
Secure Systems Engineer - Platform Architecture Security Team
Required skills
- Platform Architecture
- Security Policy
- Distributed Systems
- Cryptography
- PKI
- TLS
- Key Management
- Secure Boot
- Authentication
- Authorization
Nice to have
- 10+ years industry experience
- Symmetric Crypto
- Asymmetric Crypto
- Confidentiality
- Integrity
- Secure Services Design
Role summary
Apple's Platform Architecture group is seeking a Secure Systems Engineer to join their team. This role focuses on securing consumer devices by designing and operating distributed systems that enforce security policies throughout the product lifecycle. The ideal candidate will have experience in security practices, programming languages like Python or Go, and conducting security architecture reviews and threat modeling. Experience with cryptography and security protocols is essential, with a preference for candidates with 10+ years of industry experience and knowledge of C/C++ and DevOps practices.
Description
In this role, you will define the architecture and oversee the operation of distributed systems that set and enforce security policy for the development, manufacture, deployment, and operation of Apple products, ultimately driving continuous security improvements for these products. This role is largely self-directed and suits an engineer with deep hands-on experience building and operating secure systems who is ready to grow into an architectural role.
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, related engineering degree or equivalent job-related experience. Experience applying security practices to the design, development, or operation of production services. Experience with common programming languages such as Python or Go. Experience conducting security architecture reviews, threat modeling, or identifying vulnerabilities in complex distributed systems. Experience with cryptography and security protocols, including at least two of the following: PKI, TLS, Key Management, Secure Boot, or Authentication/Authorization.
Preferred Qualifications
10+ years of relevant industry experience. Ability to understand complex systems, employing strong critical thinking skills to identify security issues in implementation and architecture. Knowledge of cryptographic principles (e.g., symmetric vs asymmetric crypto, confidentiality vs integrity) and technologies such as authentication and authorization, key management, TLS, certificate lifecycle management, secure boot, and PKI. Experience designing and developing secure services and scalable infrastructure for highly available applications, such as distributed systems, micro-services, and cloud platforms. Familiarity with, or practical application of, threat modeling methodologies such as STRIDE or Trike. DevOps experience, such as continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD), infrastructure as code (IaC), or automation of development, testing, and deployment pipelines. Ability to track emerging security trends and threats and proactively incorporate them into PKI architecture and signing policy to stay ahead of evolving risks. Experience with systems programming languages such as C or C++.
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
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