Senior Software Engineer - Data Governance Solutions, Data Platform
Apple
Software Engineering
Cupertino, CA, USA
USD 181,100-318,400 / year + Equity
Posted on Apr 1, 2026
Join Apple and help shape the future of privacy-first data platforms at global scale. As part of Apple’s Data Platform organization, you will build systems that protect user data, ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA, and enable teams to responsibly unlock the value of data. In this role, you’ll work at the intersection of engineering, privacy, and data and AI governance, designing innovative solutions for data protection, transparency, and accountability across Apple’s ecosystem. You’ll collaborate with world-class engineers, security experts, and legal partners to embed privacy by design into every layer of the platform—helping safeguard the trust of millions of users while powering cutting-edge products and services. If you’re passionate about building secure, scalable systems and making a meaningful impact on how data is governed at one of the world’s most influential companies, this is an opportunity to do your life’s best work.
This role focuses on building scalable data platform systems that ensure privacy, compliance, and secure data and AI governance across Apple’s infrastructure. You will design and develop tools and services that enforce data protection policies, enable visibility into data usage, and ensure adherence to global regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. The position plays a critical role in safeguarding user data while enabling teams to efficiently and responsibly use data at scale. You will build and maintain distributed systems that support data classification, lineage tracking, access control, and auditability. This includes developing policy enforcement mechanisms, monitoring frameworks, and automation to ensure data is handled in accordance with privacy standards. You will also partner with cross-functional teams—including legal, security, and engineering—to translate regulatory requirements into practical, scalable technical solutions. Success in this role requires strong expertise in distributed systems, data platforms, and secure software design, along with a deep understanding of privacy principles and compliance frameworks.
- Design and build scalable systems that enforce data privacy, governance, and compliance policies across the data platform
- Develop and maintain services for data classification, data quality, lineage tracking, and auditability to ensure full visibility into data usage
- Implement fine-grained access controls and policy enforcement mechanisms aligned with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA
- Build automated frameworks for compliance monitoring, anomaly detection, and reporting
- Partner with legal, security, and engineering teams to translate regulatory requirements into scalable technical solutions
- Create tools and dashboards that provide transparency into data access, usage, and risk exposure
- Optimize data systems to ensure secure, efficient, and compliant data processing at scale
- Drive adoption of privacy-by-design principles and governance best practices across engineering teams
- 5+ years of experience building scalable distributed systems or data platforms
- Strong programming skills in at least one of: Java, Scala, Python, or Go
- Hands-on experience with data processing frameworks such as Apache Spark, Flink, Kafka or similar
- Experience designing and implementing secure systems, including authentication, authorization, and data protection mechanisms
- Solid understanding of data modeling, data pipelines, and storage systems (e.g., SQL/NoSQL, data lakes, or warehouses)
- Familiarity with data privacy and compliance requirements, including GDPR and CCPA
- Experience working with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or similar) and containerized environments (e.g., Kubernetes)
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
- Experience building data governance platforms, including metadata management, lineage, and data quality frameworks
- Strong understanding of privacy-by-design principles and implementation of compliance controls for regulations such as GDPR and CCPA
- Experience with fine-grained access control systems (e.g., RBAC/ABAC) and policy engines
- Familiarity with data discovery, classification, and masking/tokenization techniques for sensitive data
- Experience building audit, monitoring, and observability systems for large-scale data platforms
- Experience working in hybrid cloud and on-prem environments at scale
- Strong collaboration and communication skills, with experience partnering across engineering, security, and legal teams
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.