Job Specifications
In short
Everything we build in Technology at On fuels our mission to ignite the human spirit through movement. We craft technology that improves with every interaction. Delivering "Wow" through our platforms, apps, and services is a core value. As the Principal Engineer for Platform Foundations, you are the hands-on technical leader for our infrastructure. Acting as the Individual Contributor (IC) counterpart to the Director of Technology, you are the primary architect and hands-on lead for the systems that empower every engineer at On. You design the "Golden Path”, ensuring our bedrock is rapid, secure, and resilient.
Your mission
As the technical catalyst for On’s platform evolution, your mission is to transform our cloud landscape into a streamlined, high-performance engine. You will accelerate On's platform maturity by translating strategic blueprints into technical reality, spearheading a future anchored in Intelligent Operations and self-managing, Autonomous Scalability.
Architect the Foundation: Lead the design of a highly autonomous platform where operational friction is eliminated through declarative service contracts and IaC-first principles
GCP Transformation: Serve as the technical authority for our strategic shift to Google Cloud, architecting a scalable, multi-region foundation that ensures global resilience
DevEx as the Engine: Champion the "Golden Path" by building a world-class Internal Developer Portal (IDP) that makes the right way to build also the easiest way to build
Servant Leadership: Act as a mentor and guide across multiple teams, leading by example in the trenches while making the right architectural trade-offs
Your story
Engineering Excellence: You have 10+ years of experience evolving complex engineering cultures. You are a "builder" who believes in internal ownership and leading technical decision-making across multiple teams
Platform Product Mindset: You treat your platform as a product. You have a track record of creating intuitive developer portals (IDPs) and tools that reduce cognitive load for product teams
Cloud Authority: You possess deep expertise in cloud architecture (We use GCP). Specific experience leading cloud migrations and designing multi-region, resilient foundations is a critical differentiator
Edge Engineering: You have deep experience architecting for high-performance including Edge/CDNs, API Gateways, and Service Mesh. You view the edge not just as a delivery layer, but as a critical component for security, traffic shaping, and ensuring minimum latency
Standardised Service Scaffolding: You have experience architecting "Golden Path" templates that embed observability, security, and testing into the service lifecycle. While our core stack is Node.js, TypeScript, and React, you are comfortable across languages and eager to integrate agentic workflows and AI-driven code generation to scale productivity
Hands-on Mentor: You are a servant leader. You enjoy being in the code and on the command line, coaching teams to improve operational excellence and helping them identify complex architectural trade-offs
What We Offer
On is a place that is centered around growth and progress. We offer an environment designed to give people the tools to develop holistically – to stay active, to learn, explore and innovate. Our distinctive approach combines a supportive, team-oriented atmosphere, with access to personal self-care for both physical and mental well-being, so each person is led by purpose.
On is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating a work environment that is fair and inclusive, where all decisions related to recruitment, advancement, and retention are free of discrimination.
About the Company
Our mission is to ignite the human spirit through movement.
Founded in 2010, On set out to shake up the running industry with a single transformative product, a completely new cushioning technology for running shoes, CloudTec®. Today, On remains innovation and design-led, delivering industry-disrupting premium footwear, apparel, and accessories for high-performance running, outdoor, and all-day activities.
Existing at the intersection of performance, design and impact – inspired by athletes, we always look for ‘better’ ...
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