Senior Software Engineering Manager, Creative Apps

Apple's Creator Studio team builds the creative applications that empower millions of users to express their creativity and vision on Apple platforms. We are looking for a seasoned engineering leader to manage a high-performing team of domain expert engineering creatives looking to do the best work of their careers on a highly visible, highly impactful product.

In this role, you will lead multiple engineering teams, driving technical strategy, execution, and team development. You will partner closely with product, design, and XFN teams to deliver polished, innovative features built on UIKit, AppKit, and modern agentic frameworks. Day-to-day, you will balance hands-on technical engagement with people leadership — hiring, mentoring, and growing both engineers and managers on your team.

Responsibilities

• Lead a multi-level team of software engineers and engineering managers building photography and creative apps on iOS and macOS
• Define and drive the technical roadmap for creative feature development
• Partner with product management and design to translate creative vision into shipped software with exceptional craft and performance
• Establish engineering excellence practices and define what it means to develop quality software in an evolving landscape of human/machine teaming.
• Recruit, develop, and retain top engineering talent; provide clear career growth paths for both ICs and managers
• Collaborate cross-functionally with platform, infrastructure, and other app teams to resolve dependencies and share best practices
• Represent the team in leadership forums, communicating progress, risks, and strategic direction with clarity and confidence

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of engineering management experience, including direct management of both engineers and managers
• Deep expertise in iOS and/or macOS application development using UIKit and/or AppKit
• Proven experience delivering complex, consumer-facing apps from concept through App Store release
• Strong background in software architecture, app frameworks, and UI systems at production scale
• Track record of building and developing high-performing engineering teams in a fast-paced product environment
• Demonstrated ability to drive technical decisions across multiple concurrent workstreams with minimal direction

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with photography, imaging, or creative application development on Apple platforms
• Familiarity with on-device machine learning integration, or intelligent creative tooling
• Skilled in navigating large, cross-functional organizations and aligning diverse stakeholders around a shared technical vision
• Experience contributing to or consuming first-party Apple frameworks, or deep knowledge of Apple platform internals
• Proficiency in Swift and modern Objective-C, with a strong sense of what high-quality Apple platform code looks like
• Prior experience managing geographically distributed or hybrid engineering teams
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience