Johny Srouji is now Apple’s Chief Hardware Officer, a title Apple’s own newsroom says the company has never used before. Apple announced the change in April 2026, effective immediately, expanding Srouji’s role to include Hardware Engineering, the organization John Ternus ran before becoming CEO.
The move sits alongside, and predates, the CEO transition that took effect September 1. Apple’s own release frames it as a leadership appointment, not as a reaction to any single product launch, and the company has published no further explanation of why the role was created when it was.
What the title covers
Srouji already led Apple’s hardware technologies organization, the group responsible for silicon design across the M-series and A-series chips. Under the new Chief Hardware Officer title, he also leads Hardware Engineering, the group that oversees the design and engineering of Apple’s finished products. Apple’s release describes this as an expanded role rather than a merger of two equal groups, with Srouji now responsible for both.
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| Key facts | Detail |
|---|---|
| New title | Chief Hardware Officer |
| Effective | Immediately, April 2026 |
| Organizations now led | Hardware technologies, plus Hardware Engineering |
| Previous lead of Hardware Engineering | John Ternus, before becoming CEO |
| First Apple executive with this title | Yes, per Apple’s own release |
Where the new title has already appeared
Srouji is the executive Apple quoted on both the August 2026 Mac mini and Mac Studio release announcements, in each case identified by the new Chief Hardware Officer title. On the Mac Studio announcement, Apple’s release quotes him in full: “Mac Studio is the ultimate desktop for on-device AI and the world’s most demanding pro workflows, relied on by users for its tremendous performance and extensive pro connectivity, all in a quiet, compact design that sits right on your desk, and today, we’re pushing the boundaries even further. With the powerful M5 Max and the incredible capabilities of M5 Ultra, Mac Studio ushers in a new era of desktop computing, delivering huge performance gains for pro workloads and AI inference with frontier-class models. By integrating Neural Accelerators directly into the GPU and offering massive amounts of high-bandwidth unified memory, the new Mac Studio is our most powerful Mac ever.”
How it connects to the CEO transition
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| April 2026 | Srouji named Chief Hardware Officer, effective immediately |
| April 20, 2026 | Apple announces the Ternus CEO succession, effective September 1 |
| August 2026 | Srouji quoted as Chief Hardware Officer on the Mac mini and Mac Studio releases |
| September 1, 2026 | Ternus becomes CEO; Cook becomes Executive Chairman |
Both announcements came from Apple’s newsroom within the same 2026 fiscal year, and both left Hardware Engineering under new leadership: Ternus moved up to CEO, and the group he had run moved to Srouji as part of the newly created role. Apple has not published an org chart connecting the two changes explicitly, but the dates and titles in its own releases show the sequence.
A role with no prior Apple history
Apple’s release is explicit that this is the first time the company has had a chief hardware officer. Srouji joined Apple in 2008 and has led silicon and hardware technologies work through the introduction of the A-series chips that now power devices including the iPhone 18 Pro. His hardware technologies group also underpins products such as the Apple Watch Ultra 4 and the AirPods 5, both announced at Apple’s September event under the new leadership structure that took effect the same week.
What Apple has not said
- Why the Chief Hardware Officer role was created, beyond describing it as an expanded assignment.
- Whether any other executive title changes accompanied Srouji’s appointment.
- Any compensation detail tied to the new role. That would sit in Apple’s SEC filings, not its newsroom.
Today is Saturday, September 12, 2026. Srouji has held the Chief Hardware Officer title for roughly five months, and Apple has quoted him under it on two product releases since. No further changes to the role have been published.
