Lead Cyber Defense Engineer, ITC

Become a Part of the NIKE, Inc. Team

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, Inc. it’s about each person bringing skills and passion to a challenging and constantly evolving game.

WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH

You will report into the Director of Cyber Data & Engineering (CDE) within the ITC Corporate Information Security team. You will partner closely with US-based platform architects, Detection Engineering, Response Engineering, and data science/ML leaders in a follow-the-sun delivery model. Platform architecture and ownership remain with designated leads; this role is accountable for building, operating, and continuously improving the pipelines and services that run on those platforms.

We're looking for a Lead Engineer, Cyber Data & Engineering. This role will use knowledge of cloud security principles and technologies, cyber security data platforms, CI/CD pipelines, Python development, API creation and integration, industry best practice, professional experience, collaboration, and good judgment to develop creative solutions that help drive consistency, reliability, and scale across security analytics pipelines and data services at Nike. This individual will work with a wide range of technologies, both cutting-edge and legacy, and coordinate with both technical and non-technical business teams. The ideal candidate has high energy with experience and interest in developing cloud-native applications, data lakehouse pipelines, and integrations that support detection, response, and AI-assisted security workflows. Tenacity, an open and curious mind, and a desire to learn and understand is critical for success on this team.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Work on cloud and data engineering projects and initiatives that build, deploy, and operate security analytics capabilities on AWS and Databricks, aligned to team architecture and runbooks.
• Build and maintain medallion lakehouse pipelines (bronze/silver/gold) from security telemetry with schema governance, data quality checks, and cost-aware compute.
• Develop and support production Python services (e.g., Lambda, containerized workloads) for ingestion, enrichment, and integration with SOAR, analytics consumers, and internal APIs.
• Utilize data lakehouse tools such as Databricks (Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, jobs/workflows) for centralized data pipelining, integration with AI/ML modules, and in-time security alerting and enrichment.
• Operate and improve pipeline reliability, monitoring, alerting, troubleshooting, runbooks, and on-call participation as defined by the team.
• Deliver datasets, entity models, and integration points that enable detection and hunting at scale; partner teams own detection rule development.
• Complete process and workflow orchestration to streamline team efforts and support follow-the-sun delivery with global partners.
• Apply Secure DevOps principles and CI/CD pipelines utilizing Nike standard practices, including infrastructure-as-code (Terraform or CDK).
• Leverage cloud technologies and serverless architectures while evaluating adherence to Nike platform expectations.
• Develop, follow, and maintain accountability within the team for leading practices regarding software development tools, software quality, pipeline operations, and automation development.
• Define solutions, provide estimates on effort and risk, and evaluate technical feasibility.
• Work with team members, guide and mentor them technically. Provide feedback on code improvements when needed and maintain accountability as a Lead within the team.
• Maintain code documentation, high-level diagrams, and complete team knowledge-sharing sessions on completed projects.
• Maintain and advance JIRA knowledge while leading scrum routines as the ITC lead for sprint ceremonies.

WHAT YOU'LL WORK ON

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in software development, including 2+ years in a lead or senior technical role; experience in cyber security or security analytics environments preferred.

• Direct experience and comfort with Python software development, testing, and tooling required.

• Direct experience with building and operating data lakehouse pipelines required; hands-on Databricks experience (Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, jobs/workflows, performance tuning) required.

• Direct experience with delivering and managing solutions on AWS required (Lambda, S3, IAM, event-driven patterns, Terraform or CDK); experience with additional cloud providers a plus.

• Experience with medallion architecture, schema governance, data quality, idempotent ingestion, backfill/replay, and batch or streaming pipelines at scale required.

• Experience operating production data platforms and pipelines—monitoring, troubleshooting, runbooks, and shared on-call support—required.

• Experience and comfort with REST APIs required; experience developing REST APIs and integrating SOAR or security tooling a plus.

• Direct experience with building CI/CD pipelines with toolsets like Jenkins, CircleCI, or Artifactory required.

• Experience with Databricks depth (Delta Live Tables, streaming ingestion, UC grants/lineage) and AWS data patterns (EventBridge, KMS, Secrets Manager) preferred.

• Experience implementing GenAI and ML for cybersecurity use cases on Databricks preferred.

• Familiarity with open security data models (e.g., OCSF) and MITRE ATT&CK-aligned analytics a plus.

• Ability to successfully elicit requirements from appropriate business partners and stakeholders (e.g., functional, performance, technical, compliance).

• Self-directed and comfortable working in a fast-paced, results-oriented, and often ambiguous environment.

• Experience managing, guiding, mentoring, and providing feedback to the team on day-to-day work.

• Experience working with global teams and stakeholders on projects and tasks.

• Takes pride in work, showing focus, high attention to detail, and build quality.

• Critical thinking and proactive problem solving.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills to effectively communicate with both business and technical teams.

• Desire to learn and continually improve self and others through knowledge sharing.

• Credible in handling sensitive data with appropriate confidentiality and access controls.

• Overall passion for technology, with a security-minded approach to problem solving.

• Databricks, AWS, CISSP, or GIAC certification a plus.

NIKE, Inc. is a growth company that looks for team members to grow with it. Nike offers a generous total rewards package, casual work environment, a diverse and inclusive culture, and an electric atmosphere for professional development. No matter the location, or the role, every Nike employee shares one galvanizing mission: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. NIKE, Inc. is committed to employing a diverse workforce. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or disability.