Hardware System Engineer (AirPods System Technologies)

Quick Facts

• Role: Hardware System Engineer (AirPods System Technologies)
• Focus: System-level specifications, custom silicon integration, sensing + signal-processing architecture

Description

Develop system-level specifications and review designs for custom silicon, ensuring sensing and signal-processing subsystems integrate into a highly constrained physical and power architecture. Translate end-user features into low-level electrical and architectural requirements across the full signal chain—from analog front ends and sensing modules to digital processing and firmware interfaces.

Responsibilities

• Develop system-level specifications for custom silicon (in-house and third-party vendors)
• Analyze and review interface and data-path efficiency
• Evaluate how sensing and signal-processing subsystems integrate into the broader architecture
• Investigate new technologies and conduct feasibility studies in early concept phases
• Translate user-facing use cases into low-level electrical and architectural specifications
• Project and mitigate architectural coexistence issues between submodules
• Navigate tradeoffs across engineering disciplines to deliver realizable solutions under tight power/size constraints

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering (or equivalent)
• 7+ years of proven experience in electronic system design or top-level chip architecture/specification
• Excellent EE fundamentals: basic circuits, analog, digital, and power
• Experience working with open-ended constraints and defining electrical requirements based on user experience

Benefits

• Work on breakthrough, customer-impacting features within extreme power and physical envelopes
• Own early feasibility studies and system specification for next-generation technologies

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (or equivalent)
• Familiarity with ASIC/semiconductor development and manufacturing process
• Knowledge of digital architecture fundamentals, including memory and power state management
• Understanding of computer design tradeoffs and power consumption impact
• Ability to span the stack from analog sensing to DSP to user-facing performance
• Knowledge of DSP techniques and implementation tradeoffs
• Ability to understand tradeoffs across electrical, mechanical, and software domains
• Practical knowledge of communication protocols (especially USB, SPI, I2C, UART)
• Hands-on experience with prototype bring-up, debugging, and functional verification