Principal Engineer, Identity & Authorization

Nike; Beaverton (OR); Hybrid; USD 149,000 - 314,000; Full time

Job summary

Nike is seeking a Principal Engineer to define the future of authorization across its global technology ecosystem. You will lead the transformation to a centralized, policy-driven authorization platform and collaborate with security, architecture, and product teams to embed governance into the SDLC.

The role requires deep expertise in IAM, distributed systems, and policy-as-code, with hands-on coding in backend or platform languages and multi-region production deployments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in computer science, software engineering, information security, or related field.
• 8+ years of experience designing and delivering enterprise-scale software platforms and distributed systems.
• Deep expertise in authorization architectures, identity and access management, authentication, identity governance, and privileged access concepts.
• Experience designing centralized policy decision services, policy enforcement architectures, and policy-as-code solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical strategy, mentor engineers, and drive architectural transformation across multiple organizations.
• Hands-on software engineer who actively writes and maintains production code and deploys distributed systems into live, high-availability, multi-region production environments.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the enterprise authorization architecture, establishing standards, patterns, and engineering practices across applications, APIs, cloud platforms, and business services.
• Lead the transition from application-specific roles, permissions, and user exceptions to centralized policy decision services and reusable authorization capabilities.
• Design and implement policy-based authorization solutions that express requirements as code, test automatically, and deploy via modern engineering workflows.
• Partner with Security, Enterprise Architecture, Platform Engineering, and Product Engineering to embed authorization and identity controls into the software development lifecycle.
• Influence the future of Identity as Policy by developing shared services, frameworks, and platforms supporting workforce, consumer, partner, and machine identities.
• Mentor engineers, guide architectural decisions, and help teams adopt scalable authorization and identity capabilities.

Skills

Authorization architectures

Identity & access management

Policy as code

Distributed systems

Mentor engineers

Production code

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Security

Job description

Open to remote work except in South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia.

The annual base salary for this position ranges from $149,100.00 in our lowest geographic market to $313,900.00 in our highest geographic market. Actual salary will vary based on a candidate's location, qualifications, skills and experience.

Information about benefits can be found here.

Position Location & Schedule

This position is based at our incredibly beautiful worldwide campus headquarters location in Beaverton, Oregon. You'll work a \"4/1 hybrid\" schedule - Mondays - Thursdays are in the office and it's optional if you'd like to work Fridays from the Nike campus office or your home office.

Who You’ll Work With

Nike's Enterprise Identity & Access Management team enables secure digital experiences across workforce, consumer, partner, and machine identity ecosystems. This Principal Engineer partners with Security, Enterprise Architecture, Platform Engineering, and Product Engineering leaders to shape authorization capabilities used across Nike's global technology organization.

Who We Are Looking For

We're looking for a Principal Engineer to help define the future of authorization at Nike. This role will lead the transformation from fragmented, application-specific access controls to a modern, enterprise-wide authorization platform where access decisions are defined as policy, evaluated centrally, and consistently enforced across applications, APIs, cloud platforms, data systems, and business processes. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in authorization architecture, distributed systems, and identity platforms, along with a passion for solving complex security and business challenges through scalable engineering solutions. They are recognized technical leaders who can influence enterprise strategies, establish architectural standards, and align diverse engineering organizations around a shared vision for identity and access. Success in this role requires the ability to translate business intent, security requirements, and governance controls into reusable authorization services and policy frameworks that enable agility, strengthen security, and reduce operational complexity across Nike's global technology ecosystem.

The candidate should have:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education, experience, or training in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Security, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience designing and delivering enterprise-scale software platforms and distributed systems.
• Deep expertise in authorization architectures, identity and access management, authentication, identity governance, and privileged access concepts.
• Experience designing centralized policy decision services, policy enforcement architectures, and policy-as-code solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical strategy, mentor engineers, and drive architectural transformation across multiple organizations.
• Hands-on software engineer who actively writes and maintains production code - this is a build-and-deploy role, not an architecture-only. Demonstrated coding depth in a backend or platform language, with direct experience deploying distributed systems into live, high-availability, multi-region production environments.

What You’ll Work On

You will lead the evolution of Nike's authorization strategy and platforms, helping transform how access decisions are defined, managed, and enforced across the enterprise. By partnering with engineering, security, and architecture teams, you will build scalable authorization capabilities that enable secure innovation while simplifying access management and governance at global scale.

• You will define and drive the enterprise authorization architecture, establishing standards, patterns, and engineering practices that enable consistent access control across applications, APIs, cloud platforms, and business services.
• You will lead the transition from application-specific roles, permissions, and user exceptions to centralized policy decision services and reusable authorization capabilities.
• You will design and implement policy-based authorization solutions that allow business, security, and compliance requirements to be expressed as code, tested automatically, and deployed through modern engineering workflows.
• You will partner with Security, Enterprise Architecture, Platform Engineering, and Product Engineering teams to embed authorization, governance, and identity controls directly into the software development lifecycle.
• You will influence the future of Identity as Policy at Nike by developing shared services, frameworks, and platforms that support workforce, consumer, partner, and machine identities.
• You will mentor engineers, guide architectural decisions, and help teams adopt scalable authorization and identity capabilities that reduce operational complexity while improving security and compliance outcomes.
• You will identify opportunities to modernize legacy access management approaches and create policy-driven solutions that enable faster delivery of secure digital experiences across Nike's global technology ecosystem.
• You will write production code and apply enterprise-level coding practices to build and deploy the core authorization services.

We 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.