Special Projects - Expeditionary Engineering
The Special Projects - Expeditionary Engineering role sits inside the Chief of Organizational Imagination (COI) group. This group exists to expand Apple's capacity to perceive and test unfamiliar opportunities before they are compressed into default roadmap logic.
We run short, disciplined expeditions that produce decision-grade artifacts: prototypes, interaction studies, service fragments, device behaviors, and narrative packages that make plausible futures concrete enough to evaluate under real constraints. Success is measured by improved organizational judgment, clearer strategic options, and higher quality product direction.
We are hiring an expeditionary engineer with broad technical and cultural range to lead action-oriented vision projects that are still under-formed. This role is responsible for turning weak signals and open questions into working artifacts that shape executive and cross-functional decisions.
In this role, baseline technical skills are treated as hygiene, not differentiation. You are expected to be fully comfortable with modern engineering tools and workflows, but selection is based on your ability to frame unfamiliar opportunity spaces, build tangible probes quickly, and convert what is learned into next moves the organization can act on.
You will work across Human Interface, Industrial Design, ML, software engineering, operations, and marketing to refactor vision work into practical programs. The output is not concept theater. The output is a steady cadence of artifacts that help Apple make better decisions earlier.
- Strong generalist profile with demonstrated range across engineering, design, and research practice.
- Proven track record converting ambiguous briefs into working artifacts that changed product, strategy, or operating decisions.
- Technical fluency across software and systems integration; baseline capabilities such as scripting, data analysis, and prototyping toolchains are assumed.
- Hands-on making practice across more than one medium, such as software, hardware, service design, documentation, or exhibit-grade narrative artifacts.
- Demonstrated ability to operate inside and outside traditional corporate structures while maintaining rigor, pace, and accountability.
- Excellent writing and communication skills; able to make complex implications legible to mixed technical and non-technical audiences.
- Strong facilitation capability in workshops, critiques, and review forums that produce learning and decision movement.
- Systems thinking with clear evidence of reasoning across second-order and third-order implications.
- Lead expeditionary engineering projects for the COI group, from framing to artifact delivery to executive readout.
- Build fast, credible prototypes that pressure-test product and organizational assumptions before roadmap lock-in.
- Convert weak signals and emerging capability shifts into actionable opportunity probes for product and strategy teams.
- Refactor action-oriented vision projects into phased programs with clear hypotheses, artifact milestones, and adoption paths.
- Partner across design, engineering, research, and operations to ensure exploratory work is grounded in real constraints and feasible next steps.
- Establish artifact-drop cadence and decision rituals so prototypes change plans, not just presentations.
- Create reusable methods, templates, and evaluation rubrics for speculative R&D across COI initiatives.
- Mentor multidisciplinary contributors in disciplined speculative practice and prototype communication.
- Represent Special Projects work in internal forums and selected external engagements where appropriate.
- Advanced degree or equivalent experience in a field that combines technical development with human and social context, such as HCI, design, STS, engineering, media arts, anthropology, or related disciplines.
- 10+ years of experience spanning prototyping, product development, exploratory research, or adjacent innovation practice.
- Portfolio required, including shipped systems, prototypes, artifacts, publications, exhibits, or comparable evidence of original contribution.
- Evidence of multidisciplinary stakes over time, not short-term tourism across fields.
- Based in Santa Clara and Cupertino with regular in-person collaboration.
- Willingness to travel as needed for field inquiry, partner sessions, and expedition work.
- Comfortable operating in high-ambiguity environments with changing constraints and compressed timelines.
- Ability to sustain high craft standards while working iteratively and publicly with critique.
- Demonstrated discretion and judgment with sensitive pre-roadmap initiatives.
- Experience in entrepreneurship, studio building, or independent practice with end-to-end ownership.
- Track record using speculative design, design fiction, or artifact-led research as disciplined product discovery methods.
- Experience building organizational capability, including playbooks, rituals, and internal communities of practice.
- Background in community leadership, public speaking, writing, or publishing that improved cross-disciplinary collaboration.
- Experience integrating hardware, software, and AI behaviors into coherent experience prototypes.
- Familiarity with Apple's product ecosystem and quality expectations.
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 $235,000 and $410,000, 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 reimbursement for certain educational expenses including tuition.
This role assumes technical fluency as baseline infrastructure. The differentiator is judgment under uncertainty, artifact quality, and the ability to convert imagination into organizational action.
You will be evaluated on the quality, velocity, and adoption of expedition outputs: how effectively your artifacts open credible strategic options, sharpen product judgment, and improve program decisions before they become expensive commitments.