Homelabs R&D Team Leader

Apple is looking for a versatile R&D Team Lead to guide a multidisciplinary engineering team in exploring new concepts and bringing innovative ideas to life through hands-on prototyping. This role combines technical leadership, project execution, and close collaboration with teams and technology partners around the world. You will bring a broad understanding of complex technical systems, practical engineering experience, and the ability to connect people and ideas across disciplines. You will help the team turn open-ended challenges into clear priorities, working prototypes, and compelling demonstrations that inform future technology directions.

As a R&D Team Lead, you will guide day-to-day engineering activities, coordinate project delivery, and build effective relationships with vendors and internal partners. You will work closely with hardware, software, AI, design, and program management teams to define objectives, align technical requirements, and drive progress from early exploration through integrated demonstrations.

This is a hands-on leadership role requiring sound technical judgment across hardware and software, the ability to navigate system-level tradeoffs, and a willingness to contribute directly to prototyping, integration, and debugging. You will draw on the expertise of specialists while helping the team make decisions and resolve challenges across disciplinary boundaries.

The role involves domestic and international travel to vendor sites and Apple offices for technical reviews, collaborative development, integration activities, and project planning.

Lead and mentor a multidisciplinary tech, sensing, robotics team, establish clear priorities and ownership, and encourage open communication and collaborative problem-solving. Translate exploratory goals into actionable project plans, with defined requirements, milestones, deliverables, and success criteria. Coordinate schedules, resources, dependencies, and technical risks across parallel efforts; identify obstacles early and drive timely resolution. Lead technical engagement with component vendors, technology partners, and research organizations, including capability assessments, requirements alignment, development reviews, and validation of deliverables. Partner with teams across Apple to align technical direction, coordinate integration, and ensure prototypes address shared project and experience goals. Guide system architecture and component selection, balancing performance, integration complexity, development time, and project needs. Contribute directly to prototype development, system integration, testing, and debugging, working alongside engineers to resolve hardware and software issues. Communicate project status, technical findings, tradeoffs, and decisions clearly to engineering teams, partners, and leadership. Track emerging technologies and identify opportunities to accelerate development through external partnerships and new technical approaches.

BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. 5+ years of relevant engineering experience, including hands-on development, integration, and testing of complex electromechanical systems. Demonstrated experience leading engineering teams or multidisciplinary technical projects, with responsibility for coordinating work and delivering results. Broad working knowledge of robotics hardware and software, including how mechanisms, actuators, sensors, controls, and software interact at the system level. Practical ability to investigate technical issues, evaluate engineering tradeoffs, and contribute to prototyping and debugging. Experience working directly with vendors or external engineering partners on technical requirements and development deliverables. Strong project management, communication, and collaboration skills, including written and verbal English communication for global teamwork. Experience in operating in large organizations with multiple stakeholders. Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally.

Experience guiding early-stage technology exploration where requirements evolve through experimentation and prototyping. Experience coordinating geographically distributed teams and external partners across time zones. A track record of mentoring engineers and building a collaborative, accountable team environment. Experience evaluating components, platforms, and suppliers, and translating vendor capabilities into practical development plans. Experience presenting integrated prototypes and communicating technical recommendations to diverse audiences.