Director Software Engineering - Runtime and cross plane Engineering, Itc
About the job
- 15+ years of progressive engineering experience, including at least 5 years in a leadership role.
- A Bachelor's or Master's degree in a technical discipline such as Computer Science or Electrical Engineering.
- Proven experience leading specialized engineering teams through major technology transitions, particularly in cloud networking and compute governance.
- A track record of building and scaling platform engineering organizations with a focus on self-service capabilities.
- Experience partnering with infrastructure consumers, security teams, and technical product management.
- Demonstrated ability to develop talent, manage budgets, and remove delivery blockers in complex, multi-team environments.
- Experience working with globally dispersed teams in a matrixed organization.
- Deep expertise in Amazon Web Services with a strong network focus, including advanced virtual private cloud design, subnetting, routing, and security groups.
- Extensive experience with Azure integration and networking architectures.
- Hands-on proficiency with Infrastructure as Code tools, including Terraform and Crossplane, for multi-cloud resource management.
- Strong expertise in Kubernetes container orchestration, including cluster management, networking, and application deployment patterns.
- Strong background in continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline design using Jenkins, Azure DevOps, and GitHub integration.
- Experience with Platform Engineering, DevOps practices, and Configuration Management.
- Knowledge of content delivery networks, Domain Name System, containerization technologies, edge platforms, and Infrastructure as a Service platform technologies.
- Prior experience migrating from on-premises to cloud-native infrastructure, with a focus on network and container transformation.
- Ability to establish software engineering methodologies for global, 24x7, high-volume, high-availability environments using metrics-based key performance indicators.
- Strong focus on operational excellence, with emphasis on automation-driven scaling to reduce toil and minimize human error.
- Experience developing software and infrastructure roadmaps to meet business goals for availability, resiliency, and performance.
- Proven capability to lead innovation and strategic direction in cloud and edge compute design and implementation.
- Experience implementing Site Reliability Engineering principles and practices to improve system reliability and operational efficiency.
- Work with counterparts in other geographies to define and execute the technical vision for the cloud infrastructure platform.
- Translate business strategies and objectives into strategic technical direction and delivery plans.
- Present vision, strategies, roadmaps, and progress to senior and executive leadership.
- Lead and grow the local engineering team of individual contributors and managers.
- Drive the transformation from unmanaged to managed cloud resources using declarative technologies.
- Implement policies to ensure consistent, secure, and efficient resource utilization.
- Implement automation strategies focused on toil reduction and elimination of manual, error-prone processes.
- Create self-service platforms and automation capabilities through Platform Engineering and DevOps practices.
- Foster a culture of operational excellence through monitoring, alerting, and continuous improvement practices.
- Architect and deliver lifecycle management solutions for cloud resources using technologies that reconcile resources and perform drift detection, including Terraform, Kubernetes operators, and Crossplane. Managed resources include compute, network, storage including enterprise backup, Domain Name System, and content delivery networks.
- Design and implement cloud governance policies and automation to ensure secure, reliable, efficient, and compliant resources.
- Build multi-cloud control plane architectures using Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform, Crossplane, and Kubernetes operators.
- Build and manage Kubernetes-based container orchestration platforms for scalable application delivery.
- Collaborate with Architecture and Product Management to develop platform capabilities leveraging the core technology stack.
- Use modern observability tooling to enable operational excellence best practices.
- Partner with Corporate Security to implement security-first cloud governance frameworks.
- Manage continuous integration and continuous delivery automation through Jenkins, Azure DevOps, and GitHub integration strategies.
- Identify and assess technology trends and articulate strategic technology recommendations.
- Ensure successful delivery of roadmap items through cross-functional problem-solving.
- Leverage artificial intelligence technologies as a force multiplier, especially for toil reduction.
- Participate in 24x7 on-call and operational excellence activities.
About the company
Nike designs and sells athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories for sports and everyday use. The group includes the Nike and Jordan brands and its owned subsidiary Converse, with products ranging from running shoes and basketball footwear to training clothing and casual sneakers. Most finished products are made by independent contract manufacturers, while Nike develops materials, cushioning systems, and product designs. It earns revenue by selling to wholesale customers and through its own stores and digital channels, with additional licensing arrangements for its brands. Nike began in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports and is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon.
Company Size
10,001+
Company Stage
IPO
Headquarters
Beaverton, Oregon
Founded
1964
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Margins improved despite sales pressure: Nike reported gross margin rising 60 basis points to 42.8% in October 2026 results.
- Running momentum strengthened: Nike reported five straight quarters of double digit currency neutral running growth in June 2026.
- Employee benefits include stock purchases: Nike advertises an employee stock purchase plan, with benefits varying by region and role.
What critics are saying
- China demand weakened: Nike reported Greater China revenue falling 22% on a reported basis in October 2026 quarterly results.
- Footwear supply is concentrated: Four contract manufacturers accounted for about 60% of Nike Brand footwear production in fiscal 2026.
- Retail schedules limit flexibility: Nike's current Birmingham sales associate role requires availability for evenings, weekends, and holidays.
What makes Nike unique
- Air cushioning has dedicated production: Nike owns Air Manufacturing Innovation, operating component facilities in Oregon, Missouri, and Vietnam.
