R&D Finance & Workforce Ops Leader

Find Operators; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Okta is seeking a Senior Director of R&D Planning & Operations to run the financial and workforce engine for ORD and Auth0, a 2,000+ person R&D function. You will own budgeting, workforce governance, capitalized software, and AI-driven financial analytics to enable strategic decisions and scale across multiple product lines.

You will partner with Product and Engineering to set goals, OKRs, and operating cadence, while building a resilient, data‑driven cost model and a scalable cost platform.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of work experience in technology, with 6+ years leading operations, R&D, or FP&A.
• Ownership of an engineering or R&D budget at scale with annual planning and governance.
• Experience in workforce planning in partnership with Recruiting and Finance.
• Vendor portfolio management including negotiations and renewals.
• Hands-on Capitalized Software accounting and R&D tax credit programs in US/Canada.
• Strong understanding of B2B SaaS cost structures and models.
• Proven track record building high-performing operations teams.
• Experience navigating complex data sets and operating under ambiguity, with AI-driven finance work.

Responsibilities

• Own budget and workforce strategy for the ORD and Auth0 R&D organizations.
• Lead R&D budget governance, program spend oversight, and executive reviews.
• Develop and evolve the P&L framework for R&D lines of business.
• Model and govern AI token spend and build ROI frameworks.
• Lead engineering cost modeling and collaborate on pricing and deals.
• Ensure financial compliance including Capitalized Software and tax credits.
• Build data platform for cost distribution and self-service visibility.
• Set annual workforce strategy with Recruiting and manage headcount governance.

Skills

Budget governance

R&D finance

Workforce planning

Vendor management

Capitalized Software

AI in finance

Data analysis

Leadership

FP&A

Education

MBA

Tools

Snowflake

Job description

Okta is seeking a Senior Director of R&D Planning & Operations to run the financial and workforce engine for ORD and Auth0, a 2,000+ person R&D function. You will own budgeting, workforce governance, capitalized software, and AI-driven financial analytics to enable strategic decisions and scale across multiple product lines.

You will partner with Product and Engineering to set goals, OKRs, and operating cadence, while building a resilient, data‑driven cost model and a scalable cost platform.