Metal is Apple's low-level graphics API (like Vulkan on Apple). You write shaders (GPU code) and rendering pipelines for games, AR, and graphics-heavy apps. Metal is 10-15x faster than OpenGL. Used by game studios (AAA titles use Metal), AR platforms (ARKit), and visual apps. Senior practitioners earn 140-200k USD. Mastery takes 12-16 weeks. It's a specialized skill (only 3% of iOS/macOS engineers know Metal deeply), giving 3-5 year career runway. Apple prioritizes Metal; jobs with Metal expertise command 30-40% premium.
Metal is Apple's low-level graphics API for iOS, macOS, and tvOS. You submit rendering commands to the GPU (Metal Performance Shaders, custom shaders), manage memory (textures, buffers), and control the full rendering pipeline. Metal is explicit (you control everything) and fast (10-15x faster than OpenGL because no abstraction layer). A typical workflow: create MTLDevice (GPU connection), load shaders (MSL code), build render pipeline (what shader, what inputs, what outputs), encode commands (tell GPU what to render), and submit for execution.
| Region | Junior | Mid | Senior |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA | $95k | $160k | $250k |
| UK | $62k | $105k | $170k |
| EU | $68k | $115k | $190k |
| CANADA | $105k | $175k | $280k |
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