- Athlete testing has dedicated scale: Nike's LeBron James Innovation Center provides 84,000 square feet of sport research space.
- UK launches use controlled access: Nike's SNKRS Draw allocates purchase opportunities through timed entries and random selection.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Remote Work Options
Flexible Work Hours
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
-3%1 year growth
-1%2 year growth
-1%Nike shares have fallen 1.9% so far in October, as of October 7, adding to a dismal run for the sportswear maker. The stock is down 46% in 2026 and trades 80% below its November 2021 peak, near a 13-year low. History offers no clear guide for the month. Nike stock fell in October 2024 and October 2025, but rose in each of the three Octobers before that. Sentiment is deeply bearish. First-quarter revenue for fiscal 2027, which ended August 31, fell 4% year on year, driven by a 26% drop in China sales. Nike also announced layoffs. Elliott Hill has been chief executive officer for two years, with little progress to show.
Nike, Patagonia and Lululemon join new alliance to tackle textile microfiber pollution. October 8, 2026 The initiative shifts microfiber action upstream - from consumer washing toward fabric design, manufacturing processes and mill-level filtration. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has launched the Microfiber Action Alliance (MAA) with Nike, Patagonia, Under Armour, lululemon, Cotopaxi and REI Co-op to accelerate practical solutions for reducing fibre pollution across textile supply chains. The initiative was announced on October 6, 2026. The alliance will focus on converting years of microfiber research into interventions that brands and suppliers can deploy at scale, while sharing findings across the wider industry. Pollution moves upstream Microfibers are released not only when consumers wash and wear garments but also during textile manufacturing. TNC notes that both synthetic and natural fibres can contribute: cotton and wool fragments, for example, may carry dyes, softeners and finishing chemicals into waterways. Some estimates cited by TNC attribute more than 30% of ocean microplastics to microfibers. This makes mills an important intervention point. TNC identifies three immediate solution areas: filtration technology in textile factories; materials and garment designs engineered to shed fewer fibres; and manufacturing-process changes that reduce fibre loss. The organisation says available interventions could collectively reduce apparel-related microfiber pollution substantially while producing co-benefits including water and cost savings. From testing to implementation The MAA will complement rather than replace The Microfibre Consortium (TMC), which has concentrated on testing methodologies, science and industry tools. The new alliance is intended to help brands apply that knowledge within their own supply chains and build evidence around what works commercially. Nike says the programme will also support standardised testing approaches, while Under Armour argues that low-shedding construction should become an engineering parameter considered during product design rather than measured only at the end. Supplier takeaway For textile mills, microfiber performance could increasingly join carbon, water, chemicals and traceability in buyer sourcing requirements. Competitive suppliers should begin mapping fibre-loss points across spinning, knitting, weaving, dyeing and finishing; evaluating wastewater filtration; and generating comparable shedding data. The next important development will be whether major brands translate MAA participation into common supplier specifications, testing thresholds and investment requirements - which could turn microfiber control from a sustainability pilot into a mainstream textile-quality parameter.
Seven major S&P 500 companies with market capitalizations exceeding $20 billion need to rally at least 200% to reach their previous all-time highs, according to Bespoke. The struggling firms include PG&E, PayPal, Ford, Nike, Las Vegas Sands, Zoetis, and Crown Castle. Nike has experienced particularly poor performance, with the company's stock trading at record lows and its dividend yield approaching 5%. Recent quarterly results showed Nike Brand sales fell 4%, online sales dropped 13%, Converse sales declined 28%, and China sales crashed 26%. CEO Elliott Hill indicated that weakness in the sportswear market would persist. PayPal faces intense competition in the payments sector. New CEO Enrique Lores reportedly declined a buyout offer from Stripe and will focus on cost reductions and improving customer experience.
Nike's quarterly filing has drawn mixed reactions from analysts, with concerns over reduced transparency offsetting some positive signals. BNP Paribas criticised Nike's decision to stop disclosing regional comparable store sales, a metric it has provided since 2011. Analyst Laurent Vasilescu said the change reduces visibility on brick-and-mortar growth drivers and follows Nike's earlier pullback on regional accounts receivable data. He maintains an "underperform" rating, with a price target of $19. However, Guggenheim Securities highlighted encouraging trends, including five consecutive quarters of North America footwear unit growth and the region's first margin expansion since Q4 2024. North America inventory declined 1% after two years of growth. CEO Elliott Hill's turnaround plan, launched in October 2024, is expected to take 12–18 months, with more details coming at Nike's investor day on 16-17 November.
Nike launched Caitlin Clark's signature collection on 1 October, the day it reported earnings showing a 4% revenue decline. The company forecasts full-year revenue to drop by a high single-digit percentage, with adjusted earnings per share between $1.15 and $1.35. Nike currently trades at a forward P/E of about 21.0x, roughly 28% below its recent historical average of 32.97x. However, with EPS forecast to drop 14.38% this fiscal year, the lower multiple reflects weaker near-term prospects rather than value. Hedge fund ownership fell from 71 funds at the end of Q1 2026 to 56 funds at the end of Q2 2026. Short interest remained high at 8.98% of float as of 15 September 2026, suggesting investors want evidence of recovery before buying.