Principal Software Engineer

The Engineering Excellence team partners directly with Directors, Architects, Product Managers, and engineering squads across Nike Global Technology to deliver unified developer platforms. This role reports to the Engineering Director and collaborates across foundational technology, AI-native SDLC, and developer experience functions globally.

Nike is seeking a Principal Software Engineer who brings architectural depth, technical authority, and a passion for transforming how software gets built at enterprise scale. The successful candidate has a proven track record of leading complex distributed systems, influencing cross-functional technical strategy, and mentoring senior engineers toward higher standards. This role requires someone who thinks in systems, drives AI-native development practices, and can bridge long-term platform vision with day-to-day execution. The ideal candidate thrives in ambiguity, takes ownership of the hardest technical problems, and leaves platforms measurably better than they found them.

Responsibilities:

• Design end-to-end architecture for Nike's unified developer platforms spanning GitHub, Nike AI Control Plane, Databricks analytics systems, and the Pulse developer portal, ensuring resilience, security, and scale.
• Lead technical strategy for AI-native SDLC implementation, building frameworks where agents perform automated work across the software delivery lifecycle with humans at key oversight checkpoints.
• Drive consolidation of fragmented legacy tools by evaluating existing systems, defining migration paths, and engineering their replacement with efficient, reusable solutions.
• Establish traceability models that connect business requirements through development workflows to production deployments and measurable engineering outcomes.
• Mentor and elevate senior and lead engineers through design reviews, architectural guidance, and direct technical engagement across multiple squads.
• Champion communities of practice in Observability, API design, AI/ML, Kubernetes, Cloud, and OpenSource, growing Nike's engineering culture to best-in-class industry standards.
• Influence and contribute to Nike's multi-year platform roadmap by identifying emerging technology opportunities and building the case for strategic technical investments.

Requirements:

• 10+ years of software engineering experience; Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent combination of education, experience or training.
• Expert-level proficiency in one or more of Java, Node.js, Golang, React, or JavaScript, with a strong record of building highly available, highly scalable distributed systems.
• At least 5 years of hands-on experience with AWS or equivalent major cloud platforms, Kubernetes, container runtimes, and infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform.
• Deep experience with CI/CD ecosystems, developer platform tooling (GitHub Actions, Artifactory, Backstage/Pulse), and developer experience optimisation.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical architecture reviews, establish engineering standards, and influence decisions across multiple teams.