GenAI Research Engineer

$181K - $318K Cupertino, CA, US Mid Level Research Engineer

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Skills & Technologies

DemandtoolsPythonRag

About This Role

The Health Personalization team builds outstanding technologies to support AI\-driven health experiences that provide our users with understandable, actionable information about their health and wellbeing, and support them to achieve their health and wellness goals. As part of the larger Sensor Software \& Prototyping team, we take a multimodal approach using a variety of sensors and user data signals across hardware platforms, such as camera, wearables, and natural language user input. We are committed to building deeply personal features that understand, anticipate, and adapt to users’ behaviors and uphold Apple’s deep commitment to privacy as a fundamental human right. Our team values expertise, innovation, and inclusivity. Come join us!

Description

In this role, you will develop, evaluate, and continuously improve Generative AI systems for real\-world health and wellbeing applications. You’ll apply deep expertise in health\-focused machine learning alongside rigorous evaluation methodology. Your work will directly shape customer\-facing health products by turning evaluation results into scalable pipelines that drive data\-informed model improvements across the full ML lifecycle. You’ll collaborate with a fast\-growing team of top scientists and engineers to build generative systems that meet the highest standards of quality, reliability, and alignment with human intent.","responsibilities":"Develop and improve generative AI systems for health and wellbeing applications across the full feature development lifecycle.

Independently design, run, and analyze ML experiments to deliver measurable quality improvements.

Design and implement evaluation frameworks\-including automated assessment tools, LLM\-based autograders, and benchmarks\-with rigorous validation of their reliability and validity.

Apply statistical and interpretability methods to analyze evaluation data and model behavior, identify failure modes through adversarial testing and failure analysis, and drive actionable improvements.

Build and maintain scalable, reusable pipelines for inference, training, and evaluation, integrated with large\-scale data workflows.

Work cross\-functionally with engineers, clinical experts, designers, and hardware and software teams to bring features into production with real\-world applicability and impact.

Preferred Qualifications

MS or PhD in a detailed quantitative field such as computer science, mathematics, statistics, economics, health informatics, or similar and 5 years relevant industry experience

Strong communication skills, comfort working with multiple engineering teams on complex projects, and experience contributing to an inclusive team culture.

Technical expertise in generative AI domains, such as large language model architectures, memory representation, planning, knowledge retrieval, natural language understanding.

Hands\-on experience developing complex generative AI systems in an applied setting, e.g. experience with post\-training techniques like supervised fine\-tuning, adapter training, and reinforcement learning from human feedback.

Experience with LLM\-based evaluation systems and rigorous, evidence\-based approaches to test development, e.g. quantitative and qualitative test design, reliability and validity analysis.

Customer\-focused mindset with experience or strong interest in building consumer digital health and wellness products.

Knowledge of health informatics or experience with complex health data sources (e.g. EHRs, medical ontologies, wearables)

Experience with building and deploying performant and scalable systems (full\-stack)

Minimum Qualifications

BS and a minimum of 10 years relevant industry experience

Proficiency in Python and ability to write clean, performant code and collaborate using standard software development practices.

Technical expertise and hands\-on experience crafting and evaluating machine learning solutions for user\-facing applications.

Experience applying a scientific approach to drive machine learning innovation: developing hypotheses, designing experimentation strategies, and guiding data generation / collection / evaluation (e.g. user studies, annotation workflows, A/B tests).

Apple is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We seek to promote equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. Learn more about your EEO rights as an applicant .

Pay \& Benefits

At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $181,100 and $318,400, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.

Apple employees also have the opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple's discretionary employee stock programs. Apple employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple's Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You'll also receive benefits including: Comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for certain educational expenses \- including tuition. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation. Learn more about Apple Benefits.

Note: Apple benefit, compensation and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program.

Salary Context

This $181K-$318K range is above the median for Research Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $209K across 23 roles with salary data).

View full Research Engineer salary data →

Role Details

Company Apple
Title GenAI Research Engineer
Location Cupertino, CA, US
Experience Mid Level
Salary $181K - $318K
Remote No

About This Role

Research Engineers bridge the gap between research and production. They implement papers, build experiment infrastructure, optimize training pipelines, and make research prototypes production-ready. They're the engineers who make research work at scale.

The role sits at a unique intersection. You need to understand the math well enough to implement novel architectures correctly, and you need the engineering chops to make them run efficiently on distributed systems. When a research scientist has a breakthrough idea, you're the person who turns it from a notebook prototype into a training pipeline that runs on 256 GPUs.

Across the 26,159 AI roles we're tracking, Research Engineer positions make up 0% of the market. At Apple, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.

Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.

What the Work Looks Like

A typical week involves: implementing a new attention mechanism from a recent paper, profiling and optimizing a training pipeline that's bottlenecked on data loading, building evaluation infrastructure for a new benchmark, debugging distributed training issues across a GPU cluster, and pair-programming with a research scientist on their latest experiment. The work is deeply technical.

Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.

Skills Required

Demandtools Python (15% of roles) Rag (64% of roles)

Strong software engineering fundamentals plus ML knowledge. Python, C++, and CUDA experience are common requirements. You'll need to read papers and turn ideas into working code. Distributed systems experience (especially distributed training) is highly valued. Performance optimization skills separate great candidates from good ones.

Experience with large-scale training infrastructure (FSDP, DeepSpeed, Megatron), GPU programming (CUDA, Triton), and the internals of ML frameworks (PyTorch internals, custom autograd functions) is what makes candidates stand out. The best research engineers can debug issues that span the full stack from GPU memory management to numerical precision to algorithmic correctness.

Strong postings mention the team's recent research, the infrastructure scale, and the specific technical challenges. They often list the research areas you'd support. Look for roles that emphasize both implementation quality and research understanding.

Compensation Benchmarks

Research Engineer roles pay a median of $272,100 based on 31 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $131,300. This role's midpoint ($249K) sits 8% below the category median. Disclosed range: $181K to $318K.

Across all AI roles, the market median is $184,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $244,000. The 90th percentile reaches $309,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($293,500) and AI Architect ($292,900). By seniority level: Entry: $76,880; Mid: $131,300; Senior: $227,400; Director: $244,288; VP: $234,620.

Apple AI Hiring

Apple has 160 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across Research Engineer, MLOps Engineer, AI/ML Engineer, AI Software Engineer. Positions span Cupertino, CA, US, Austin, TX, US, Santa Clara, CA, US. Compensation range: $153K - $487K.

Location Context

Across all AI roles, 7% (1,863 positions) offer remote work, while 24,200 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: Los Angeles (1,695 roles, $178,000 median); New York (1,670 roles, $200,000 median); San Francisco (1,059 roles, $244,000 median).

Career Path

Common paths into Research Engineer roles include Software Engineer, ML Engineer, Research Intern.

From here, career progression typically leads toward Senior Research Engineer, Research Scientist, ML Architect.

This is one of the best entry points into AI research without a PhD. Build a strong engineering portfolio with ML projects, contribute to open-source ML frameworks, and demonstrate that you can implement complex ideas correctly and efficiently. The transition to Research Scientist is possible with published first-author work, which some research engineer roles support.

What to Expect in Interviews

Technical screens test both engineering skill and research understanding. Expect coding rounds with performance-critical implementations (GPU optimization, efficient data loading). Be prepared to discuss papers relevant to the team's research area and explain how you'd implement key ideas. System design questions focus on training infrastructure: distributed training, experiment tracking, and compute resource management.

When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings mention the team's recent research, the infrastructure scale, and the specific technical challenges. They often list the research areas you'd support. Look for roles that emphasize both implementation quality and research understanding.

AI Hiring Overview

The AI job market has 26,159 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 2,416 entry-level, 16,247 mid-level, 5,153 senior, and 2,343 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 7% of the market (1,863 positions). The remaining 24,200 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.

The market median for AI roles is $184,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $244,000. The 90th percentile reaches $309,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($293,500 median, 28 roles); AI Architect ($292,900 median, 108 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 19 roles).

Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.

The AI Job Market Today

The AI job market spans 26,159 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (23,752), AI Software Engineer (598), AI Product Manager (594). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.

The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (2,416) are outnumbered by mid-level (16,247) and senior (5,153) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 2,343 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.

Remote work availability sits at 7% of all AI roles (1,863 positions), with 24,200 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.

AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $184,000. Top-quartile roles start at $244,000, and the 90th percentile reaches $309,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.

Category matters for compensation. AI Engineering Manager roles lead at $293,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $122,200. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.

The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Rag (16,749 postings), Aws (8,932 postings), Rust (7,660 postings), Python (3,815 postings), Azure (2,678 postings), Gcp (2,247 postings), Prompt Engineering (1,469 postings), Openai (1,269 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.

Frequently Asked Questions

Based on 31 roles with disclosed compensation, the median salary for Research Engineer positions is $272,100. Actual compensation varies by seniority, location, and company stage.
Strong software engineering fundamentals plus ML knowledge. Python, C++, and CUDA experience are common requirements. You'll need to read papers and turn ideas into working code. Distributed systems experience (especially distributed training) is highly valued. Performance optimization skills separate great candidates from good ones.
About 7% of the 26,159 AI roles we track offer remote work. Remote availability varies by company and seniority level, with senior and leadership roles more likely to offer location flexibility.
Apple is among the companies actively hiring for AI and ML talent. Check our company profiles for detailed breakdowns of open roles, salary ranges, and hiring trends.
Common next steps from Research Engineer positions include Senior Research Engineer, Research Scientist, ML Architect. Progression depends on whether you lean toward technical depth, people management, or product strategy.

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