Staff Security Engineer, Purple Team

Okta, Inc.; Canada; Remote; CAD 141,000 - 211,000; Full time

Job summary

Okta is seeking an experienced operator for its Adversarial Engineering and Operations team to contribute to Cyber Defense. The role involves planning and executing adversarial operations, enhancing security detection, and ensuring robust defenses against sophisticated threats in a dynamic work environment, collaborating across multiple teams.

Benefits

Health, dental, and vision insurance

RRSP with a match

Healthcare spending account

Telemedicine

Paid leave, including PTO and parental leave

Qualifications

• Experience developing and executing adversary simulations in SaaS applications.
• Understanding of attack techniques and threat actor methodologies.
• Background in red/purple team roles is valuable.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute adversary simulations against Okta’s infrastructure.
• Collaborate with internal teams to improve detection and response strategies.
• Document results and present insights to stakeholders.

Skills

Adversary simulations

Analytical mindset

Problem-solving

Good communication

Collaboration

Job description

Get to know Okta

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 Security team’s mission is to strengthen Okta’s position as the leading Identity-as-a-Service solution through identifying and resolving risks to our employees, products, and most importantly, our customers. With the ever-increasing pace of cloud application adoption, companies are struggling to find ways to accurately assess risk and act at the speed of their business.

In addition to driving security in our Corporate environment and the Okta service, the Security team is deeply entrenched in the Okta business. As such, we contribute to product roadmaps, branding, research and other strategic aspects of our operations. We work across multiple functions, business partners and the research community. We are an engineering-focused team that seeks to stay on the cutting edge of security technology and the threat landscape.

The Role

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 Security team’s mission is to strengthen Okta’s position as the leading Identity-as-a-Service solution through identifying and resolving risks to our employees, products, and most importantly, our customers. With the ever-increasing pace of cloud application adoption, companies are struggling to find ways to accurately assess risk and act at the speed of their business.

In addition to driving security in our Corporate environment and the Okta service, the Security team is deeply entrenched in the Okta business. As such, we contribute to product roadmaps, branding, research and other strategic aspects of our operations. We work across multiple functions, business partners and the research community. We are an engineering-focused team that seeks to stay on the cutting edge of security technology and the threat landscape.

The Role

The Adversarial Engineering and Operations team (Purple Team) is integral to Cyber Defense’s intelligence-led strategy to safeguard Okta’s infrastructure, products and customers. We specialize in planning and executing adversarial operations alongside Defensive Cyber Operations, simulating sophisticated threat actors and scenarios to provide critical insights into Cyber Defense’s ability to detect and respond to threats.

We’re seeking an experienced operator to join our global team. In this role, you’ll be responsible for planning, executing, and delivering adversarial operations. You’ll work directly with Defensive Cyber Operations to simulate realistic threat scenarios, analyze security gaps, and uncover areas where we can strengthen our detection and response capabilities.

This is not a penetration testing or traditional red team role. While you may identify vulnerabilities or weaknesses in our infrastructure, the primary purpose of this role is to provide actionable insights and enhance our overall ability to detect and respond to sophisticated threats.

Core Responsibilities:

• Design and execute Adversary Simulations against Okta’s Infrastructure.
• Translate adversarial simulations into actionable recommendations to improve detection and response strategies.
• Collaborate with Okta’s internal teams including Defensive Cyber Operations and Engineering to share results, highlight security gaps, and drive improvements.

Drive the continuous improvement of the program by developing internal tools, methodologies, and processes that enhance our approach and capabilities.

• Document adversarial simulations, results and present actionable insights to stakeholders at all levels.

What does it take?

You’re a team player with excellent communication skills and a deep curiosity for understanding complex systems. You know that to defend a system effectively, you must first understand how it works. You enjoy testing assumptions, uncovering hidden risks, and making your own life harder in the process.

You come from a strong offensive security background, with experience in red or purple team roles and are looking for an opportunity to work more closely with defensive teams, using your skills to help build stronger, proactive defenses. You’re well-versed in attacker techniques, and can articulate how they work and how they can be detected and investigated. You don’t just identify problems — you’re motivated to partner with others across teams to drive solutions.

You have experience working with remote teams and can remain self-motivated and focused, contributing effectively outside of a traditional office environment.

Skills and Experience

• Proven experience developing and executing adversary simulations in SaaS applications and cloud environments, including containerized infrastructure.
• Background in adversary simulation, red/purple teaming, objective based testing or security research.
• Strong understanding of attack techniques, and threat actor methodologies.
• Analytical mindset, with excellent problem-solving skills to uncover potential risks and improve detection and response.
• Outstanding communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across teams and geographies.
• Relevant certifications are a plus (OSEP, GXPN, GDAT, etc)

#LI-REMOTE
#LI-SH1

Below is the annual salary range for candidates located in Canada. Your actual salary will depend on factors such as your skills, qualifications, and experience. In addition, Okta offers equity (where applicable), bonus, and benefits, including health, dental, and vision insurance, RRSP with a match, healthcare spending, telemedicine, and paid leave (including PTO and parental leave) in accordance with our applicable plans and policies. To learn more about our Total Rewards program, please visit:https://rewards.okta.com/can .

The annual base salary range for this position for candidates located in Canada is between: $141,000 — $211,000 CAD

What you can look forward to as a Full-Time Okta employee!

• Amazing Benefits
• Making Social Impact
• Developing Talent and Fostering Connection + Community at Okta

Okta cultivates a dynamic work environment, providing the best tools, technology and benefits to empower our employees to work productively in a setting that best and uniquely suits their needs. Each organization is unique in the degree of flexibility and mobility in which they work so that all employees are enabled to be their most creative and successful versions of themselves, regardless of where they live. Find your place at Okta today! https://www.okta.com/company/careers/ .

Some roles may require travel to one of our office locations for in-person onboarding.

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.

Okta is committed to complying with applicable data privacy and security laws and regulations. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy at https://www.okta.com/privacy-policy/ .

U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Information
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The foundation for secure connections between people and technology

Okta is the leading independent provider of identity for the enterprise. The Okta Identity Cloud enables organizations to securely connect the right people to the right technologies at the right time. With over 7,000 pre-built integrations to applications and infrastructure providers, Okta customers can easily and securely use the best technologies for their business. More than 19,300 organizations, including JetBlue, Nordstrom, Slack, T-Mobile, Takeda, Teach for America, and Twilio, trust Okta to help protect the identities of their workforces and customers.

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