Machine Learning Research Engineer – Apple – Waterloo, ON

Apple’s Product Operations machine learning team is looking for a Machine Learning Research Engineer to join their R&D group in Waterloo, Ontario. This is a rare chance to work at the intersection of applied research and real-world manufacturing systems, contributing directly to the core ML libraries that power Apple’s factory operations worldwide.

In this role, you’ll lead research initiatives in anomaly detection and automated machine learning, tackling complex challenges across multi-modal manufacturing data — including time-series, graph, image, and tabular formats. You’ll take projects from ideation all the way through to validation, and collaborate closely with ML software engineers and factory teams to bring successful approaches into production.

About the Role: Machine Learning Research Engineer

As part of a focused R&D team at the heart of Apple’s manufacturing ML capabilities, you’ll conduct applied research with academic partners and collaborators across Apple’s broader research organisation. The team is responsible for developing the core ML libraries that engineers rely on to train models for factory deployment — your work will have a direct impact on how Apple’s groundbreaking product designs become industry-leading physical products.

You’ll also play a mentorship role, supporting ML engineers in applying research findings to factory use cases and helping translate proven methods into scalable production code. Strong communication skills are essential, as you’ll regularly present research outcomes to stakeholders with varying levels of technical knowledge.

Benefits and Salary

Apple is known for offering a comprehensive total compensation package that goes well beyond a base salary. Employees typically enjoy benefits such as health and dental coverage, employee stock purchase programmes, and access to Apple’s extensive wellness and development resources. As a global technology leader, Apple also fosters a culture of continuous learning and career growth.

Responsibilities

This role demands a researcher who can independently own complex ML projects from start to finish. You’ll be expected to drive experimental design, communicate findings clearly, and actively support the broader engineering team in bringing research to life on the factory floor.

• Design and implement rigorous ML experiments with appropriate metrics, benchmarks, and milestones
• Conduct applied research in anomaly detection and automated machine learning for manufacturing environments
• Work with multi-modal data including time-series, graph, image, and tabular formats
• Collaborate with ML software engineers to translate successful research approaches into production-ready code
• Train and mentor ML engineers on applying new techniques to specific factory use cases
• Communicate results clearly to stakeholders across varying levels of technical background
• Partner with academics and Apple’s broader research organisation to advance core ML capabilities

Requirements / Skills

Apple is seeking a highly independent researcher with a strong academic foundation and a proven ability to deliver impactful work. The ideal candidate brings both deep technical expertise and the collaborative mindset to thrive in a cross-functional engineering environment.

• Ph.D. in Machine Learning from a Computer Science or Electrical & Computer Engineering programme
• Publication record commensurate with seniority; new-grad applicants should have at least one first-author publication at top venues such as ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, KDD, or similar
• Expertise in designing ML experiments independently, including defining metrics, benchmarks, and milestones
• Research interest in one or more areas: weakly- or semi-supervised learning, domain adaptation, data efficiency, knowledge distillation, imbalanced classification/regression, or tabular foundation models
• Collaborative software development skills, including experience with design review and code review
• Excellent communication and presentation skills for technical and non-technical audiences alike

How to Apply

To apply for this Machine Learning Research Engineer position at Apple in Waterloo, use the official link below. Make sure your resume and publication list are current before submitting your application.

Share This Opportunity

Know someone who might be interested? Share this job posting and help them join Apple in Waterloo.