You tie your Nike sneakers, zip up your track jacket and turn on your Nike Training Club App. But what goes on behind-the-scenes to bring us our favorite athletic products?
On March 16th, 2021, we got an inside look at the work of Nike's Global Technology teams during a virtual networking event for Software, Principle, and Mobile Engineers, as well as Engineering Managers.
The event kicked off with a welcome address from Candice Tang, Nike's Senior Director of Reliability Engineering. Candice shared her journey from growing up in Queens, New York—the daughter of two immigrant parents—to finding an inclusive environment within Nike's Site Reliability Engineering team.
She shared that, "Nike is at its best when every member of our team feels respected, included, and heard—when everyone can show up as themselves and do their best work every day."
Candice also touched on how Nike has supported its team members throughout the pandemic, including Zoom free Fridays, online fitness training and yoga.
Next, we moved into a Tech Talk with Sonam Dhingra, Nike's iOS Engineering Manager. She explained step-by-step how Nike builds and tests complex animations.
We learned that Sonam comes from a non-traditional tech background, having attended a boot camp 10 years ago.
"I love that we have so many folks in nontraditional backgrounds. We all inspire each other to grow," Sonam shared.
Moving into our panel discussion, we heard from Jennifer Wicker, Nike's Senior Director of B2B eCommerce Engineering, alongside Sonam and Candice. The women offered a behind-the-scenes look into why they love their roles, working in a male-dominated industry, career advice for their younger selves, and how they maintain a healthy work/life integration.
When asked how Nike has supported her career growth, Jennifer shared, "I actually came from a career in consulting that was full of change...So during my interview process, I asked about opportunities for movement...And every single person throughout that process reflected on their career journey and shared how they'd experienced growth. I was so inspired."
After a live audience Q&A, we broke into small breakout sessions with additional technologists and Talent Acquisition team members to learn about Nike's hiring process and answer more audience questions.
Interested in joining the team? Nike is hiring! You can learn more about Nike and view all of their open roles here.
