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Lead Systems Integration Engineer - AirPods

Apple

Cupertino, CAJobSeen 3 days agoSeen in employer's feed 2 days ago

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At a glance

Compensation
No compensation found
Location
Cupertino, CA
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Job overview

Apple’s AirPods System Integration team leads system electrical engineering for AirPods hardware, from architecture decisions through validation and shipping. The role sets technical direction, raises design and validation standards, and helps engineers deliver their work. It also serves as a trusted voice across engineering, manufacturing, and leadership, guiding complex decisions and the next generation of AirPods.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Electrical EngineeringAnalog EngineeringDigital EngineeringPower EngineeringSignal IntegritySystem Decision-MakingConsumer Product DesignContract Manufacturer CollaborationLab DebuggingTeam Operations DesignWorkflow DesignFramework DesignPlanningTechnology EvaluationDecision-Making Under AmbiguityCommunicationExecutive PresenceExplaining Technical Trade-Offs

Qualifications

Bachelor's or Master's in Electrical Engineering or Equivalent8+ Years Relevant Industry ExperienceHigh-Volume Consumer Product Shipping ExperienceFull Product Lifecycle Experience

Full job description

Role Number: 200678303-0836

Summary

At Apple, new ideas can quickly transform into amazing products, services, and customer experiences. Sound is an essential facet of that experience, and we are committed to making a difference through innovative electronic design. Our team owns the electronics inside small form-factor audio products — pushing the boundaries of physical architecture, wireless and silicon technologies.

The AirPods System Integration team turns these ambitions into shipping hardware. We are looking for a technical leader who holds the bar high — someone with a sharp eye for design detail, high standards for their own work, and the influence to bring the whole team up with them.

If you love building things, raising the quality of every design that ships, and working on products that millions of people wear every day, come help lead the next generation of AirPods!

Description

You will set the technical direction for system electrical engineering on an AirPods program — anchoring architecture decisions, raising the bar on how the team designs and validates hardware, and making sure the toughest calls get made with rigor. You will be a force multiplier for the engineers around you — unblocking, enabling, and elevating their work and a trusted voice across engineering, manufacturing, and leadership.

Minimum Qualifications

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, or equivalent directly-related work experience

  • 8+ years of relevant industry experience designing electronic and/or embedded systems

  • Deep electrical engineering fundamentals across analog, digital, power, and signal integrity, with a track record of leading complex system decisions to closure

  • Experience in shipping at least one high-volume consumer product end-to-end, from architecture through mass production, including working with contract manufacturers

  • Demonstrated hands-on lab and debug experience across the full product lifecycle

Preferred Qualifications

  • Track record of shaping how a team operates — the tools, workflows, and frameworks that focus effort on what matters most and divide work efficiently across engineers

  • Ability to turn high-level direction into concrete plans and deliverables — and take other engineers along on that journey

  • Ability to evaluate emerging technologies — silicon roadmaps, wireless standards, sensing, materials — and assess how they will shape future generations of AirPods

  • Comfortable making measured decisions in ambiguity with incomplete data — and a track record of decisions that held up

  • Excellent communication and executive presence — the ability to explain complex electrical trade-offs to non-EE audiences and land decisions across engineering, operations, and leadership

Apple is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We seek to promote equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics.

How this job compares

Set against the 545 open Systems Integration Engineer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 3, 2026.

Pay
  • This postingNot listed
  • California median$145–194K/yr109 salary ranges
  • US median$50–68/hr21 hourly ranges
Openings
Olive Jobs lists 133 open Systems Integration Engineer jobs in California and 545 across the US. 2% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most in California
Experience
This posting asks for at least 8 years of experience; Systems Integration Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for 5 years at the median (441 postings).
Education
229 of the 545 open Systems Integration Engineer jobs (42%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 3, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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