UI Performance and Power - Senior Engineer, Graphics, Games, & ML
Apple
Software Engineering, Product, Design, Data Science
Cupertino, CA, USA
USD 181,100-318,400 / year + Equity
Posted on Mar 28, 2026
Apple's Compositing, Color, and Display Software organization provides the graphics software foundation for all of Apple's innovative products, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac and Apple Watch. Our goal is to enable developers and HI designers to create exceptional visual experiences by efficiently utilizing hardware acceleration and color technologies through compositing and display. The technologies we develop are central to enabling enhanced experiences across our platforms, including acceleration for Liquid Glass UI material and presenting HDR content with the highest quality. If you are passionate about delivering smooth animations, exceptional visual quality, and great battery life to millions of users worldwide, we want to hear from you. If you're excited about optimizing graphics performance and power efficiency across our platforms and maximizing the capabilities of Apple silicon to enable stunning visual experiences, this role is for you.
We're seeking an exceptional software engineer who combines strong technical expertise with a passion for performance and power optimization to help deliver world-class visual experiences across all Apple platforms. As a member of our UI Performance and Power team, you will play a key role in delivering the core graphics compositing engine behind every Apple device that renders to a display. You will drive performance analysis and power optimization of visual experiences across our devices, ensuring that every animation is smooth, every interaction is responsive, and every frame is rendered as efficiently as possible to maximize battery life. You will analyze and optimize how our compositing and rendering systems utilize CPU, GPU, and display hardware, collaborating closely with UI and Media Framework teams, HI designers, and System App developers. Partnering with our Metal graphics framework and OS components, including Display and GPU drivers, you'll develop processes and tooling to take full advantage of Apple silicon capabilities while minimizing power consumption. Your work will directly influence the balance between visual richness and power efficiency that defines the user experience on every Apple device.
- Drive performance analysis and power optimization of UI rendering and compositing across all Apple platforms
- Analyze power consumption of compositing and rendering workloads, identifying optimization opportunities across CPU, GPU, and display pipelines
- Develop and influence power and performance management policies that balance UI responsiveness and visual quality with battery life
- Partner with UI/Media Frameworks, HI designers, app teams, Metal, and OS teams (Display, GPU drivers) to profile and optimize UI rendering and compositing for performance and power efficiency
- Build and maintain tools, automation, and workflows for performance profiling, power analysis, and regression detection
- Debug complex performance and power issues across multi-layered graphics and compositing systems
- Develop and maintain prototyping tools that enable HI designers to create and validate new visual experiences with integrated performance and power profiling
- Provide data-driven insights to inform technical decisions, power budgets, and future platform roadmaps
- Support UI development for current and future OS releases, including work on next-generation devices
- 3+ years of experience with software development
- Strong C/C++ or Objective-C coding abilities
- Experience with performance optimization and profiling tools for CPU or GPU applications
- Strong understanding of CPU/GPU architecture and Systems programming
- Foundational understanding of real-time rendering and computer graphics
- Experience debugging rendering or performance issues and optimizing applications for efficiency
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills
- Demonstrated ability to learn new technologies quickly and apply them effectively
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or Engineering or equivalent years of experience
- Experience with power analysis, thermal management, or battery-life optimization
- Fundamental knowledge of GPU programming
- Hands-on experience with Metal or modern graphics APIs such as DirectX or Vulkan
- Experience with Mac or iOS application development using AppKit, SwiftUI, UIKit, or CoreAnimation
- Experience with memory footprint analysis and optimization
- Familiarity with color formats and assessing visual quality
- Experience with automated performance testing and regression analysis systems
- Track record of building tools that increase productivity and enable rapid iteration
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.