Staff Software Engineer, Security

Oktas Workforce Identity Cloud Security Engineering group is looking for an experienced and passionate software security engineer to join a team focused on designing and developing Security solutions to harden our frameworks & infrastructure. We embrace innovation and pave the way to transform bright ideas into excellent security software solutions that help run large-scale mission-critical software. We encourage you to prescribe defense-in-depth measures industry security standards enforce the principle of least privilege to help take our Security posture to the next level. Our Security engineering team has a niche skill-set that combines Security domain expertise with the ability to design implement and rollout security features and functionalities without adding friction to product functionality or performance. We are responsible for the ever-growing need to improve our customer safety and privacy by providing security services that are coupled with the core Okta product.

This is a high-impact role in a security-centric fast-paced organization that is poised for massive growth and success. You will act as a liaison between the Security org and the engineering org to build technical leverage and influence the security roadmap and direction. You will focus on engineering security and privacy aspects of the systems used across our services while working on a weekly release cadence. You will be empowered to propose stimulating new projects for our roadmap and rewarded with projects using emerging technologies.

Bring all the passion and dedication along and theres no telling what you could accomplish!

Preferred qualification and abilities:

• 8 years of development experience in designing and implementing software systems in Java building highly reliable and mission-critical software.
• 4 years of work experience in designing and implementing security solutions for applications and distributed systems.
• Work experience and excellent understanding in Application Security Cryptography Authentication Authorization Certificates and Secrets Management.
• Work experience in using Cloud Service Providers such as AWS and GCP.
• Work experience in using RDBMS like MySQL good grasp of concepts such as replication and clustering along with familiarity in data stores such as Redis and Elasticsearch.
• Developing and maintaining technical documentation such as cookbooks design and architecture docs.
• Good understanding in Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) solutions including quantum-resistant algorithms cryptographic migration strategies and secure integration into enterprise systems.
• Good understanding in designing developing and securing production-grade agentic AI systems including autonomous and multi-agent architectures.
• Troubleshooting and fixing production issues to ensure reliability security and performance.
• Demonstrate strong leadership skills in security and engineering by leading from the front and excellent grasp of software engineering principles coupled with strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strategic problem solving abilities to assist in planning scoping and refining requirements of large and complex initiatives that are ambiguous.
• B.S or M.S in Computer Science or related fields.

Responsibilities :

• Act as a liaison between the engineering security and product orgs to develop innovative requirements for the security roadmap.
• Evangelize security best practices across the engineering org.
• Research design implement and own security oriented frameworks and features with the common goal of protecting Oktas customers.
• Routinely participate in cross-vertical code reviews with emphasis on Security.
• Break down complex problems into sub-tasks while prototyping rapidly and iteratively contributing to security initiatives using agile practices.
• Coach and mentor junior engineers in the team.

Additional requirements:

• U.S. soil status - the employee must be on U.S. soil which means the 50 states the District of Columbia or outlying areas of the United States as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 2.101 and be a U.S. person.
• U.S. person status - the employee must be either a U.S. citizen as defined in 42 U.S. Code 9102; a natural person who is a lawful permanent resident as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(20) or who is a protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3); or a U.S. national (i.e. includes citizens and non-citizens born in outlying possessions such as American Samoa and Swains Island) green card holders refugees and asylees. Working on a U.S. visa does NOT qualify as a U.S. person.

#P

The annual base salary range for this position for candidates located in the San Francisco Bay area is between:

$194000 - $267000 USD