Senior Kubernetes Engineer (REMOTE)

At DICK’S Sporting Goods, we believe in how positively sports can change lives. On our team, everyone plays a critical role in creating confidence and excitement by personally equipping all athletes to achieve their dreams.  We are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workforce, reflecting the communities we serve.

If you are ready to make a difference as part of the world’s greatest sports team, apply to join our team today!

OVERVIEW:

As a technical leader within the Foundations Technology organization, you will play a critical role in architecting and building the future DSG Cloud Platform on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Leveraging your expertise in Kubernetes and cloud-native architectures, you will be creating, contributing to, and driving the adoption of CNCF projects to enhance the Kubernetes experience and deliver a best-in-class Kubernetes-based Platform to our Teammates.

As an organization problem solver and domain SME, your expertise will play a crucial role in the designing, testing, and delivery of applications and services on Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS). This is not a Day 2 operations role. You will be expected to work closely with your customers to understand their needs and to deliver a Kubernetes strategy that will support current and future growth of platform capabilities.

Software Maintenance

• Monitor, identify, and correct more complex software defects to maintain fully functioning software, leveraging the support and skill of more junior teammates.

• Partner with Product Teams to provide guidance to resolve application related defects within Kubernetes.

Design and Conceptualization

• Partner with cross-functional teams to contribute to the development of multiple concepts and prototypes to design digital products/services.

• Contribute to and integrate CNCF projects, driving best practices and adoption across the organization.

Technical Developments Recommendation

• Research and suggest ways to optimize solutions to better meet user and/or business, performance, quality needs.

Software Roadmap

• Drive maintenance road map to facilitate software development and ensure the development work is prioritized in line with business requirements.

Faults Diagnosis and Correction

• Find root cause and resolution to mitigate issues promptly.

Work Scheduling and Allocation

• Assign short-term work schedules to a team based on storyboarding/backlog in order to achieve expectations while following established timelines.

Ongoing Learning and Development

• Develop personal and more junior team members’ capabilities by participating in assessment and development planning activities as well as formal and informal training and coaching; gain or maintain external professional accreditation where relevant to improve performance and fulfill personal potential.

• Maintain an understanding of relevant technology, external regulation, and industry best practices through ongoing education, attending conferences, and reading specialist media.

Program/Portfolio Management Support

• Contribute to work within an established program management plan to achieve specific goals.

• Support the collection of functional requirements using document analysis and workflow analysis to express the requirements in terms of target user roles and goals.

To be successful in this role, experience and soft skills in several areas are desired:

• Deep understanding of Kubernetes architecture and APIs, with experience building and deploying cloud-native applications on Kubernetes. Certifications such as CKAD or CKA are highly valued and encouraged upon hire.

• Experience developing platform automation tools and Kubernetes controllers/operators, with proficiency in languages such as Go, Python, or Bash, and infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform.

• Customer-focused mindset with experience gathering requirements, translating them into platform features, and iterating based on feedback. Familiarity with internal developer platforms (IDPs) like Backstage.io is beneficial.

• Ability to design and implement highly scalable capabilities for Kubernetes, enabling internal development teams through reusable patterns, templates, and tooling. Experience guiding architectural decisions that improve developer productivity and platform resilience is desired.

• Proficiency with cloud-native services and cloud platforms (Azure experience is a plus), with an emphasis on using platform services as composable building blocks in software architecture.

• Strong experience designing and maintaining modern CI/CD pipelines using tools like GitHub Actions, with a focus on accelerating application delivery and a good customer experience.

• Familiarity with modern software engineering practices and principles, including test-driven development, version control, software architecture patterns, code reviews, and continuous delivery.

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to collaborate cross-functionally with engineering, product, and leadership teams to drive platform strategy and technical direction.

• Strong mentoring capabilities, helping other engineers grow through guidance in areas such as code quality, design patterns, and platform best practices.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent level preferred

• General Experience: Experience enables job holder to deal with the majority of situations and to advise others (Over 3 years to 6 years)

• Managerial Experience: Basic experience of coordinating the work of others (4 to 6 months)

#LI-CB1