Senior Director, Architecture (Customer Identity Cloud)

Get to know Okta

Okta is The World’s Identity Company. We free everyone to safely use any technology—anywhere, on any device or app. Our Workforce and Customer Identity Clouds enable secure yet flexible access, authentication, and automation that transforms how people move through the digital world, putting Identity at the heart of business security and growth. 

At Okta, we celebrate a variety of perspectives and experiences. We are not looking for someone who checks every single box - we’re looking for lifelong learners and people who can make us better with their unique experiences. 

Join our team! We’re building a world where Identity belongs to you.

The Okta Customer Identity Cloud (CIC) is a product unit of Okta focussed on the Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) space. We are looking for exceptional new team members to join our team and help drive our next level of success. One team, one score!

Our vision is to free everyone to safely use any technology.  We provide secure access for everyone, but not just anyone. We process billions of logins per month (and growing!). So, if you’re a big thinker who is nimble and adaptable, Okta CIC may be an ideal place for you to shine.

 The Team & Role:

Okta is looking for a Senior Director to lead the Architecture team within our Engineering organization.  This role will report to the Vice President, Architecture & Chief Architect.  The Architecture team is a small group of very senior engineers who work broadly across the organization with Engineering, Product, and Security.  We embed closely with other Engineering teams for large projects, and provide direction and architectural guidance for smaller initiatives.  We have a dual-pronged charter to “level up the tech stack and level up the people stack” via both technical contributions and partnerships/mentoring.  Successful candidates will have a passion for building reliable and scalable systems, a strong technical background, and excellent collaboration skills.

In this role, you will have the opportunity to significantly contribute to Okta’s future architecture by leading a team that works across our entire stack.  You will help align and magnify the impact of our senior technologists, lend voice to prioritization discussions, and develop Engineering culture.

What You Will Do

• As a Senior Director, you will lead and grow a cross-functional team of seasoned Architects and Senior Architects working on technologies including core product offerings, emerging products, infrastructure, platform, artificial intelligence, data, quality, and identity industry standards.
• You will be responsible for evolving our product architecture to optimize resilience, scale, cost efficiency, security, and flexibility.
• You will be responsible for hiring, retaining, and growing architects who thrive on autonomy, cross-functional collaboration, and measurable impact.
• You will join our Engineering Leadership Team and work closely with other leaders and executives from across Engineering to set priorities, foster organizational health, and deliver the most trusted identity platform in the industry.
• Participate in mentoring, “round table” discussions, and other programs designed to level up our people.
• Undergo training as an Incident Commander, join an on-call rotation for major incidents, and drive learnings from incidents back into our product architecture.

What You Bring

• Experience in a senior leadership/executive software engineering management role in a remote work environment.
• Experience leading and growing very senior engineers who work in cross-functional roles.
• Track record of fostering autonomy and building handholds and guardrails to help an Engineering organization move faster.
• Strong background in large-scale software architecture for SaaS, including cloud-native computing, distributed systems, and API-first implementations.  
• Strong self-motivation, tolerance for ambiguity, and aptitude for investigation and experimentation.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.  In particular, demonstrated ability to adapt communication style to audiences ranging from engineers to executives to external audiences.
• Passion for driving both technical and cultural excellence and a track record of communicating about both to the industry through conferences written communication, and industry collaboration.
• Demonstrated ability to provide and take feedback to foster growth and build trust throughout a diverse organization.
• Excellent collaboration skills and a track record of cross-functional collaboration.  One team, one score!

  Okta’s Top 5 Core Leadership Competencies are part of the deeply