Hardware System Engineer - AirPods System Technologies

Apple • Cupertino, CA

2d

About The Position

The AirPods System Technologies Team is looking for electrical engineers who are
eager to help define technologies that will be fundamental to our future
products. Our team is responsible for architecting, developing, and delivering
features and technologies that fit within the most challenging physical and
power envelopes in a way that only Apple can.

DESCRIPTION

As part of the team you will be responsible for developing system-level
specifications, analyzing, and reviewing designs for custom silicon — from both
in-house designers and third-party vendors — as well as evaluating how sensing
and signal processing subsystems integrate into the broader architecture. You
will seek out and investigate new technologies that can be leveraged to deliver
groundbreaking new features to our customers, and you will work through
feasibility studies for novel systems during early concept phases. Specific
focus areas include system integration and architecture of custom silicon,
analysis of interface and data path efficiency, and the evaluation of
user-facing use cases as they impact all of these. You will be responsible for
comprehending end-user features and translating them into low-level electrical
and architectural specifications across the full signal chain — from analog
front ends and sensing modules through digital processing and firmware
interfaces. Knowledge of how various submodules of a complete system
architecture interact is critical for projecting and mitigating coexistence
issues at the architectural level. Working within the tiny power and physical
envelope that AirPods demand requires careful consideration of every microwatt
and every square millimeter. Nothing comes for free, so you will need to
understand and navigate all the tradeoffs across various engineering disciplines
to come to a realizable solution.

Requirements

• Bachelors in Electrical Engineering or equivalent 7+ years of proven experience in electronic system design, or in top-level chip architecture / specification
• Excellent EE fundamentals: basic circuits, analog, digital, power
• Familiarity working with open ended constraints and relying on understanding the user experience to define electrical requirements

Nice To Haves

• Masters or Ph.D in Electrical Engineering or equivalent Acquaintance with the ASIC / semiconductor development and manufacturing process
• Familiarity with common digital architecture fundamentals such as memory and power state management
• Understanding of how computer design tradeoffs affect power consumption
• Ability to traverse the full stack — from analog sensing front ends through digital signal processing up to how subsystem performance manifests in user-facing features
• Knowledge of digital signal processing techniques and implementation tradeoffs
• Ability to understand tradeoffs amongst the electrical, mechanical, and software domains
• Practical knowledge with various communication protocols (especially USB, SPI, I2C and UART)
• Hands-on experience in prototype bring-up, debugging and functional verification is extremely beneficial

Responsibilities

• developing system-level specifications
• analyzing, and reviewing designs for custom silicon
• evaluating how sensing and signal processing subsystems integrate into the broader architecture
• seek out and investigate new technologies that can be leveraged to deliver groundbreaking new features
• work through feasibility studies for novel systems during early concept phases
• comprehending end-user features and translating them into low-level electrical and architectural specifications across the full signal chain
• projecting and mitigating coexistence issues at the architectural level
• understand and navigate all the tradeoffs across various engineering disciplines to come to a realizable solution

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level