Akamai Engineer

Position Summary

The Senior Akamai Engineer Contractor will serve as a specialized technical resource for Akamai configuration, optimization, troubleshooting, and operational support across Universal Destinations & Experiences digital platforms.

This role will focus on CDN delivery, caching strategy, routing, redirects, edge security, traffic management, performance optimization, and production support for high-traffic consumer-facing web experiences. The ideal candidate has deep hands-on Akamai experience, strong web platform fundamentals, and the ability to partner across engineering, operations, product, release management, and vendor teams to deliver reliable and scalable digital experiences.

Property Configuration & Delivery

• Configure Akamai Property Manager for Ion, Dynamic Site Accelerator, and Dynamic Media delivery use cases.
• Design rule trees, match criteria, behavior chaining, and delivery logic to support scalable and maintainable edge configurations.
• Manage multi-environment property promotion across development, staging, and production.
• Configure origin servers, path routing, origin failover, and delivery behaviors to support reliable web traffic flow.
• Support TLS/SSL certificate management and secure HTTPS delivery across Akamai-enabled properties.

Caching & Performance Optimization

• Develop advanced caching strategies, including cache key design, tiered distribution, TTL tuning, and origin offload optimization.
• Define cache invalidation and Fast Purge strategies to support accurate, timely, and controlled content updates.
• Use Image & Video Manager to optimize media delivery, improve page performance, and reduce payload size.
• Leverage prefetching, SureRoute, and protocol optimization for HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 delivery improvements.
• Use mPulse and Real User Monitoring data to analyze performance, identify issues, and support troubleshooting.

Traffic Routing & Cloudlets

• Manage URL redirects using Edge Redirector and related Cloudlet policies.
• Support canary and percentage-based traffic rollouts using Phased Release Cloudlet capabilities.
• Support Visitor Prioritization and Queue-it integration for high-demand launches, ticketing events, promotions, and seasonal traffic surges.
• Use Audience Segmentation to support A/B testing, targeted delivery, and controlled guest experiences.
• Support Global Traffic Management for load balancing, geo-routing, failover, and resilient traffic distribution. Prepared for Recruiting Partner Use

Edge Compute

• Develop and maintain EdgeWorkers for custom logic at the edge.
• Use EdgeKV for edge-side key-value data storage and low-latency decisioning.
• Perform request and response manipulation, including header injection, cookie handling, rewrites, and edge-side logic execution.

Automation & Tooling

• Use Akamai CLI and Property Manager API for configuration management, automation, validation, and repeatable operational workflows.
• Leverage the Terraform Akamai provider to support Infrastructure as Code practices for property and platform configuration.
• Use DataStream and Log Delivery Service to support delivery analytics, troubleshooting, reporting, and observability.
• Integrate Akamai configuration changes with CI/CD pipelines for automated property deployments and environment promotion.
• Use Akamai Control Center reporting and traffic analysis to monitor delivery health, validate changes, and identify optimization opportunities.

Other Duties as Assigned

• Support Prerender configuration, troubleshooting, and operational coordination to help ensure search-engine-friendly rendering for supported web experiences.
• Support Queue-it integrations and operational readiness for high-demand events, including traffic waiting room configuration, validation, monitoring, and incident response coordination.
• Support Coveo-related delivery needs where web platform integration, Search configuration, troubleshooting, or operational coordination is required.
• Assist with related platform tools, documentation, release validation, vendor coordination, and production support activities as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of web platform, CDN, infrastructure, site reliability, or edge delivery engineering experience.
• Deep understanding of HTTP, DNS, TLS, caching, routing, redirects, headers, CDN behavior, origin architecture, and browser/network fundamentals.
• Hands-on senior-level experience with Akamai configuration, delivery optimization, troubleshooting, and production support.
• Experience with Akamai tools such as Property Manager, Edge Redirector, Edge DNS, certificates, cache purge, reporting, and diagnostic utilities.
• Working knowledge of web application architectures, APIs, JavaScript-based applications, and enterprise content or commerce platforms.
• Proven experience troubleshooting complex production issues across CDN, origin, application, DNS, certificate, and network layers.
• Understanding of web performance, security controls, bot mitigation, WAF concepts, SEO delivery considerations, and observability practices.
• Familiarity with CI/CD, release processes, and environment validation.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to work across technical and non-technical partners.

Preferred Qualifications

• Akamai certification or advanced hands-on experience with enterprise-scale Akamai implementations.
• Experience with EdgeWorkers, Cloudlets, Edge Redirector, Image & Video Manager, API Acceleration, or similar Akamai capabilities.
• Experience with Akamai security products such as WAF, Bot Manager, rate controls, adaptive security, or threat protection services.