Apple has quietly expanded the remit of senior hardware engineer John Ternus to include oversight of the company’s design organisation, a move that sharpens his profile as a leading candidate to succeed Tim Cook.
Bloomberg disclosed that the change, made late last year, gives Ternus supervisory responsibility across both hardware and software design — a portfolio historically held by a single senior executive and central to Apple’s identity since Steve Jobs.
The decision places Ternus in the role of an internal advocate for design at the executive table: he now represents the design organisation to the C-suite, manages its senior leaders and acts as a bridge between creative teams and operations. Publicly, he has already taken on higher-profile duties, including product walkthroughs and media interviews that have elevated his visibility beyond the traditional hardware-engineering remit.
Ternus’s rise follows a string of recent internal changes. Over the past year he assumed sole hardware responsibility for Apple Watch, took on supervision of the robotics team and in October became a key decision‑maker over product roadmaps and strategic feature choices — responsibilities that extend beyond a conventional hardware chief.
The move also reframes Apple’s succession map. Ternus, 50 and the youngest member of Apple’s senior team, offers the board the prospect of a long-tenured, product-centric leader. Another internal candidate is Sabih Khan, Apple’s new chief operating officer, whose stewardship of supply chains mirrors the path Tim Cook took before becoming CEO.
Complicating the picture is the fate of Johny Srouji, the architect of Apple’s in-house silicon. Srouji has reportedly contemplated leaving and some executives have discussed creating a chief technology officer role that would merge chip and hardware engineering under his leadership — a change that could force a cascade of senior promotions and test the board’s appetite for structural shifts.
Governance signals suggest no imminent wholesale leadership turnover. Apple told shareholders this month that current chairman Art Levinson will remain after the company’s February meeting, postponing any immediate change in the board’s top post until at least 2027. Tim Cook, for his part, shows no public intention to step down and would likely remain chairman if he does retire.
For investors and competitors the practical implication is twofold: Apple is grooming a successor who embodies its long-standing design-first ethos while also broadening the operational skill set expected of a future CEO. The company’s future will depend on how it balances design leadership, chip strategy and executive retention in an era when AI, integration of software and hardware, and supply-chain resilience are all strategic priorities.