Senior Director, Software Engineering - Data Streaming Platforms & Operational DBs

Nike Inc; Beaverton (OR); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Nike, Inc. seeks a senior technology leader to define strategy and oversee engineering and operations for data streaming, integration, and operational databases. Lead through leaders to build resilient, scalable platforms with multi-region availability and strong security.

You will partner with Platform Engineering, Global Technology, Product, Architecture, Security, and Data teams to drive enterprise outcomes and cost-effective infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, information systems, or related field.
• Advanced degree in CS/SE/IS preferred.
• 12+ years in software, platform, or data infrastructure engineering.
• 5+ years leading engineering orgs through managers and senior leaders.
• Experience operating distributed systems and real-time data platforms.
• Knowledge of streaming, data contracts, and replication.
• Experience with cloud-native platforms, IaC, security and resilience.

Responsibilities

• Define multi-year strategy and roadmap for data streaming, integration, and databases.
• Modernize platforms to be highly available, multi-region, and resilient.
• Set standards for event-driven architecture, data contracts, and recovery.
• Consolidate foundational capabilities and retire legacy solutions.
• Drive self-service, automation, and developer productivity across teams.
• Own reliability, risk reduction, and total cost of ownership.
• Build and grow a diverse, high-performing engineering organization.
• Communicate strategy, trade-offs, and business impact to executives.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Executive communication

Stakeholder management

Architectural judgment

Distributed systems design

Cloud-native platforms

Vendor & cost stewardship

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/SE/IS

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Kafka

Job description

Who We Are Looking For

We are seeking a senior technology leader to set the strategy, engineering, and operations for Nike’s data streaming, data integration, and operational database platforms. These foundational capabilities support critical business experiences across commerce, supply chain, marketing, corporate function and product innovation.

The ideal candidate is a builder-operator with deep experience leading enterprise platform organizations, developing high-performing teams, modernizing distributed systems, and connecting technology strategy to measurable business outcomes. You will lead through leaders, influence across Nike, and build secure, resilient, cost-effective platforms that accelerate the business.

What You Will Work On

• Define the multi-year strategy and roadmap for data streaming, data integration and operational database platforms.
• Modernize platforms toward highly available, multi-region, resilient, and operationally excellent services.
• Establish standards for event-driven architecture, streaming, schema and data contracts, replication, performance, security, and disaster recovery.
• Simplify the technology landscape by consolidating foundational capabilities and retiring legacy solutions.
• Drive self-service experiences, automation, developer productivity, and adoption across Nike engineering teams.
• Own reliability, operational readiness, risk reduction, vendor strategy, and total cost of ownership.
• Build and develop a diverse, high-performing organization of engineering leaders and teams across geographies.
• Communicate strategy, trade-offs, risks, and business impact to senior executives and stakeholders.

Who You Will Work With

You will partner across Platform Engineering, Global Technology, Product, Architecture, Security, Data and AI, and business-domain engineering teams.

Key partners include:

• Engineering and SRE teams on architecture, reliability, and operating standards.
• Product and program leaders on platform capabilities, adoption, and outcomes.
• Domain teams across commerce, supply chain, marketing, corporate function, and product innovation.
• Governance, Security, Privacy, Finance, Procurement, and strategic technology vendors.
• Global Technology leadership on priorities, dependencies, and enterprise alignment.

What You Bring

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, information systems, or a related field. Will accept any suitable combination of education,experienceand training.
• Advanced degree in computer science, software engineering or information systems preferred.
• 12+ years of experience in software, platform, or data infrastructure engineering.
• 5+ years leading engineering organizations through managers and senior leaders in global or matrixed environments.
• Deep experience operating distributed systems, real-time data platforms, and high-volume transaction-processing environments.
• Strong knowledge of streaming and messaging architectures, Kafka-based platforms, stream processing, schema management, data contracts, and replication.
• Strong knowledge of Relational and NoSQL databases, including scaling, performance, partitioning, backup, recovery, and multi-region design.
• Experience delivering cloud-native platforms with automation, infrastructure-as-code, security, and resilience practices.
• Demonstrated ability to define strategy, make architecture trade-offs, drive modernization, and connect technology decisions to business outcomes.
• Experience with enterprise security, privacy, risk management, vendor relationships, and financial stewardship.
• Excellent executive communication, facilitation, and stakeholder-management skills.

Critical Skills

• Strategic leadership and a track record of delivering results at enterprise scale.
• Builder-operator mindset with strong technical judgment.
• Ability to lead through leaders, build organizational capability, and establish accountability.
• Ability to influence across organizational boundaries and drive collective decisions.
• Strong business acumen, executive presence, and change leadership.
• Commitment to inclusive leadership, diverse teams, and continuous learning.

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.