Machine Learning Engineer, Natural Language Understanding, Proactive

About the role

Apple's On-Device Query Understanding team is building the next generation of personalized, intelligent search. You will research and develop novel approaches in query understanding and machine learning modeling creating the technology that enables seamless search and assistant experiences across Apple products. This is a role for someone passionate about applying machine learning and generative AI to meaningful, large-scale challenges, where your work will directly shape how millions of people interact with Apple products every day.

Responsibilities

The On-Device Query Understanding team builds personalized, state-of-the-art query understanding models that power search intelligence across Spotlight and first-party apps like Mail, Photos, and Reminders. You will:

• Drive scalable evaluations and modeling improvements that directly impact millions of Apple users
• Contribute to the broader machine learning community
• Bring together research and engineering excellence to advance how Apple understands what people are looking for, and why

Minimum qualifications

• 4 or more years of experience in machine learning, natural language processing, or computer vision, applied at scale
• Software engineering experience with Python, Go, or C/C++
• Communication and collaboration skills
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Statistics, Physics, Mathematics, or a related field

Preferred qualifications

• Advanced degree (Master's or Ph.D.) in Computer Science, Statistics, or a related field, or equivalent industry experience
• Experience in large-scale query understanding, search, recommendation, or personal assistant systems
• Proficiency with machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, or XGBoost
• Background in personalization and data-driven decision making, with the ability to prototype solutions and conduct critical analysis
• Experience with Swift or iOS development