Senior Software engineer - Advanced Threat Protection

Okta; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,800,000 - 3,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Okta is seeking a Security Engineer to join the Advanced Threat Protection team within Auth0 Customer Identity. You will research how attackers exploit AI against identity systems and build AI-based defenses to protect customers and tenants.

The role sits within a globally distributed security team, working across functions to stay ahead of AI threats and deliver scalable protections for our Customer Identity Cloud offerings.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with AI/ML security (attacking, defending, or both).
• 4+ years of experience in security engineering with cloud infrastructure focus.

Responsibilities

• Research how to use AI to protect customer tenants and harden posture.
• Develop protections against AI-based attacks on identity systems.
• Collaborate with identity security teams to strengthen tenant security posture.
• Translate threat landscape into a 12–24 month protection plan and build tooling.
• Harden Okta's AI security offering and address gaps with mitigations.
• Partner with a distributed security team to ship protections for tenants.
• Understand Okta Customer Identity products and infrastructure.
• Build, deploy and maintain scalable security automation for AI threat defenses.
• Support security operations and incident investigations when needed.

Skills

AI/ML security

Security engineering

Cloud fundamentals

Job description

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.

Security Engineer, Customer Identity, Advanced Threat Protection

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 Role

We seek a knowledgeable and research-focused Security Engineer to join a new Advanced Threat Protection team within Auth0 Customer Identity. This role does two things at once: it researches how attackers will use AI against identity systems, and it researches and builds how we use AI to defend our products, our infrastructure, and - most importantly - our customers' tenants.

This role is a key member of the Security team embedded within the Customer Identity product unit and works across multiple functions to get ahead of emerging AI threats, supporting the growth of our global Customer Identity business.

We are an engineering-focused team that seeks to stay on the cutting edge of security technology and the threat landscape. In this role you won't just assess our current AI security offering - you'll research what we should be protecting customers from one to two years ahead, turn that research into concrete protections, and help put AI-assisted defenses into the hands of the teams and customers who protect their tenants.

In this role you will work as part of a globally distributed team of talented engineers who share a passion for security and enjoy solving complex problems at scale. This role 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.

This is a level-agnostic description; scope, autonomy, and leadership expectations scale with level (Senior through Staff).

Responsibilities

• Research and lead how we can use AI to protect customer tenants - both proactively (hardening posture before an attack) and during active incidents (accelerating detection, triage, and response)
• Research and build protections against novel AI attacks that Auth0 and Auth0's customers can be subjected to - adversarial ML, prompt injection, abuse of agentic protocols (MCP, A2A, UCP, and emerging equivalents), model and data poisoning - as they apply to identity systems and customer tenants
• Partner with the identity security teams to help customers strengthen their own tenant security posture through AI-assisted defenses
• Research the emerging AI threat landscape and translate it into a forward-looking (12-24 month) view of what we need to protect ourselves and our customers from - then architect, recommend, and build the tooling to get there
• Review and harden Auth0's AI security offering, identifying gaps and recommending mitigations before they're exploited
• Partner across a globally distributed product-aligned team of security engineers to turn research into shipped protections for customer tenants
• Establish a deep understanding of Okta Customer Identity products and infrastructure
• Build, deploy & maintain scalable security solutions and automation that operationalize AI threat defenses at scale
• Help meet our operational security commitments by thinking like an attacker, assessing the risk, and advising on mitigation strategies
• Collaborate with the Okta Security team on security operations and, where relevant, support investigations and root cause analysis

What this position is not:

• Dedicated application security, code review, or compliance-focused work
• Reactive patch and vulnerability management as a primary function - this role is about getting ahead of threats, not chasing them

Requirements:

• You have hands-on experience with AI/ML security - attacking, defending, or both (e.g., adversarial ML, LLM/prompt‑injection attacks, agentic‑system or model abuse), and an interest in using AI to build defenses, not just to study attacks
• You have 4+ years of experience in security engineering, with a strong foundation in cloud infrastructure and/or product securi