RF PLL Silicon Validation Engineer (m/f/d)

RF PLL Silicon Validation Engineer (m/f/d)

Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, new ideas have a way of becoming extraordinary products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring passion, dedication, and a no-excuse mindset to your job and there's no telling what you could accomplish. Smart people and inspiring, innovative technologies are the norm here.Our team is responsible for validating the RF performance of top-notch, monolithic cellular transceivers. We are looking for an experienced RF engineer to lead the validation of complex PLL and frequency synthesis subsystems. In this role, you will work cross functionally with Design, Firmware, and System teams to ensure our silicon meets rigorous specifications. You will drive our shift to agentic engineering, scaling validation throughput with AI agents without compromising the quality bar, to enable uncompromised connectivity in future Apple products.

Description

As an RF PLL Silicon Validation Engineer, you will own the bring-up and characterization of frequency generation subsystems in market-leading transceivers. Your work style is collaborative and proactive, driving technical solutions across interdisciplinary teams. You will work in an agentic work flow, you scope the problem and define pass/fail criteria, delegate implementation and execution to AI agents, and verify every result against the specification.

Responsibilities

• Defining validation strategies, executing complex measurements, and analyzing performance against specifications
• Architecting efficient validation solutions through agentic engineering: articulating clear specs and acceptance criteria, delegating implementation to AI agents, and verifying results with deterministic checks and independent reviews
• Developing scalable automation frameworks and data analysis tools that are well documented and usable by both engineers and AI agents
• Reporting technical results clearly and in a cross functional team to debug hardware and software issues, ensuring the highest quality for Apple's wireless products.

Minimum Qualifications

• Strong cross-functional leadership skills; ability to communicate complex technical findings clearly to Chip Design, Firmware, and System Verification teams.
• Expertise in Python for test automation and data analysis (NumPy/Pandas), and demonstrated experience working with AI coding agents beyond script generation - delegating multi-step tasks, defining acceptance criteria, and validating agent output against specifications.
• Proven track record in systematically debugging complex silicon issues and isolating root causes across hardware, firmware, or test setups.
• Hands-on mastery of RF lab equipment including Spectrum/Phase Noise Analyzers, VNAs, and high-speed Oscilloscopes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep understanding of RF transceiver architecture with specific expertise in frequency synthesis (PLLs, DCOs) and key metrics like Phase Noise, Lock Time, and Cross-Talk Isolation.
• Experience with cellular standards (5G NR, LTE) and mixed-signal building blocks (ADCs/DACs) is highly desirable.
• Master's or PhD in Electrical Engineering or equivalent with 5+ years of relevant experience in RF/Mixed-Signal validation or design.
• Experience building agentic workflows or tooling (e.g., custom agents, tool integrations, LLM-driven test automation) in an engineering environment.

At Apple, we're not all the same. And that's our greatest strength. We draw on the differences in who we are, what we've experienced, and how we think. Because to create products that serve everyone, we believe in including everyone. Therefore, we are committed to treating all applicants fairly and equally. We will work with applicants to make any reasonable accommodations.

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