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Apple overhauling data services 'front-to-back' for future version of Maps, job listing reveals

Apple is planning major changes to Maps that will involve radically overhauling the data services behind the platform, according to a job listing posted on Thursday discovered by AppleInsider.

The company is searching for a senior software engineer to join its Maps Data Services team, which is tasked with behind-the-scenes data infrastructure. The company is specifically asking for someone with experience in large-scale distributed systems, as well as skill in technologies like Java, Scala, Kafka, and/or Zookeeper.

Towards the end of the listing, the company states that it has "big plans," and is hunting for "engineers and leaders that can design and build clean, scalable, and performant data services."

More significantly, Apple says it is "overhauling things front-to-back," and wants "engineers that live and breath [sic] data and distributed services."

The full extent of Apple's plans is unknown. The company could conceivably be shaking up Maps for iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 — both of which should arrive this fall — but if so the new hire would likely be joining a project well underway. Apple is due to showcase the new operating systems at WWDC 2015, which starts June 8, and it will need at least some basics in place by then to share with developers.

In April, AppleInsider learned that Apple has a team working to restore public transit directions, a feature that has been missing in Maps since Google content was stripped out in 2012. That could be one reason for a major data services revamp.