Staff Software Engineer - Backend

About the job

Secure Every Identity, from AI to Human

Identity is the key to unlocking the potential of AI. Okta secures AI by building the trusted, neutral infrastructure that enables organizations to safely embrace this new era. This work requires a relentless drive to solve complex challenges with real-world stakes. We are looking for builders and owners who operate with speed and urgency and execute with excellence.

This is an opportunity to do career-defining work. We're all in on this mission. If you are too, let's talk.

Staff Software Engineer - Backend

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 are looking for lifelong learners and people who can make us better with their unique experiences and backgrounds.

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

Identity Security Pillar

Okta's Identity Security Pillar is at the forefront of defending modern enterprise environments against sophisticated identity-centric attacks. As enterprise attack surfaces expand across clouds, SaaS ecosystems, and hybrid networks, our pillar delivers unified, next-generation security capabilities that protect organizations across the entire threat lifecycle.

Joining our pillar gives you the unique opportunity to build and impact diverse, cutting-edge products across the security domain, including:

- Identity Security Posture Management (ISPM): Delivering continuous, contextual visibility into complex identity infrastructure, surfacing misconfigurations, eliminating toxic combinations of permissions, and reducing overall attack surfaces.

- Identity Threat Protection (ITP): ITP delivers real-time, surgical defense against the most sophisticated and rapidly evolving threats. By deeply integrating with existing security infrastructure, ITP relentlessly analyzes user behavior and system data to proactively hunt down and neutralize risks before they impact our customers.

- Identity Threat Detection & Response (ITDR): Detecting sophisticated credential compromise, privilege escalation, and lateral movement with speed and automated response capabilities.

As we expand our engineering footprint in India, you will be a foundational member of a high-impact team driving architectural scale, technical innovation, and product synergy across this critical pillar.

What You’ll Be Doing

As a Staff Software Engineer within the team, you will play a pivotal architectural and hands-on role in scaling our foundational platforms and web applications, with a primary emphasis on backend architecture and distributed services. You will partner closely with distributed teams to deliver robust, high-performance security solutions.

Key Responsibilities:

- Lead, design, architect, and build high-quality, scalable software by enforcing best practices around software engineering, architecture, and processes

- Raise the bar on engineering excellence by improving standard methodologies, producing best-in-class code, documentation, testing, and monitoring

- Collaborate with product and R&D engineers to translate product requirements into technical solutions.

- Identifying and resolving technical issues and performance bottlenecks.

- Staying up to date with the latest industry trends and technologies to continuously improve our products.

- Be a mentor for colleagues and help promote knowledge-sharing

What You’ll Bring to the Role

- Experience: 8+ years of professional software engineering experience building and maintaining complex, enterprise-grade distributed systems in high-growth environments.

- Backend Expertise: 3+ years of hands-on experience designing and implementing backend services using Python .

- Architectural Mastery: Deep knowledge of backend architecture, pipeline design, and data persistence patterns.

- Database & Storage Systems: Practical experience working with relational databases as well as NoSQL/caching stores.

- System Principles: Strong foundation in computer science fundamentals, data structures, algorithms, and scalable software design patterns.

- Collaboration & Mindset: Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, paired with strong communication abilities to collaborate across distributed, global engineering teams.

- Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline (or equivalent practical experience).

Extra Credit If You Have Experience In

- Modern cloud platforms (particularly AWS ) and container orchestration.

- Identity and security domains (IAM, OAuth, OIDC, SAML, posture management, threat detection, or cloud security).

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The Okta Experience

- Supporting Your Well-Being

- Driving Social Impact

- Developing Talent and Fostering Connection + Community

We are intentional about connection. Our global community, spanning over 20 offices worldwide, is united by a drive to innovate. Your journey begins with an immersive, in-person onboarding experience designed to accelerate your impact and connect you to our mission and team from day one.

Okta is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, or status as a protected veteran. We also consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and convictions records, consistent with applicable laws.

If reasonable accommodation is needed to complete any part of the job application, interview process, or onboarding please use this Form to request an accommodation.

Notice for New York City Applicants & Employees: Okta may use Automated Employment Decision Tools (AEDT), as defined by New York City Local Law 144, that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, or other automated processes to assist in our recruitment and hiring process. In accordance with NYC Local Law 144, if you are an applicant or employee residing in New York City, please click here to view our full NYC AEDT Notice.