Machine Learning Architect - Conversational Speech
The Speech organization within Siri is at the forefront of building the technologies that power conversational AI, speech recognition, speech synthesis, and speech-to-speech experiences across Apple's entire ecosystem. Our mission is to develop cutting-edge models, infrastructure, and datasets that enable Siri, dictation, and Apple Intelligence features to deliver natural, intelligent, and deeply personalized speech interactions for billions of users worldwide.
We are seeking a Machine Learning Architect to serve as a senior technical leader spanning the full Speech organization. In this role, you will set the future modeling direction for all of conversational speech-charting the architectural and algorithmic course for how Apple's speech technologies evolve over the coming years. You will operate as a hands-on expert who not only defines strategy but also digs into the hardest technical problems, working shoulder-to-shoulder with teams to overcome critical obstacles and unlock breakthroughs. Reporting directly to the Speech organization leadership, you will have broad visibility and influence across speech recognition, synthesis, dialog, multimodal foundation models, and speech-to-speech systems, ensuring coherent technical vision and cross-team alignment.
We believe the most impactful advances in deep learning emerge when world-class research is anchored in real-world production needs at scale. This role offers a rare opportunity to shape the trajectory of conversational speech technology across Apple's software, hardware, and services - improving speech interaction experiences for Apple's customers around the world.
Description
As the Machine Learning Architect for Conversational Speech, you will:
- Define modeling strategy and technical direction across the Speech organization, establishing a unified architectural vision for speech recognition, speech synthesis, dialog systems, multimodal foundation models, and speech-to-speech technologies.
- Serve as the organization's foremost modeling expert, providing deep technical guidance and mentorship to multiple teams of researchers and engineers working on distinct but interconnected speech capabilities.
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Identify and drive solutions to the most challenging technical problems-rolling up your sleeves to prototype, debug, and iterate on novel approaches when teams encounter critical obstacles.
- Evaluate emerging research and industry trends (e.g., advances in large language models, multimodal architectures, full-duplex natural conversational systems) and translate them into actionable roadmaps aligned with Apple's product and platform priorities.
- Drive cross-team technical alignment, ensuring that modeling choices, training methodologies, data strategies, and infrastructure investments are coherent and mutually reinforcing across the organization.
- Champion production-readiness, bridging the gap between research innovation and deployed systems by ensuring that architectural decisions account for on-device constraints, latency requirements, scalability, robustness, and real-world data conditions.
- Collaborate broadly with partner teams across Siri, Apple Intelligence, hardware, and platform engineering to ensure speech modeling investments are well-integrated into Apple's broader AI and product strategy.
- Contribute to the broader ML and speech research community through publications, patents, and engagement with the state of the art.
Preferred Qualifications
Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Machine Learning, or a closely related field.
Experience architecting or leading development of full-duplex natural conversational systems, speech-to-speech models, or multimodal foundation models that have shipped to large-scale user populations.
Deep familiarity with the full stack of speech technologies-ASR, TTS, spoken dialog, speaker modeling, audio understanding-and an ability to reason about their interactions and dependencies.
Experience with large-scale distributed training and the infrastructure considerations that shape model design at scale.
A data-centric perspective on foundation model development, including experience guiding data collection, curation, annotation, and quality strategies.
Track record of influencing technical direction across organizational boundaries, including the ability to build consensus, communicate complex trade-offs clearly, and drive alignment among diverse stakeholders.
Experience with on-device ML deployment, including model compression, quantization, and latency-aware architecture design.
Demonstrated ability to mentor and elevate senior technical talent, raising the bar for modeling excellence across an organization.
Minimum Qualifications
10+ years of experience in machine learning applied to speech or multimodal systems, with progressively increasing technical scope and leadership.
Demonstrated expertise as a technical leader or architect who has defined modeling direction across multiple teams or product areas-not solely an individual contributor on a single workstream.
Deep, hands-on proficiency in modern deep learning, including large language models and end-to-end speech systems.
Significant experience with multimodal LLMs, including architecture design, training, adaptation, and deployment of models that integrate speech, audio, and text modalities.
Direct experience building speech-to-speech conversational systems, with a strong understanding of full-duplex natural conversational interaction and end-to-end speech pipelines.
A track record of translating research into production-quality systems at scale.
Expert programming skills in Python and deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow.
Proven ability to diagnose and resolve complex, cross-cutting technical challenges spanning model architecture, training methodology, data quality, and systems integration.
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. Learn more about your EEO rights as an applicant .
Pay & Benefits
At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $257,400 and $386,300, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.
Apple employees also have the opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple's discretionary employee stock programs. Apple employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple's Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You'll also receive benefits including: Comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for certain educational expenses - including tuition. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation. Learn more about Apple Benefits.
Note: Apple benefit, compensation and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program.
Perks and Benefits
Health and Wellness
Parental Benefits
Work Flexibility
Office Life and Perks
Vacation and Time Off
Financial and Retirement
Professional Development
Diversity and Inclusion
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