
Software Engineer - Observability
Required skills
- control plane
- time series database
- provisioning
- orchestration
- scaling
- health
- self-healing
- data platform
- distributed systems
- ingest
Nice to have
- DevOps
- CI/CD pipelines
- infrastructure as code
- Terraform
- GitOps
- container orchestration
Role summary
Apple Services Engineering (ASE) is seeking a Software Engineer for its Observability team. This role involves designing and building control plane tooling and automation for large-scale time series databases (TSDBs), contributing to the core data platform, and ensuring system reliability and scalability. The ideal candidate blends strong software engineering fundamentals with a deep operational mindset, comfortable owning problems end-to-end from requirement gathering to operability. Experience with distributed systems, automation, and core CS concepts is essential. Preferred qualifications include DevOps skills, Kubernetes, and familiarity with observability solutions.
Description
We are looking for an engineer who blends strong software engineering fundamentals with a deep operational mindset. You will own the control plane that makes our TSDB reliable, scalable, and easy to operate, and you will fluidly move between building operational tooling and shipping product features. You should be comfortable owning problems end to end, from requirement gathering through design, implementation, rollout, and on-call operability.
Minimum Qualifications
BS or MS in CS or equivalent 5+ years of industry experience Deep understanding of core CS concepts including data structures, algorithms, and concurrent programming Proficiency in one or more programming languages such as Java, Scala, Go, or Python Experience designing, implementing, and operating highly scalable infrastructure services in production Deep understanding and work experience in distributed systems Hands-on experience building automation and tooling for deployment, orchestration, and operations at scale Strong attention to detail, excellent analytical capabilities, and a bias toward reducing operational toil Passion for developing clear, robust, and maintainable software and systems
Preferred Qualifications
Experience building control plane or fleet management tooling for stateful/data systems in production Strong DevOps skillset: CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code (e.g. Terraform), configuration management, and GitOps workflows Hands-on experience with container orchestration and scheduling (Kubernetes, operators, custom controllers) Familiarity with time series database internals and the operational challenges of running them at scale Experience with Observability solutions using OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana Experience with columnar storage systems and/or building query engines is a plus Experience building high performant systems in Rust is a plus Comfortable wearing multiple hats, moving between operational tooling and core product/feature development Great communication skills
Sample Apple interview questions
- 1
Design a typeahead box for a search engine
system designmedium - 2
Design a rate limiter
system designmedium - 3
Architect a key-value store for distributed systems.
system designmedium - 4
Design a system to schedule jobs in a distributed environment
system designmedium - 5
What is an API and how does it work?
technicalmedium
Get started to unlock a personalized interview prep pack for this role.
Similar roles
Learning Experience Designer, WW Sales Learning & DevelopmentApple · Austin, TX · Onsite
Graphics Software EngineerApple · Austin, TX · Onsite- Associate Software EngineerKeyfactor, Inc. · Remote · Remote
- Platform Software EngineerFord Motor Company · Dearborn, MI · Hybrid
- Director - Software EngineeringKodiak Solutions · Remote · Remote
- Sr Software Engineer IAmerican Express Company · Phoenix, AZ · Hybrid
