Software Development Engineer in Test, Creative Apps
Software Engineering
Cupertino, CA, USA
USD 150,400-277,600 / year + Equity
Posted on Jul 24, 2026
What if your automation code was the last line of defense before a feature reached a billion devices? This role sits at the convergence of engineering rigor and product quality across Apple's iOS and macOS platforms — where the frameworks you build determine whether releases ship with confidence or not. The team operates end-to-end across the SDLC, and the bar for what 'good' looks like here resets what you thought quality engineering could be.
You'll architect and own test automation frameworks that run inside live CI/CD pipelines, catching regressions before they ever reach a human reviewer. Every sprint, you'll work shoulder-to-shoulder with software engineers and product managers who expect quality to be a design input, not an afterthought. The tools you write will compress release cycles, the gaps you find will shape roadmap decisions, and the standards you set will outlast any single product cycle.
- Build production-grade automated test suites in Python and Swift that validate iOS and macOS features at scale across unit, integration, and regression layers
- Own the UI automation infrastructure end-to-end — from XCUITest/XUI framework design to seamless CI/CD pipeline integration
- Drive test strategy for entire feature areas — defining coverage models, risk tiers, and quality gates that directly gate release decisions
- Identify and close coverage gaps through root cause analysis, translating triage findings into systemic automation improvements
- Accelerate team-wide quality practices by evaluating and integrating emerging tooling, including GenAI-assisted test generation and prompt engineering workflows
- Perform manual functional testing as needed to validate new features, regressions, and complex user workflows that are not yet automated or require exploratory validation.
- 3+ years of hands-on experience in SDET, QA automation, or software engineering with a testing focus
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or we may consider an equivalent depth demonstrated through industry work
- Advanced proficiency in Python and Swift, specifically for building automated test frameworks and test tooling — not just scripting
- Practical command of the full SDLC with clear experience embedding quality gates at multiple phases, from design review through release
- Proven track record designing and executing multi-layered test strategies spanning functional, integration, regression, and exploratory methodologies
- Direct experience building UI automation with XCUITest or XUI frameworks against real Apple platform targets
- Demonstrated ability to integrate automated test suites into CI/CD pipelines and maintain them as living infrastructure
- Shipped quality automation across both iOS and macOS across multiple full release cycles — not just one platform or one cycle
- Applied LLMs or GenAI tooling to test generation, failure analysis, or coverage gap identification in a real engineering workflow
- Built prompt engineering techniques into QA or developer tooling that measurably improved output quality or throughput
- Drove infrastructure improvements — framework refactors, pipeline optimizations, coverage initiatives — with documented impact on defect escape rates or release velocity
- Extended automation scope beyond functional testing into performance, accessibility, or localization validation
- Familiarity with photo and video editing applications or media-processing workflows, including experience testing or validating complex media-related features.