TL;DR
John Ternus, who became Apple CEO on September 1, 2026, is spending substantial time in Apple’s design studio, using his engineering background to bridge industrial design and human interface design. Apple has no plans to hire an outside chief design officer. Ternus works closely with design leads Molly Anderson and Steve Lemay, as well as hardware leaders Johny Srouji and Tom Marieb, to align engineering and design around shared product goals.
Apple’s design team is changing under John Ternus. For seven years, no one filled Jony Ive’s shoes. Now Ternus leads design and works directly with hardware engineering.
This is a big shift from Apple’s old approach. Under Ive, design and engineering often clashed. Ternus takes a different route. He comes from engineering, not design, and works directly with the teams building Apple’s products.
Ternus spends real time in Apple’s design studio, sometimes visiting several times a week or even more than once a day, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. He isn’t a designer. He’s a mechanical engineer who joined Apple in 2001 and rose through hardware engineering before becoming CEO.
His engineering background matters, but engineering isn’t taking over. Ternus wants design and engineering to work together. He pushes both teams to make decisions from the start, not just hand off work.
Ternus tells employees that design shouldn’t act like engineering, and engineering shouldn’t act like design. The goal is to get both teams working together from the beginning.
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Why engineering and design need a bridge
Apple’s best products come from tight teamwork between hardware engineering and design. The iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods all forced tough choices between what designers wanted and what engineers could actually build.
When teams work well together, the compromises fade into the background. The product feels right. When they don’t, manufacturing limits the design or ambitious ideas become too hard or expensive to pull off.
After Ive left in 2019, Apple’s design organization changed. Industrial design and human-interface design split, and the whole group eventually reported to then-COO Jeff Williams.
This gave Apple experienced leadership, but no single design leader held the central role Ive once had.
Ternus now fills a very different role.
He knows the limits engineers face because he led hardware development for years. As CEO, he works directly with the people shaping Apple’s industrial and software design. This helps him bridge both sides, spot conflicts early, and make decisions when design and engineering clash.
“There will be differences in where we spend our time, but the mission, the goals are the same,” Ternus has told employees, recounting a formative conversation with Tim Cook in which the former CEO told him: “I know you’re not me.”
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How Ternus is building the bridge
Ternus doesn’t try to be a designer. He focuses on building a space where designers and engineers work together.
Ternus leaves finance to CFO Kevan Parekh and supply chain to COO Sabih Khan, according to Gurman. He spends his time with Apple’s hardware leaders, like Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji and hardware engineering leader Tom Marieb.
He also works directly with the design team, including Molly Anderson, VP of Industrial Design, and Steve Lemay, VP of Human Interface Design. Both now report to Ternus.
That direct link matters.
When a designer suggests a new material or shape, they see what it means for engineering. If an engineer hits a wall, the team keeps the purpose in mind.
This doesn’t mean design always loses. It means the tough conversations happen sooner.
That shift could be the biggest change Ternus brings to Apple’s design culture. Apple has also been rebuilding its design team after losing several senior leaders. Evans Hankey, who took over from Ive as head of Industrial Design, left. Alan Dye, who led Human Interface Design, also departed. Apple has promoted new leaders and hired talent from outside the tech industry.
What this could mean for Apple’s next products
It will take time to see results, but some of Apple’s next products show why tighter collaboration between design and engineering matters.
Apple is developing new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with OLED displays, touchscreen support, a thinner design, and an iPhone-style Dynamic Island. These could launch as soon as late 2026, according to recent reports.
Each change forces a trade-off between design and engineering.
A thinner MacBook Pro changes thermals, battery size, ports, and strength. Adding a touchscreen changes how macOS works. An OLED display shifts power use and internal design. A Dynamic Island cutout means hardware, display, and software all need to work together. Working closely with design can resolve these trade-offs faster, or at least ensure both sides consider them together.
This approach matters as Apple moves deeper into the smart home.
Apple is building new products like a HomePod-style smart-home hub, a new HomePod mini, and an updated Apple TV, plus its next Siri. These products combine hardware, software, services, and AI.
A smart-home device isn’t just hardware with software added. Its controls, display, microphones, speakers, AI, and interface must all feel like one product.
Ternus’ role lets Apple make these decisions together, not in sequence.
A Jobsian approach with an engineering twist
It’s easy to compare Ternus to Steve Jobs, who kept a close relationship with Apple’s design team and Jony Ive.
But Ternus isn’t Jobs, and his relationship with design isn’t the same as Jobs’ with Ive.
Jobs came to Apple as a product visionary and leaned on Ive and the design team to turn ideas into products. Ternus comes from the other side. He spent his career in hardware engineering before becoming CEO. Instead of forcing designers and engineers to compromise later, Ternus brings them into the same conversation early. He knows what engineers can actually build and gives designers direct access to the person leading Apple’s product strategy. He isn’t replacing Jony Ive. The company is taking a new approach.
It’s still too soon to know if skipping an external chief design officer will work for Apple.
But Apple’s direction is getting clearer.
Ternus doesn’t manage Apple’s design team from a distance. He spends time in the design studio and stays close to the engineers who turn ideas into products.
That doesn’t make Apple an engineering-first company. Creativity still matters.
Apple is betting that the best design decisions happen when the people who imagine the product and the people who build it work together from the start.
That could be the biggest difference between the Ternus era and the Jony Ive era.
Ive helped make design one of Apple’s most powerful voices.
Ternus may be working to make design and engineering one conversation.
Frequently asked questions
Who is John Ternus?
John Ternus is Apple’s CEO, having taken over from Tim Cook on September 1, 2026. He previously served as senior vice president of hardware engineering and joined Apple in 2001.
Is Apple hiring a new chief design officer?
No. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has no plans to hire an outside chief design officer. Ternus is instead working directly with both design teams to bridge them.
Who leads Apple’s design teams now?
Molly Anderson leads industrial design, and Steve Lemay leads human interface design. Both work closely with CEO John Ternus, who bridges the two teams.
How does Ternus’s engineering background help?
Ternus understands manufacturing constraints, materials, and development schedules. That allows him to facilitate better communication between engineers and designers, resolve tradeoffs earlier, and align both groups around a shared product vision.
What products will benefit from this synergy?
The upcoming OLED MacBook Pro redesign and Apple’s new smart home devices — including the HomePod hub, HomePod mini, and Apple TV — are expected to benefit from closer collaboration between engineering and design.
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