The Role 

Within the Okta Customer Identity Business, our Security Engineering team delivers robust resilience with a hardened multi-cloud platform and  infrastructure services for Okta's products.  We are an engineering-focused team that seeks to stay on the cutting edge of security technology to combat the evolving threat landscape. We are looking for an experienced security leader to lead our globally distributed team of talented engineers who share a passion for security and enjoy solving complex problems at scale. This role partners with key security, engineering and business leaders to secure our cloud and platform infrastructure through strategic security engagement and proactive risk reduction measures.  This position will be reporting to the Vice President of Security & Privacy Engineering and works closely with and alongside the members of the broader Okta Security team in support of Okta’s company-wide security strategy and Okta’s Secure Identity Commitment.

Responsibilities:

• Strategic leadership to steer security initiatives across globally distributed remote team of security engineers, who designs, builds and operates scalable and reliable infrastructure services as well as security solutions for customer identity products
• Foster a team culture of growth, openness, trust, rigor, humility and mutual support. 
• Lead, recruit, and mentor engineers and engineering managers
• Establish a deep understanding of Okta Customer Identity products and infrastructure
• Uplevel the maturity of the platform cybersecurity posture roadmap and partner with the Okta Security teams on cross-business security operations
• Champion security engineering and operational excellence, establishing metrics and process for regular assessment and improvement
• Continuous knowledge enrichment to understand current and emerging threat landscape and associated countermeasures to proactively mitigate risk
• Deliver secure cloud-native platforms, core services and security controls across multiple cloud environments including Azure, AWS and also lead security initiatives for Federal customers in Gov Cloud infrastructure 

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, or a related field; relevant certifications (e.g., Okta Certified Administrator, Okta Developer - Customer Identity Cloud certification) is a plus.
• Extensive professional background in Platform / Cloud Infrastructure security leadership roles and a commitment to cultivating high-performing, inclusive, and collaborative teams
• Proven track record in managing geographically distributed remote security teams
• Advanced expertise in AWS, Azure cloud infrastructure, security architecture, and Secure By Design principles
• Excellent project management skills with the ability to lead cross-functional teams, prioritize tasks, manage timelines, and deliver results within scope, budget, and quality standards.
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to articulate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, facilitate meetings, and build consensus.
• Analytical mindset with a focus on data-driven decision-making, problem-solving, and continuous improvement.
• Strong commitment to customer satisfaction, innovation, and collaboration in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

Bonus points if:

• You have working knowledge and experience with one or more of the following:
• Full-stack engineering
• Site reliability engineering
• Identity and access management
• Microservices in Kubernetes
• Vulnerability and threat management
• Security detection and response
• Governance, risk and compliance

 

 

Okta’s Top 5 Core Leadership Competencies are part of the deeply ingrained principles that guide all of our company’s actions. They also align strongly to our cultural cornerstones, our Okta values: love our customers, empower our people, never stop innovating, act with integrity, and maintain transparency. It’s our expectation that our managers and leaders embody these core competencies: