Image Signal Processing Architect, Platform Architecture

Summary

Posted: Oct 28, 2024

Role Number:200576123

Do you love crafting elegant solutions to highly complex challenges? Are you a big-picture visionary who understands how each element affects all the others? At Apple, our Architecture group is responsible for connecting our hardware and software into one unified system. Join this team, and you’ll collaborate with engineers across Apple to design how all of our technologies work in unison! You’ll drive development of our renowned system-on-a-chip architecture and develop algorithms to improve image quality, enable new use cases, improve power and thermal performance, and enable new camera module technologies. You’ll develop forward-looking prototype systems as well as build and deploy software development tools that will be distributed to the Apple engineering community, and help build the seamless technology experiences we’re known for worldwide. In this role, you will model and help develop HW for the next generation of digital image processing, particularly related to consumer photography. Devise new processing techniques, combine traditional image processing with Machine Learning, invent hardware architectures, evaluate and debug new approaches, and develop practical implementations that are precisely specified. Work to get the most from new processing techniques, deliver state of the art image quality, evaluate and debug new approaches, and develop optimal ways to program our new hardware so our software teams work from a good starting place.

Description

– Work with the other Image Signal Processor architects to demonstrate what the newest hardware designs can do. – Develop a testing plan to prove that the architecture can produce high quality results. – Assist the firmware and camera teams with debugging and working around system problems. – Work with the power team to understand and improve the setup and use cases to enable the best image quality within our power budget. – Work with the image quality and software teams to understand their requirements and feed information back to the architects to improve the designs. – Create detailed hardware specifications suitable for efficient and practical implementation. – Model the specification in C++. – Work with tight deadlines.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree
• Ability to code in C++, Matlab and/or Python
• Experience writing software models of hardware algorithms
• Understanding of Imaging Systems or image processing algorithms

Preferred Qualifications

• MS or PhD degree, or 20+ years of relevant experience
• Understanding of each stage of a camera Image Signal Processor (ISP) pipeline including, defect correction, demosaic, noise reduction, ML techniques
• Demonstrated ability to invent new breakthrough techniques in image processing
• Familiarity with memory systems
• Knowledge of image noise models, local tone mapping, multi-image fusion and color calibration
• Experience with chip architecture
• Machine vision and computational photography expertise, particularly experience with efficient Machine Learning
• Experience building and using image sets to use as Machine Learning training sets

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 $197,400 and $296,300, 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.