Senior Platform Engineer Open Digital Platform (ODP)

Adidas is an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from people of all ages, genders (incl. gender identity), ethnic and social backgrounds, nationalities, sexual orientations, religions and beliefs, and those with apparent or non-apparent disabilities*. We do not tolerate harassment or discrimination toward any of our applicants or employees.

*We actively encourage individuals with disabilities to apply and will provide reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process.

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

The role builds, operates and improves the Container Orchestration Platform (ODP - Open Digital Platform) as part of Cloud Native Engineering, providing Kubernetes-based container orchestration and automation capabilities.

Supports and consults adidas engineering teams on cloud-native application deployment, container orchestration strategies, and platform services to accelerate time-to-market and enhance developer productivity while ensuring operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities:

Platform Evolution

• Design, build, and evolve the Cloud Native Container Orchestration platform with AWS and Kubernetes at its core
• Lead technical evaluations and proof-of-concepts for emerging technologies
• Define the future platform architecture and tooling throughout the whole lifecycle

Service Management and Operations

• Monitor and manage platform availability, reliability, and scalability using a modern observability stack (Prometheus, Grafana, Instana, etc.)
• Implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines using GitHub, GitHub Actions and Jenkins.
• Run and operate a highly critical platform meeting defined SLAs and performance targets.
• Lead incident responses and participate 24/7 on-call rotation
• Contribute to capacity planning, day-2 operations, and lifecycle management
• Follow modern service management principles to continuously improve the platform offering at scale

Security by Design

• Integrate security and compliance mechanisms into platform design using tools like Kyverno (policy as code).
• Incorporate security design principles and best practices into new and existing solutions
• Ensure secure container orchestration and policy enforcement across environments.
• Implement automated validation and testing steps in CI/CD pipelines to ensure compliance and reliability.
• Design and document disaster recovery strategies for cloud-native services.

Stakeholder Management

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (e.g., Finance, HR, Brand Marketing, Retail) to align platform capabilities with business needs.
• Act as a trusted advisor to internal engineering teams on cloud-native deployment strategies and architectures.
• Collect and use feedback from stakeholders to improve platform services and developer experience.
• Communicate technical decisions and roadmaps effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Mentoring and Upskilling

• Provide expert-level guidance and mentorship to the adidas Tech Organization.
• Lead tailored training sessions and workshops on Kubernetes, cloud-native technologies, and DevOps practices.
• Promote a culture of continuous learning and technical excellence.
• Conduct code and design reviews to elevate engineering standards.

Must have Technical Skills

• Expert level in Kubernetes and Container Runtime
• Advanced level with public cloud providers (AWS preferred)
• Hands-on experience in operating large scale distributed systems
• Hands-on experience in Linux
• Hands-on experience in software development in at least one high level programming language (e.g. Python, GoLang)
• Solid understanding for network concepts and protocols

Soft-skills / Mindset:

• Growth mindset: Continuous learning culture and hands-on attitude toward new technologies and challenges
• Excellent problem-solving skills: Ability to troubleshoot complex distributed systems and resolve critical issues systematically
• Strong sense of accountability: Display ownership across the entire platform lifecycle from design and implementation to operations and maintenance
• Platform engineering mindset: Embrace cloud-native and DevOps principles with focus on automation, scalability, and end-to-end system reliability

Main Technologies in Use:

• Cloud Provider: AWS
• Core Platform: Kubernetes including various open-source controllers and operators
• Coding and Scripting: Go, Python, Bash, Groovy
• Infrastructure as Code: Helm, OpenTofu, Crossplane, Cloud Formation
• SDLC: GitHub, GitHub Actions, Harbor, Atlassian Tools (Bitbucket, Jira, Confluence), FluxCD, Jenkins, etc.
• Observability: Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Instana, etc.