
Data Center Hardware Engineering — Hardware System Integration Engineer
Required skills
- hardware system integration
- server compute
- schematic capture
- board bring-up
- validation
- factory build support
- mechanical
- power
- firmware
- silicon
Nice to have
- high-speed PCB design
- 10+ layer boards
- PCB material selection
- stack-up definition
- Cadence tools
- schematic entry
Role summary
Apple's Data Center Hardware Engineering team is seeking a Hardware System Integration Engineer to design and realize customized compute platforms from concept to mass production. This role involves contributing to the full hardware engineering lifecycle, including specification, schematic capture, board bring-up, validation, and factory support. You will collaborate across mechanical, power, software, firmware, silicon, manufacturing, and reliability teams, driving design requirements and ensuring precision at scale. The ideal candidate has a Bachelor's degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering, 3+ years of relevant experience, and a strong understanding of digital interfaces, circuit design, and hardware debugging using standard EE lab equipment.
Description
As a Hardware System Integration Engineer, you will contribute to the end-to-end hardware engineering lifecycle for high-performance server compute designs from specification and schematic capture through board bring-up, validation, and factory build support. Working alongside senior engineers on the team, you will grow into board-level design ownership while partnering closely with mechanical, power, software, firmware, silicon, manufacturing, and reliability teams to ensure design requirements are met with precision and at scale. This role demands both technical depth and strong communication skills to drive alignment across a broad set of stakeholders.
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent 3+ years of relevant industry work experience in hardware or systems engineering Working knowledge of common low-speed and high-speed digital interfaces: I2C/SMBus, SPI, JTAG, USB, PCIe, Ethernet (SGMII, RMII, QSFP), and DDR memory Broad circuit design experience across multiple domains: power, digital, analog, high-speed communications, and/or programmable logic Experience with PCB bring-up and characterization using standard EE lab equipment (soldering, DMM, oscilloscope, logic analyzer, spectrum analyzer) Demonstrated ability to debug complex hardware issues from the system level down to the circuit level Outstanding written, verbal, and visual communication skills, with experience producing functional specs, integration procedures, and technical documentation
Preferred Qualifications
High-speed PCB design experience with 10+ layer boards, including PCB material selection and stack-up definition Proficiency with schematic entry and high-speed PCB layout constraint management using Cadence tools or equivalent Hands-on PCIe, 100-GbE, USB3/USB4, or similar high-speed serial protocol experience, including compliance testing and protocol analyzer debug Server or data center platform experience in board-level design, BMC/management subsystems, or rack-level integration Familiarity with computer architecture concepts and hardware design tradeoffs Experience scripting in Python or similar languages for test automation, data analysis, or lab instrumentation control Experience engaging vendors and ODM/CM partners, including component vendors and reference design partners Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering 7+ years of relevant industry work experience in hardware or systems engineering
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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