Software Engineer, Satellite Operations

At Apple we strive every single day to craft products that enrich peoples lives. Our successes are the result of skilled domain experts working in an environment which encourages creativity collaboration and re-thinking of old problems in new ways! As a member of the Satellite Connectivity Group you will work on the satellite network that enables connectivity to iPhone and Watch Ultra when off the grid without cellular or Wi-Fi coverage. Every day Apple customers use Emergency SOS Roadside assistance and Messages via satellite to stay connected when they have no other means to communicate. You will have the unique and rewarding opportunity to shape this and other critical services to the benefit and safety of millions of Apple device users. nnThe Satellite Connectivity Group is hiring a software engineer to build automation and runtime infrastructure behind our communication satellite network. Our premise is that a satellite network should be run the way modern software services are run through code APIs and instrumentation rather than manual console work. You will sit on the seam between the satellite network the cloud services that connect to it and our operations partners that control it. nYou will partner with hardware cloud and operations teams on root-cause investigations. You will carry the pager for the systems you build. The software you write will be foundational for a connectivity service for millions of users worldwide.

You will join the team responsible for developing deploying and keeping connectivity services healthy end-to-end. On a given week you might trace a telemetry discrepancy from a cloud service through the ground system script a new network test case extend the continuous delivery (CD) pipeline that ships system health tooling and write the procedure that lets the on-call engineer resolve the same issue next time without paging expect the person in this seat to automate their own job continuously - to replace manual steps with tested code and to leave behind procedures precise enough that someone else can execute correctly. nYou will work from design documents and interface control documents (ICDs) and you will be expected to reason through large unfamiliar codebases on your own.

Architect and develop mission automation software alongside our operations partners that enables lights-out operation of a satellite constellationnBe part of a 24/7 on-call rotation for those services; lead anomaly response and drive post-incident reviewnAuthor clear operational procedures for the mission that will be used by an operations team interacting daily with the systems you buildnReason across large codebases tracing behavior end to end to implement new features and root-cause issuesnWork from design documents and ICDs to define and validate operations automationnOwn continuous integration (CI) and CD pipelines for mission automation software services

Bachelors degree in Computer Science Electrical Engineering or Aerospace Engineeringn5 years of software engineering experience including production PythonnExperience with developing automation of (preferred) satellite constellations or fleets of autonomous vehicles/dronesnAbility to independently navigate and reason about large unfamiliar code repositories spanning both embedded and cloud-based softwarenHands-on fluency with Linux and Mac OS cloud service APIs modern command-line usage and HTTP toolingnExperience working with CI and production CD pipelines for a software servicenExperience using design documents and ICDs as foundations for an operational service

Experience operating a satellite constellation in production serving real usersnEmbedded software development and hands-on work with hardware in a lab environmentnWorking knowledge of RF and DSP concepts sufficient to reason about satellite system behaviornSmall fast-moving space programs where operations engineers write and own the software they operatenExperience leading or serving as a core member of a 24/7 operations teamnBuilding an SOP or runbook framework from scratch not just executing an existing onenExperience leveraging AI tools to quicky reason about and prototype new systems