sensor placement optimization through modeling (FEA, magnetic/inertial simulation) within product-level constraints.
• Strong fundamentals in signal processing, probability, and statistics; competency in sensor fusion, machine learning, and mathematical modeling is an asset.
• Experience defining and executing validation plans from characterization through production readiness.
• Experience building and testing complex multi‑physics systems and delivering related prototypes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with solid collaboration and leadership abilities.

At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $184,700 and $324,800, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.

Apple employees also have the opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple’s discretionary employee stock programs. Apple employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You’ll also receive benefits including comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for certain educational expenses — including tuition. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation. Learn more about Apple Benefits.

Note: Apple benefit, compensation and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program.

Apple is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We seek to promote equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. Learn more about your EEO rights as an applicant.

At Apple, we believe accessibility is a fundamental human right. You’ll find that idea reflected in everything here — in our culture, our benefits and our digital tools. By welcoming as many perspectives as possible, we help you build a career where you feel like you belong.

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Apple accepts applications to this posting on an ongoing basis.