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Sr. Principal Engineer FoundationDB

Apple


Job Location:

Cupertino, CA - USA

Monthly Salary: Not provided by the employer
Posted: 2 July 2026 (30+ days ago)
Application Deadline: 11 November 2026
Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

Apple is home to some of the most complex and consequential infrastructure in the world. At the center of iClouds platform is FoundationDB a planet-scale database system powering tens of billions of databases and some of Apples most critical are looking for a Principal Engineer to join this team and serve as its technical north star: defining architectural direction shaping the hardest problems in distributed databases and helping grow the team that brings that vision to life.

FoundationDB is the metadata layer behind iCloud Storage operating at a scale that puts it in rare company globally. And because this technology is open source the architectural decisions made here dont stay inside Apple they ripple across the broader technology ecosystem powering some of the most technically demanding systems in the is a pivotal moment for the team. We are in an active growth phase and looking for a Principal Engineer who will serve as the technical north star through that expansion. The hardest and most interesting problems in distributed databases are ahead of us and you will define how we approach wont just be close to these problems. You will shape the technical vision and approach for solving them influence the engineers tackling them day to day and help grow the team that turns that vision into reality.

Define and drive the long-term technical vision and architectural direction for FoundationDB setting the bar for engineering excellence across trade-offs problem-solving approaches and architectural integrity at deep technical guidance on the most complex highest-impact challenges the team faces proactively surfacing risks gaps and scalability constraints before they become closely with engineering leadership and cross-functional teams to align technical direction with business and platform the broader organization through thought leadership and mentorship while playing an active role in defining the technical hiring bar and developing the next generation of the rethinking of the transaction layer and scalability architecture from first principles pressure-testing every assumption the current system team in future initiatives pertaining to building the next-generation CDC pipeline log storage and build tiered storage.

15 years of experience designing implementing and operating highly scalable distributed expertise in planet-scale database systems with hands-on experience in systems such as Spanner DynamoDB CockroachDB or comparable ability to define and communicate long-term technical strategy across large complex engineering cross-functional partnership skills with experience working closely with platform infrastructure and product engineering written and verbal communication skills -- able to articulate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical strong sense of ownership and a track record of driving outcomes in ambiguous high-stakes degree in Computer Science Engineering or a related field or equivalent experience.

Experience with modern data storage systems. nKnowledge of security u0026 privacy.

Required Experience:

Staff IC


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Ask Siri to name the most successful company in the world and it might respond: Apple. And it's not just out of familial pride. Apple consistently ranks highly in profit, revenue, market capitalization, and consumer cachet. In 2018, the company became the first reach a trillion dollar ... View more

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