Software Engineer, Satellite Operations

At Apple, we strive every single day to craft products that enrich people’s

lives. Our successes are the result of skilled domain experts working in an

environment which encourages creativity, collaboration, and re-thinking of old

problems in new ways! As a member of the Satellite Connectivity Group, you will

work on the satellite network that enables connectivity to iPhone and Watch

Ultra when off the grid without cellular or Wi-Fi coverage. Every day, Apple

customers use Emergency SOS, Roadside assistance, and Messages via satellite to

stay connected when they have no other means to communicate. You will have the

unique and rewarding opportunity to shape this and other critical services, to

the benefit and safety of millions of Apple device users. The Satellite

Connectivity Group is hiring a software engineer to build automation and runtime

infrastructure behind our communication satellite network. Our premise is that a

satellite network should be run the way modern software services are run —

through code, APIs, and instrumentation rather than manual console work. You

will sit on the seam between the satellite network, the cloud services that

connect to it, and our operations partners that control it. You will partner

with hardware, cloud, and operations teams on root-cause investigations. You

will carry the pager for the systems you build. The software you write will be

foundational for a connectivity service for millions of users worldwide.

DESCRIPTION

You will join the team responsible for developing, deploying, and keeping

connectivity services healthy end-to-end. On a given week you might trace a

telemetry discrepancy from a cloud service through the ground system, script a

new network test case, extend the continuous delivery (CD) pipeline that ships

system health tooling, and write the procedure that lets the on-call engineer

resolve the same issue next time without paging you. We expect the person in

this seat to automate their own job continuously - to replace manual steps with

tested code, and to leave behind procedures precise enough that someone else can

execute correctly. You will work from design documents and interface control

documents (ICDs), and you will be expected to reason through large, unfamiliar

codebases on your own.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Aerospace

Engineering 5+ years of software engineering experience, including production

Python Experience with developing automation of (preferred) satellite

constellations or fleets of autonomous vehicles/drones Ability to independently

navigate and reason about large, unfamiliar code repositories spanning both

embedded and cloud-based software Hands-on fluency with Linux and Mac OS, cloud

service APIs, modern command-line usage and HTTP tooling Experience working with

CI and production CD pipelines for a software service Experience using design

documents and ICDs as foundations for an operational service Export Compliance

Requirement: This position requires access to U.S. export-controlled technology

and technical data regulated under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).

Applicants must be eligible to access this export-controlled information.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Experience operating a satellite constellation in production, serving real users

Embedded software development, and hands-on work with hardware in a lab

environment Working knowledge of RF and DSP concepts, sufficient to reason about

satellite system behavior Small, fast-moving space programs where operations

engineers write and own the software they operate Experience leading, or serving

as a core member of, a 24/7 operations team Building an SOP or runbook framework

from scratch, not just executing an existing one Experience leveraging AI tools

to quickly reason about and prototype new systems