Software Engineer - Darwin Server, Core OS

The Darwin Server team in Core OS is looking for enthusiastic engineers interested in developing system software for Apple’s operating systems. Darwin is the UNIX-like foundation at the heart of all Apple’s operating systems, stretching from the kernel up through low-level user components. The Darwin Server team is responsible for ensuring this foundation is adaptable for use in server environments, such as with the Private Cloud Compute service that powers Apple Intelligence.

In this role, you’ll have an opportunity to dive into complex technical challenges, shaping OS architecture and design of cross-functional features, actively influencing our technical direction. We are seeking candidates who are eager to learn, tackle new problems, and drive innovation through their work, while actively mentoring and supporting each other in our quest to learn and grow as technical leaders. Our environment values diverse perspectives, ideas, and collaborative styles, with the goal of creating opportunities for everyone to thrive and grow.

You will be responsible for working on a range of technologies that form the foundation of Apple’s operating systems, with a focus on improving these technologies for use in server and cloud environments. Projects you work on as part of the Darwin Server team could include:

• Building technologies to enable server application packaging and distribution (like OCI images or Flatpak)
• Enabling Darwin to be integrated with cloud management and orchestration technologies (similar to cloud-init or Kubernetes)
• Improving Darwin’s support for observability at scale (e.g. OpenTelemetry)
• Developing new security or privacy features to improve Private Cloud Compute

An engineer on the Darwin Server team would regularly:

• Participate in all phases of the software development cycle: from problem definition and design, through implementation, testing, and debugging
• Work with client teams to build the features required for Darwin to meet their development and product requirements
• Partner with technology owners throughout Apple to enable their technologies for use in server environments
• Engage cross-functionally to effect technical change across Apple

Minimum Qualifications

• Experience with UNIX-like systems
• Strong understanding of operating systems architecture and systems programming fundamentals
• Proficient in a systems programming language such as Swift, C, Rust, or Go (much of our newer work is in Swift).
• Familiarity with how operating systems integrate with cloud infrastructure — such as provisioning and orchestration (cloud-init, Kubernetes), application packaging (OCI, containers), and server observability/diagnostics
• Experience developing system daemons/services (e.g., launchd-managed services), libraries, or designing APIs
• BS/MS in Computer Science or equivalent knowledge and experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building operating system infrastructure to support cloud computing
• Practical understanding of security and trust principles such as certificates, software signing, attestation, and policy-based configuration validation.
• Ability to systematically troubleshoot issues across the entire technology stack
• Perspective on how successful teams build and operate cloud technologies
• Involvement in open source technologies and development communities such as Darwin, FreeBSD, Linux, etc
• Passion for raising the bar for privacy and security in cloud computing