What are the responsibilities and job description for the Core Audio Software Engineer position at Apple?
Apple's Media, Graphics, & Compute Technologies is at the center of audio, video, and graphics in Apple’s innovative products. MGCT’s audio team builds the audio infrastructure that powers every sound you hear on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod, and Apple Vision Pro. We are looking for a seasoned audio software engineer to drive the technical direction of spatial audio playback across every Apple platform. You will own the architecture of audio decoding and rendering (including for APAC and Dolby Atmos), and the real-time audio mixing engine that houses the powerful DSP for features like Spatial Audio and Enhance Dialogue. This is a high-impact role where your architectural decisions shape how users across hundreds of millions of Apple devices experience immersive audio.
In this role, you will architect and evolve the end-to-end spatial audio pipeline — from codec integration, mix engine, to audio output for headphones, built-in speakers, and external multi-channel systems. You will design system-level APIs that enable apps and other Apple frameworks to integrate our spatial and multichannel audio capabilities.
Minimum Qualifications:
Strong C systems programming skills (C 17 or later) with experience writing performance-critical, real-time code.
Strong understanding of multichannel audio formats and audio codec pipelines (AAC, Dolby codecs, or similar).
Deep experience with real-time audio systems: low-latency signal processing, mixer graphs, and hardware I/O.
Experience designing and shipping system-level APIs.
BS or MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience.
8 years of professional software development experience in audio or media playback.
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience integrating third-party codec SDKs into platform audio frameworks.
Experience developing or maintaining audio file format parsers or media container demuxers.
Familiarity with loudness standards and dynamic range control.
Experience with Apple audio frameworks (Audio Toolbox, Audio Unit, Core Audio) or comparable platform audio stacks.