Director, AI Takeoff Engineering — Identity & Security, Equity

Okta; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 246,000 - 337,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Bonus

Health/dental/vision insurance

401(k)

Paid leave

Job summary

Okta is seeking a driven engineering leader for the AI Takeoff team to accelerate roadmap delivery and translate customer needs into differentiated AI capabilities. You will mentor a small, autonomous team, partner with engineering, product and design to ensure security, reliability and scalability, and own the technical strategy for scalable identity and AI solutions.

The role emphasizes leadership in high-growth environments, direct enterprise engagement, and a strong product/customer

Qualifications

• 8+ years building and shipping identity, security, infrastructure or developer-focused products in a high-growth organization.
• Proven engineering leadership and team management experience, including hiring, developing and motivating high-performing teams.
• Strong executive communication and influencing skills, with a track record of driving outcomes across organizational boundaries.
• Proven experience working directly with enterprise customers and translating customer problems into technical solutions.
• Deep identity domain expertise - knowledge of identity protocols, standards, architectures and patterns.
• Experience operating in high-ambiguity, high-velocity environments where priorities evolve quickly and execution matters.
• Strong product and customer orientation, balancing customer urgency, technical quality and long-term scalability.
• Experience with AI/agentic systems, AI security or emerging identity patterns is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with our top customers and AI Forward Deployed Engineering to rapidly translate customer needs into differentiated AI capabilities and deliver them to production.
• Partner closely with broader Okta Engineering, Product and Design to ensure capabilities are production-ready and meet Okta standards for security, reliability, scalability and quality.
• Build, grow and mentor a small, highly focused team of AI Takeoff engineers operating with high autonomy and urgency.
• Serve as a senior technical SME in customer engagements, technical evaluations and complex sales processes.
• Lead complex customer escalations with a bias toward rapidly identifying root causes and delivering durable solutions.
• Own the technical strategy, architecture, and execution for the AI Takeoff engineering roadmap, balancing customer urgency with long-term scalability and production quality.

Skills

Identity security

Engineering leadership

Executive communication

Enterprise customer experience

AI security awareness

Job description

Okta is seeking a driven engineering leader for the AI Takeoff team to accelerate roadmap delivery and translate customer needs into differentiated AI capabilities. You will mentor a small, autonomous team, partner with engineering, product and design to ensure security, reliability and scalability, and own the technical strategy for scalable identity and AI solutions.

The role emphasizes leadership in high-growth environments, direct enterprise engagement, and a strong product/customer