{"id":2339733,"url":"https://alion.io/job/apple-aesthetics-science-ml-research-engineer","title":"Aesthetics Science ML Research Engineer","company":{"id":12,"name":"Apple","domain":"apple.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/apple","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Apple Jobs","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":78,"open_postings":993,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.887,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":45,"computed_at":"2026-10-15T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"middle","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Diego, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":223000,"max_usd":420000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":451},"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Computer Vision","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Multimodal AI","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Agentic Workflows","optional":true},{"name":"Function Calling","optional":true},{"name":"Metal","optional":true},{"name":"Objective-C","optional":true},{"name":"Tool Use","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-01T16:08:29Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-12","last_verified_at":"2026-10-15T18:59:12Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":14,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":14},"description":"iPhone is the most popular camera in the world, and the Aesthetics Science team is focused on infusing photographic knowledge and personal preferences into the features and algorithms that power it. We bring together aesthetics research, image processing, and machine learning to help advance photography while upholding what makes it a beloved medium for self-expression. You'll have real ownership over how these creativity-enhancing features come together into a coherent, best-in-class experience.\nDescription\nWe're seeking a self-driven, innovative research engineer to work on image-related machine learning solutions fundamental to visual experiences on iPhone and across Apple's creative ecosystem. You'll research, implement, and evaluate novel computational imaging features and multimodal solutions that shape future Apple products.\nYou bring solid experience designing, training, and analyzing multimodal models and evaluation frameworks end-to-end - combined with a passion for photographic aesthetics and high-quality software for visual creativity and image generation. Day-to-day responsibilities include prototyping novel algorithms, training and evaluating ML/generative AI (genAI) models, and designing custom data collection efforts.\nThis role involves close collaboration with our research and user study teams to design thoughtful experiments and translate the results of complex subjective studies into feature development, working alongside subject matter experts across visual media to build responsible, intelligent systems. Your work will be highly collaborative, both within the team and cross-functionally, requiring you to communicate technically and creatively toward a smarter, more inclusive camera.\nWhat sets you apart from a traditional ML software engineer is the ability to integrate aesthetic values beyond your own into your work, and to operate confidently in spaces without clear-cut metrics. This role blurs the line between art and science and requires deep respect for both.\nMinimum Qualifications\n3+ years of demonstrated experience identifying novel problems and delivering viable solutions in multimodal vision-language models, computational photography, image processing, or computer vision, in industry or academia\nAbility to collaborate across multi-functional teams, communicate effectively, and reason through ambiguous problems deeply and thoroughly\nExcellent coding skills in Python and deep learning frameworks\nPreferred Qualifications\nPhD or Master's degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Graphics, or a related field, or equivalent industry experience\nExperience developing and training models for agentic workflows, tool calling, or personalized interactions\nPast involvement building or running evaluation platforms for AI use cases\nPersonal or professional experience with content creation, media curation, or photo/video editing\nAppreciation for concepts and trends in photography, videography, and visual storytelling\nProficiency in Swift, Objective-C, or Metal\nFluency in additional languages (e.g., Mandarin) to support user research across global markets.\nAbility to travel internationally for work","description_format":"text","description_chars":3171,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":3,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Operating Systems","Laptops","Smartwatches & Fitness Trackers","Tablets"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-12T10:57:34Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 6,350 · green card filings: 37","filings_12m":6350,"filings_prev_12m":6527,"green_card_filings_12m":37,"median_offered_wage_usd":177355,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":2959}],"liveness":{"score":68,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.68,"p_room":1,"age_days":13,"expected_fill_days":45,"reasons":["conf:0","stale_co","urgency","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-15T05:46:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/apple-aesthetics-science-ml-research-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/apple-aesthetics-science-ml-research-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-15T22:38:48Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":34378,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-16T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":12},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=12"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fapple-aesthetics-science-ml-research-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fapple-aesthetics-science-ml-research-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fapple-aesthetics-science-ml-research-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/apple-aesthetics-science-ml-research-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fapple-aesthetics-science-ml-research-engineer"}]}