Lead Developer, AI Workflows & Media Supply Chain

The Original Content Services group, part of Apple Services, focuses on creating the premiere video experience for all content types, with impact throughout the industry, for a worldwide digital audience. The team brings together expertise in Partner Relations, TV App Services, Video Services, Technical Operations, and Quality Control to support that mission.

Were looking for a Lead Developer, AI Workflows & Media Supply Chain to join our Integration and Technology team. This role is centered on building and maintaining the software systems that automate our media supply chain, including title and asset management, metadata curation, archival policy, system governance, technical workflow improvement, and distribution standardization with AI/ML applied with the same engineering discipline, testing, and accountability expected of any production system. Were looking for someone who is passionate about building scalable media supply chain workflows and can contribute to a diverse organization.

The Lead Developer, AI Workflows & Media Supply Chain will support the following:

Design, build, and maintain AI/ML-driven automation and agentic workflows that streamline ingest, metadata enrichment, QC, asset validation, and downstream distribution across the media supply chain.

Bridge AI models and internal data systems by deploying secure, scalable interfaces (e.g., Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers) and robust API integrations with Media Asset Management (MAM), inventory, and metadata platforms.

Build automated validation loops and human-in-the-loop review systems to ensure AI-generated metadata and decisions meet accuracy, compliance, and auditability standards before hitting systems of record.

Design, build, and maintain internal tools (dashboards, UIs, CLI utilities) that give operators visibility into and control over autonomous AI-driven workflows.

Collaborate with AI/ML developers to determine where AI/ML genuinely improves supply chain efficiency versus where deterministic automation is the better tool.

Establish processes to detect, reconcile, and resolve data and workflow inconsistencies across the media supply chain, ensuring outputs consistently meet Apples delivery specifications.

Prototype and deploy targeted automation scripts, micro-services, and workflows to resolve emerging bottlenecks in content ingest, QC, and delivery pipelines.

Act as a technical lead and review for other engineers working on supply chain and automation initiatives, and represent the teams technical direction to cross-functional stakeholders.

Manage multiple concurrent priorities and adapt to shifting requirements in a fast-changing production environment.

Mentor or review the work of other engineers, and incorporate differing technical perspectives into technical decisions. We are looking for experienced professionals who have built and operated production automation or AI/ML systems within the media, entertainment, or technology industries.

Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience. 5+ years of experience as an automation and workflow engineer. Experience designing and shipping automated, end-to-end workflows (e.g., ingest, metadata enrichment, QC, delivery) that measurably reduced manual effort or turnaround time. Experience applying AI/ML or LLM-based automation to production systems, beyond prototyping. Experience programming in Python and SQL to build automation, integrations, or data pipelines. Experience working with professional media file formats and QC/delivery standards used in streaming or entertainment operations. Experience writing tested, maintainable production code and following standard software engineering practices (code review, version control, CI/CD). Direct experience handling sensitive and confidential information with integrity and discretion. Ability to be onsite; this role is an in-person, onsite position. Available to work some nights and weekends as needed. Up to 10% travel required; both domestic and international. Experience building or operating secure API layers (e.g., MCP servers) that give AI agents standardized access to order or asset management systems. Experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) or metadata indexing techniques for querying large-scale content archives. Experience with workflow orchestration (e.g., Airflow, Temporal), message queuing (e.g., Kafka, SQS), and containerized deployments (Docker/Kubernetes). Experience building human-in-the-loop review processes to validate automated or AI-generated outputs before they reach systems of record. Experience with JavaScript/TypeScript and shell scripting to build internal tools such as dashboards or CLI utilities. Experience communicating technical trade-offs to non-technical partners and adjusting a technical direction based on their input.