Senior Audio - Voice Processing & Environmental Test Engineer

Summary
Apple's Hardware group is home to some of the world's most advanced technologies - powering the experiences that define Apple products.

Description
We are looking for a highly skilled Senior Audio — Voice Processing & Environmental Test Engineer to join our team in Herzliya.

Responsibilities

• Test and validate the performance and tuning of core voice processing blocks
• Execute validation under diverse acoustic conditions, speaker configurations, and signal scenarios
• Collaborate with algorithm teams to provide data-driven feedback for tuning and optimization
• Conduct objective voice quality assessments using standardized metrics, including POLQA (ITU-T P.863) and PESQ (ITU-T P.862)
• Organize and manage subjective "golden ear" listening panels to assess voice naturalness, intelligibility, and overall quality
• Define evaluation criteria and scoring methodologies aligned with industry standards and internal quality benchmarks
• Design and execute WER-based testing for scenarios involving voice transcription and speech recognition
• Correlate WER results with upstream audio processing quality to identify degradation sources
• Conduct testing in specialized laboratories that replicate real-world acoustic scenarios, including: Moving vehicles ,Noisy public environments — cafés, restaurants, crowded spacesWindy outdoor settings and Combined environmental stressors
• Measure and track Time to First Word (TTFW) and round-trip audio latency
• Establish performance baselines and monitoring frameworks for continuous tracking across firmware and software iterations
• Design and maintain automated test suites to detect audio artifacts — including glitches, pops, clicks, distortions, and dropouts
• Build regression frameworks that validate audio quality across new firmware and software updates
  
  

• BSc in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Acoustics, Audio Engineering, or a related field
• 7+ years of experience in audio testing, voice quality evaluation, or acoustic system validation
• Proven experience working within or alongside professional audio/acoustic test laboratories
• Demonstrated ability to design repeatable, controlled test environments and methodologies
• Experience with both objective measurement tools and subjective listening evaluation protocols
• Strong system-level understanding with the ability to isolate quality issues to specific processing stages
• Deep understanding of audio signal processing fundamentals — frequency domain analysis, filtering, spectral characteristics, and time-domain behavior
• Hands-on experience with voice quality measurement tools and standards (POLQA, PESQ, 3QUEST, ETSI standards)
• Familiarity with HEAD acoustic test equipment — measurement microphones, artificial heads (HATS), mouth simulators, and anechoic/semi-anechoic chamber setups
• Strong proficiency in Python for test automation, data analysis, audio signal processing, and framework development
• Experience with audio acquisition systems, DACs/ADCs, and real-time audio streaming architectures
• Understanding of latency measurement methodologies in real-time audio systems
  
  

• MSc in Acoustics, Audio Signal Processing, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline — considered a significant advantage
• Experience with speech recognition systems and WER evaluation methodologies
• Background in psychoacoustics or subjective audio evaluation research
• Experience with environmental simulation lab design and commissioning
• Knowledge of ITU-T P-series recommendations and ETSI test specifications