Lead Software Engineer – AI Developer Tooling & Enablement

Title: Lead Software Engineer – AI Developer Tooling & Enablement

Location: Beaverton, OR

Duration: 1 Year contract

NIKE, Inc. does more than outfit the world's best athletes. It is a place to explore potential, obliterate boundaries and push out the edges of what can be. The company looks for people who can grow, think, dream and create. Its culture thrives by embracing diversity and rewarding imagination. The brand seeks achievers, leaders and visionaries. At Nike, it’s about each person bringing skills and passion to a challenging and constantly evolving game.

We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer to serve as the technical anchor for Nike’s AI Developer Tooling & Enablement platform. This role operates at a Principal Software Engineer level, combining deep hands‑on engineering, platform stewardship, and enterprise‑scale governance across Git Hub, Cursor, Claude, and emerging AI development tools.

The Lead Software Engineer will own the technical strategy, architecture, and execution for AI‑powered developer tooling used by thousands of engineers globally, while partnering closely with Product, Security, Legal, Finance, and Vendor Management. This role fills a critical capability gap by unifying platform engineering excellence, AI tooling expertise, and enterprise systems leadership into a single accountable technical owner.

Technical Leadership & Platform Stewardship

• Serve as the lead engineer and technical steward for the AI Dev Tooling & Enablement squad, owning architecture, administration, and long‑term technical direction for Git Hub, Cursor, and Claude.
• Establish and evolve technical standards, patterns, and best practices for AI developer tooling at enterprise scale.

AI Dev Tooling & Enablement Initiatives

• Lead multiple proof‑of‑concept and incubation efforts central to Nike’s AI development strategy, including:
• Background agents running on self‑hosted runners
• Claude Code evaluation and comparative analysis
• "Bring Your Own Model” (BYOM) enablement pathways
• Design and implement SCIM‑based integrations (e.g., for Cursor) to support automated team management, access control, and accurate cost allocation and chargeback.
• Translate experimental AI capabilities into secure, supportable, production‑ready platforms.

Git Hub & AI Tooling Platform Ownership

• Act as squad lead and governance owner for all Git Hub and Cursor initiatives, including Git Hub Copilot and adjacent AI dev tooling (e.g., MCP servers and system integrations).
• Provide end‑to‑end product support and operational ownership for developer tooling used by thousands of engineers.
• Partner directly with vendors such as Git Hub, Anysphere and Anthropic to drive Nike requirements, roadmap alignment, and issue resolution.
• Evaluate new vendor features in Preview/Beta to determine enterprise applicability and value.
• Lead annual SOX and security compliance audits, and design automation for:
• License management and reclamation
• Policy enforcement and reporting
• Maintain and evolve a Selenium‑based automation suite required to bridge gaps where vendor APIs are insufficient.
• Serve as a key contributor to open‑source initiatives, configurations, and inner‑source tooling.
• Consult with internal teams on advanced topics such as authentication patterns using Git Hub Apps.
• Author and drive execution of a strategic Git Hub ecosystem optimization proposal, covering:
• Organizational and account footprint
• Repository rationalization
• Governance models for private vs. internal repositories

Software Development & Engineering Contributions

• Design and implement Backstage plugins powering Nike’s developer portal, including:
• AI Tools portal
• Git Hub insights and workflows
• An upcoming administrative control panel
• Contribute as a hands‑on engineer and technical reviewer to other NDX platform capabilities such as Managed CI/CD, Jeter, and QMA.
• Build dashboards and tooling to improve visibility into Cursor usage, cost trends, and optimization opportunities.
• Balance platform‑level architecture with direct code contributions in Type Script, backend services, automation frameworks, and infrastructure tooling.

AI Dev Tools Governance & Risk Management

• Act as a core…