Senior Systems Engineer, Watch Software
Apple
Listing collected from Apple's career site. NextChapter is independent of Apple.
San Diego, CA · Posted November 9, 2026
Just laid off? Start here: a plan for the first weeks
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Where San Diego, CA ranks
Where San Diego, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Cities hosting the most business conferences in the West Coast78 conferences · of 17
- #2Cities hosting the most human resources conferences6 conferences · of 10
- #3Best cities for life sciences and biotech jobs454 openings · of 41
- #3Best cities for aerospace and defense jobs377 openings · of 67
- #3Cities hosting the most legal services conferences7 conferences · of 17
- #3Cities hosting the most staffing & human capital conferences6 conferences · of 8
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing does not state pay. Across 43 open senior systems engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $149,500 to $193,000 and the median is $174,000.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
Senior Systems Engineer salaries by state · Check your own pay
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among computer occupations, all other, AI is already used for a large share of the tasks. Measured exposure for computer occupations, all other: 31% (high).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Apple has filed 4 layoff notices in the last twelve months, covering 225 workers, most recently August 2026. These are public filings with state labor departments, and an open role can sit alongside them. See the filings
About the job
The watchOS Systems team is looking for a creative senior software engineer to help define the future of Apple Watch. Your core responsibility will be to build and optimize the foundational software that drives the device's performance and power efficiency. You will also have the unique opportunity to conduct investigative research, prototyping new technologies that will help define future hardware and software features. This role is perfect for a collaborative engineer who is passionate about the intersection of hardware and software and thrives on solving complex, open-ended problems.