Software Development Engineer in Test - Video Codec
SDET on Apple's Video Engineering team, designing and building test software, harnesses, and quality-evaluation pipelines for video codecs and video processing frameworks across iOS, macOS, tvOS, and visionOS. Day-to-day work spans C/C++, Objective-C/Swift, and Python/Shell test automation, failure triage, and LLM-based agentic tooling.
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Cupertino
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Not specified
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- 6+ years
- Category
- Software engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- BS and a minimum of 10 years relevant industry experience
- 6+ years programming experience in C/C++, Objective-C/Swift, and Python
- 6+ years development experience on macOS or unix/linux platform
- Hands-on experience using LLMs in software development, including building workflows with AI/LLM-based tools
- Experience in test case development and software testing methodologies
- Understanding of software engineering concepts with hands-on CI/CD experience
Nice to have
- Strong knowledge of software engineering and development lifecycles
- Experience building LLM-powered tooling — prompt engineering, agent design, tool/API integration, MCP-based integrations
- Experience in test development using frameworks such as XCTest or PyTest
- Experience with white-box/grey-box testing, API testing, mutation testing, static testing, or code coverage analysis
- Experience in image or video quality evaluation or model benchmarking and quality metrics
- Understanding of image or video codecs (e.g. AVC, HEVC, VP9, AV1) and video processing pipelines
- Excellent problem solving and debugging skills
- Great communication and negotiation skills, able to collaborate and work as a team
- Self-sufficient and self-motivated, able to work independently and drive projects to closure
Full description
Apple is where individual imaginations gather together, committing to the values that lead to great work. Every new product we build, service we create, or Apple Store experience we deliver is the result of us making each other’s ideas stronger. Here, you’ll do more than join something — you’ll add something. Video Engineering is seeking a strong, experienced, self-motivated Software Development Engineer in Test with a passion for making all Apple product experience the best it can be. You will be working on the latest Apple products, ensuring that the video experience is the best in the world!
In this role, your main responsibility will be test design and development for video processing frameworks and low-level software of video codecs, covering both functionality verification and quality measurement across all iOS/macOS/tvOS/visionOS platforms. The work targets image & video encoding/decoding, editing/post-processing, and machine learning based technologies.
Your daily tasks will include developing software and tools to validate algorithms and code changes of projects, designing test cases, and architecting test harnesses. You will implement tests in C/C++, Objective-C, Swift, and Python/Shell scripting using test frameworks. Additionally, you will automate workflows in testing and quality evaluation pipelines, triage and root-cause failures, and drive early test strategy and planning. You will also build LLM-based tools and agentic workflows that extend what these pipelines can automate at scale.
You will partner with R&D engineering teams and both internal and external cross-functional partners to ensure image and video frameworks/firmware/drivers deliver the highest quality video experience.
Minimum Qualifications
- BS and a minimum of 10 years relevant industry experience
- 6+ years programming experience in C/C++, Objective-C/Swift, and Python
- 6+ years development experience on macOS or unix/linux platform
- Hands-on experience using LLMs in software development, including building workflows with AI/LLM-based tools
- Experience in test case development and software testing methodologies
- Understanding of software engineering concepts with hands-on experience practicing CI/CD in software development
Preferred Qualifications
- Strong knowledge of software engineering and development lifecycles
- Experience in building LLM-powered tooling — including prompt engineering, agent design, tool/API integration, and MCP-based integrations
- Experience in test development using frameworks such as XCTest or PyTest
- Experience with white-box / grey-box testing, API testing, mutation testing, static testing, or code coverage analysis