Lead Applied AI Scientist, Identity & Security

Okta; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 260,000 - 380,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health benefits

401(k)

Job summary

Okta is seeking a Principal Applied AI Scientist to drive product ideas from 0 to 1 and define how to innovate in AI. You set the technical direction for AI, experiment quickly, and own the first AI/ML effort in the team with broad ownership and impact.

This hands-on role involves security, auth, and developer products, with opportunities to publish or open-source results as appropriate, while delivering strong practical systems.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in ML/applied research roles.
• Led multiple 0 to 1 AI or ML projects and shipped practical ML or AI systems.
• Strong Python, ML frameworks, and software engineering skills.
• You love to learn and are able to do so quickly.

Responsibilities

• Model and solve auth and security related problems using AI/ML, through deep understanding of the inner workings and customer challenges
• Lead end-to-end model development. Apply the right paradigm for the problem, e.g.: training traditional ML models from scratch, or fine‑tuning and aligning small/large language models
• Create and maintain evaluation and training datasets and workflows
• Take ideas from research through prototype and product recommendation
• Evaluate outcomes across quality, security, latency, and cost

Skills

Python

ML frameworks

Software engineering

Team collaboration

Fast learner

Understanding computers

Customer needs analysis

Communication skills

Security product experience

Job description

Okta is seeking a Principal Applied AI Scientist to drive product ideas from 0 to 1 and define how to innovate in AI. You set the technical direction for AI, experiment quickly, and own the first AI/ML effort in the team with broad ownership and impact.

This hands-on role involves security, auth, and developer products, with opportunities to publish or open-source results as appropriate, while delivering strong practical systems.