Senior Privacy Systems Engineer
Apple
Software Engineering
San Diego, CA, USA
USD 139,500-258,100 / year + Equity
Posted on Jan 28, 2026
User privacy is a fundamental value at Apple. It is critical that our users both understand and have the ability to effectively manage their personal data and information. This is achieved today through the privacy UI controls presented to users, both in prompts and Settings. We are a team of systems and frameworks engineers who are passionate about designing and building privacy features and controls within the Apple ecosystem. We’re enthusiastic about building critical pieces of software as well as the infrastructure needed to uphold a high bar of quality. Join us in our mission to enhance the Apple software ecosystem by providing users with transparency, consent, and control over their personal data and information.
The Engineer will develop and debug systems written in C, Objective-C, and Swift that give the users control over how their personal data is shared with other systems, applications, and individuals.This Person will design, implement, and integrate permission systems which manage access to sensor information (e.g., Bluetooth, location) and data stores (e.g., Calendar, Contacts).As technologies in the Apple ecosystem evolve, the Engineer will be part of building and integrating new privacy controls and data access methods.This Person will have a focus on continually evolving our systems to keep up with new threat vectors which would bypass the user’s consent.The Engineer in this role will be building and supporting software frameworks, APIs, and UI components.The Individual will participate in all phases of the software development cycle across nearly all platforms in the Apple ecosystem to deliver privacy controls and capabilities to our users.Ideal candidates for this role will have a keen interest in software technology in the privacy and security domains as well as around general software engineering and best practices.Strong communication and collaboration skills are desirable to be successful in working across many teams to build the best user experience possible.
- Can demonstrate ability to write, compile, and debug software written in C, Objective-C, C++ or Swift.Demonstrates understanding of designing APIs for system-level services and daemonsDemonstrates understanding of systems programming on Unix-like operating systems and kernel versus user-space distinctionsDemonstrates understanding of building reliable and resilient daemons on Unix-like systemsDemonstrates ability to anticipate failure modes in daemon operations, design appropriate error handling, and implement recovery strategiesCan verbally communicate technical information clearly
- Prior professional experience doing system design on software which had user privacy or security requirementsDemonstrates understanding of relational databases for local data storage and retrievalProfessional experience being the technical lead on a software project which spanned multiple teams.Professional systems programming experience on macOS or other Unix-like OS’sProfessional experience in all stages of software development: planning, design, implementation, integration, test, and maintenanceAt least 5 years professional experience as a software engineer.
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