{"id":2924900,"url":"https://alion.io/job/nike-principal-ai-systems-engineer-controls-acceleration","title":"Principal AI Systems Engineer, Controls Acceleration","company":{"id":1634,"name":"Nike","domain":"nike.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/nike","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":82,"open_postings":42,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.929,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":14,"computed_at":"2026-10-24T06:02:35Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Beaverton, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":156000,"max_usd":319000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":730},"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agentic Workflows","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Sim-to-Real","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-11T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-11","last_verified_at":"2026-10-24T23:56:14Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":44,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":44},"description":"WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH\nThis role sits at the intersection of firmware, controls, hardware, and product development, helping accelerate how powered athlete products are built. You’ll report into engineering leadership, partner closely with controls and firmware engineers, and influence cross-functional teams responsible for highly integrated mechatronic systems that bring innovative athlete experiences to life.\nWHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR\nNike seeks a seasoned technical leader who thrives in ambiguity and is motivated by building systems that amplify the impact of an entire engineering organization. This person brings deep expertise in Artificial Intelligence, software engineering, simulation infrastructure, and learning-based systems, paired with the judgment and execution required to ship production-grade solutions. They are equally comfortable developing complex technical architectures, enabling engineering teams through tooling and automation, and translating emerging technologies into scalable business impact. The ideal candidate is a hands-on builder with strong curiosity, exceptional problem-solving skills, and experience accelerating development workflows in robotics, controls, embedded systems, or other complex hardware-software environments. They embrace modern Artificial Intelligence-assisted development practices and continuously look for opportunities to improve speed, quality, and innovation across the product lifecycle.\nOpen to work in Beaverton, Oregon; in-person presence required.\nMaster's degree with 10+ years of experience, or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) with 7+ years of relevant experience.\nMaster’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, or related field. Will accept any suitable combination of education, experience and training.\nDemonstrated expertise in production Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning systems, simulation environments, infrastructure tooling, and embedded software development.\nStrong proficiency in Python, C++, modern Artificial Intelligence development platforms, agentic workflows, and learning-based control methodologies.\nWHAT YOU’LL WORK ON\nYou’ll build the Artificial Intelligence-powered foundation that accelerates firmware and controls development for next-generation powered athlete products. By combining simulation, automation, tooling, and learning-based methods, you’ll help engineering teams iterate faster, reduce development friction, and bring innovative products to athletes more efficiently.\nDevelop and deploy Artificial Intelligence-powered development workflows, coding assistants, and automation capabilities that improve the speed and quality of firmware and controls engineering.\nBuild and scale simulation and sim-to-real environments that enable rapid testing, validation, and iteration before deployment on physical hardware.\nCreate training, testing, and deployment frameworks that support reliable transitions from model development to real-time embedded implementation.\nPartner closely with firmware, controls, hardware, and product teams to establish tooling, infrastructure, and workflows that remove bottlenecks and accelerate execution.\nDesign automated optimization, tuning, and evaluation systems that enhance controller performance while reducing manual engineering effort.\nApply Machine Learning, pattern recognition, and data-driven techniques to identify regressions, uncover failure modes, and accelerate root-cause analysis.\nSupport learning-based control initiatives through scalable data pipelines, orchestration systems, visualization tools, and production-quality engineering practices.\nWe offer a number of accommodations to complete our interview process including screen readers, sign language interpreters, accessible and single location for in-person interviews, closed captioning, and other reasonable modifications as needed. If you discover, as you navigate our application process, that you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please complete the Candidate Accommodation Request Form.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4069,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Footwear","Sporting Goods","Sportswear & Activewear"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-20T13:14:11Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 220 · green card filings: 201","filings_12m":220,"filings_prev_12m":373,"green_card_filings_12m":201,"median_offered_wage_usd":162441,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":108}],"liveness":{"score":12,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.427,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":43,"expected_fill_days":14,"reasons":["conf:4","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-24T06:02:35Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/nike-principal-ai-systems-engineer-controls-acceleration","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/nike-principal-ai-systems-engineer-controls-acceleration.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-25T02:01:28Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":3045,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-26T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1634},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1634"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fnike-principal-ai-systems-engineer-controls-acceleration"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fnike-principal-ai-systems-engineer-controls-acceleration"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fnike-principal-ai-systems-engineer-controls-acceleration"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/nike-principal-ai-systems-engineer-controls-acceleration\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fnike-principal-ai-systems-engineer-controls-acceleration"}]}