Senior Hardware Systems Engineer– Data Center HWE

Apples Data Center Hardware Engineering team builds the custom compute platforms behind Apples services. We design circuits and boards own rack integration and deliver complete hardware systems that extend what user devices can do host the content people love and enable the capabilities Apple is bringing to customers now and in the those experiences requires systems that grow more complex with every program. They span multiple physical racks high-speed networking tiered data storage energy storage and custom compute from different teams and vendors. Every piece must work together as one. System engineering work happens across the organization today but no single person owns it end to end. As platform scope grows and programs multiply that gap matters Senior Hardware Systems Engineer closes that gap. This role owns the system: the requirements that define it the interfaces between its parts and the documentation that holds it together from the first architecture conversation to handoff to sustaining operations. If that kind of ownership is what youre built for we want to talk.

You will own the system as a whole: the requirements that define it the interfaces that connect it the documentation that captures it and the evidence that proves every part of it work with our architecture team to turn high-level platform goals into a complete verifiable set of hardware requirements. Then youll deliver those requirements to the teams responsible for each piece: custom PCBs rack enclosures power delivery and energy storage networking data storage mechanical systems firmware and software. You wont build each of those pieces but youll know each domain well enough to write requirements they can actually build to catch problems at boundaries before they become integration surprises and get every team aligned on what the system platforms integrate custom semi-custom and off-the-shelf hardware across multiple programs running in parallel. Requirements take shape during the architecture and high-level design process and one of the most important things this role does is pull that work as early as possible. A requirement discovered during detailed design is expensive and one discovered during validation testing is far more disruptive. Your job is to lead the requirements process at the system level from the very start: make decisions document them with enough rigor that a sustaining team can depend on them years from now and keep the whole picture in focus while everyone else is heads-down in their right person for this role has done it before though not necessarily in a datacenter. Wed rather hire someone who has already lived through a fundamental shift in what a system needs to be. Fields like defense aerospace automotive and industrial systems have been solving exactly this class of problem for decades. What we need is someone who can write a requirement that can be tested own a room full of specialists and drive them to agreement and see three moves ahead when a change in one sub-system creates a problem somewhere else. This is a role for someone who measures success in decisions that stick and hardware that ships.

Define and maintain the full set of system-level hardware requirements for Apples custom infrastructure platforms covering the full lifecycle from initial architecture through program closenWrite and own the system engineering document set that defines the platform including system requirements specifications interface control documents verification and validation plans requirements traceability and trade study records and specify the interfaces between all sub-systems and vendors across electrical power thermal mechanical optical and protocol domainsnOwn the closure of trade studies for major platform decisions across rack architecture power delivery energy storage networking and data storage: define the evaluation criteria coordinate the technical analysis across contributing teams and maintain the formal record of what was decided and whynDeliver requirements to sub-system technical owners internal teams and external suppliers with enough precision that each team can design validate or procure their piece of the platform without ambiguitynDrive alignment across hardware mechanical firmware software and operations teams when requirements conflict interfaces are unclear or integration risks surfacenReview and approve sub-system Vu0026V (verification and validation) plans to ensure they cover all system-level requirements and integrate the results into a complete cross-functional record that demonstrates the platform performs to specificationnFlag when a design choice today limits what the current platform or a future one can do and raise it before the team is committednWork with the architecture team at the start of each program to make sure high-level requirements are complete and specific enough for each team to design to before work beginsnOwn the handoff package from New Product Introduction (NPI) development to sustaining operations ensuring everything the sustaining team needs is written down and verified not just understoodnIdentify gaps in software and mechanical systems engineering coverage and raise them clearly enough that the organization can act on themnHelp build the systems engineering practices document standards and review processes this organization needs as it grows

Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering Computer Engineering Systems Engineering Mechatronics Engineering or a related fieldn12 years of systems engineering experience on complex multi-domain hardware programs that have shippednA track record of owning system-level technical documentation including requirements specs interface definitions verification and validation records traceability matrices and trade study documentation through formal review and approval across a full program from concept to sustaining handoffnStrong written and verbal communication skills with experience driving technical alignment across hardware software and mechanical teams at all levels

Experience writing and managing interface control documentation and system specifications across multi-vendor hardware integrationsnExperience breaking system requirements into sub-system allocations and building Vu0026V strategies that close at the system levelnSystems engineering experience on programs in defense aerospace automotive semiconductor capital equipment or similar fields where existing standards didnt apply and specs had to be written from scratchnWorking knowledge of a recognized systems engineering framework or handbook (for example INCOSE ISO/IEC 15288 or an equivalent internal program standard)nDeep familiarity with high-power complex power delivery systems: power architecture power budgeting and system-level power integritynFamiliarity with system-level signal integrity for high-speed digital interconnectsnExperience with system reliability engineering including FMEA/FMECA reliability allocation and failure mode analysis across complex integrated systemsnWorking knowledge of AI/ML accelerator interconnects including PCIe Gen5/6 CXL NVLink or comparable high-bandwidth fabricsnExperience defining data storage requirements across latency tiers from fast local storage through disaggregated or tiered architecturesnFamiliarity with rack and row-level thermal management including direct liquid cooling and immersion cooling tradeoffsnExperience managing suppliers as a technical owner holding them to requirements and managing interface compliancenExperience assessing the systems engineering coverage of an active program identifying gaps in process or documentation and driving practical improvements that work within the constraints of a real team on a real schedulenMasters degree in Electrical Engineering Computer Engineering or Systems Engineering