Apple
AIML - Site Lead & Lead Researcher, Foundation Models
$205K–$374K
Seattle, Washington · Full-time · Posted Apr 15, 2026
- Education
- PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience demonstrating research leadership and technical depth.
About the job
Lead a research site developing foundation models and bringing them into Apple products, combining team leadership with hands-on research direction.
What you'll do
- Set the research vision, roadmap, and success metrics for foundation model work aligned with Apple’s product priorities.
- Lead, mentor, recruit, and retain researchers and engineers while fostering an inclusive research culture.
- Direct research from problem formulation through publication and product integration, collaborating across research, product, and hardware teams.
What they ask for
- Demonstrated success leading technical teams or research groups.
- Strong publication record in relevant conferences or a proven track record applying deep learning to products at scale.
- Expert-level Python skills and proficiency in one or more of JAX, PyTorch, or TensorFlow.
- PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience demonstrating research leadership and technical depth.
Nice to have
- Experience with web-scale information retrieval and search systems.
- Experience with on-device intelligence and learning with strong privacy protections.
Pay
USD $205,400 and $374,300 base salary
Tools
Python, JAX, PyTorch, TensorFlow
AI focus
Lead research and development of foundation models, including multimodal capabilities, reward modeling, and alignment; apply models to Apple products and optimize for Apple silicon, privacy, and on-device experiences.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative