Senior Director, R&D Planning & Operations

Okta; Bellevue, Chicago (WA, IL); Sur place; USD 258 000 - 355 000; Plein temps

Avantages offerts par ce poste

Equity

Bonus

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k)

Flexible spending account

Paid leave

Résumé du poste

Okta seeks a seasoned operations leader to run the financial and workforce engine for its Product & Technology organization (ORD). The role drives budgeting, headcount governance, vendor operations, and AI-enabled finance, reporting to senior leadership in a hub-based setup across major U.S. offices.

This is a hands-on, strategic leadership position with five direct reports. The role requires deep FP&A, engineering operations, and capitalized software experience, with a track record of scaling

Qualifications

• 12+ years of work experience in tech ops, FP&A, or engineering operations.
• Proven ownership of engineering/R&D budgets at scale.
• Experience with workforce planning and headcount governance.
• Experience managing a vendor portfolio and contract renewals.
• Hands-on Capitalized Software accounting and R&D tax credits knowledge.
• Understanding of B2B SaaS cost structures.
• Track record of building high-performing ops teams.
• Ability to navigate complex data with ambiguity.
• Experience applying AI to finance and operations workflows.

Responsabilités

• Own ORD and Auth0 budget and workforce strategy in ORD.
• Oversee R&D budget governance, program spend, and reviews with executives.
• Develop and manage P&L framework for R&D lines of business.
• Model and optimize AI token spend and ROI with engineering leaders.
• Lead engineering cost modelling with FP&A and Deal Desk.
• Ensure compliance for Capitalized Software and R&D tax credits.
• Build P&T cost data platform on Snowflake for cost visibility.
• Lead workforce strategy, headcount governance, and location strategy.
• Manage contingent workforce and vendor operations end-to-end.
• Mentor and develop Directors and the broader operations team.
• Set AI-first operational standards and drive automation.

Connaissances

Engineering finance

Budget governance

Workforce planning

Vendor management

Capitalized Software

R&D tax credits

Data-driven decisions

AI in finance

Leadership

Formation

MBA or Finance/Engineering degree

Outils

Snowflake

Self-service reporting

Description du poste

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. If you are too, let's talk.

We are looking for a seasoned operations leader to run the financial and workforce operating engine for Okta's Product & Technology organization — a 2,000+ person R&D function spanning the Okta Platform (ORD) and Auth0. The team is accountable for the budget and workforce strategy components of the R&D Operating Plan, program spend and budget governance, financial compliance including Capitalized Software and R&D tax credit capture, vendor operations, and headcount governance in partnership with Recruiting. The team also runs the annual goal-setting process and the operating cadence that tracks R&D performance against those goals. This is a role that demands real depth in engineering finance operations alongside the organizational judgment to translate executive strategy into a defensible budget and a credible hiring plan.

This role sits within Okta's R&D (\"ORD\") organization, reporting to the Head of Strategy & Operations and Chief of Staff to the President of Okta R&D. This role is hub-based: it sits in San Francisco, Seattle or Chicago, and candidates must live within commutable distance of one of those offices. We expect this leader to work from the office multiple days each week.

Job Duties / What This Role Entails

• Own the budget and workforce strategy components of the R&D Operating Plan, translating corporate strategy and the long-range plan into a fully resourced annual plan across ORD and Auth0.
• Direct R&D budget governance for a 2,000+ person organization — program spend oversight, variance reporting, fiscal discipline, and executive-level budget reviews with the President of Okta R&D and Finance leadership.
• Own and evolve the P&L framework for R&D lines of business, arming executive leadership with the cost and investment data behind portfolio decisions.
• Model, govern and optimize AI token spend across the P&T organization — establish the cost baseline and forecasting model, build the framework for measuring return on that spend, and partner with engineering leaders to drive efficiency as consumption scales.
• Lead engineering cost modeling, and partner with FP&A and Deal Desk on account-specific margin analysis to support pricing, packaging and large-deal decisions.
• Own financial compliance for R&D, including Capitalized Software entries and maximizing US/Canada R&D tax credit capture.
• Build and own the P&T expense data platform on Snowflake to enable clean line-of-business cost distribution and self-service cost visibility for engineering leaders.
• Set the fiscal year workforce strategy in partnership with Recruiting leadership — headcount governance, real-time allocation tracking, backfills, organizational growth mapping, and location strategy.
• Own the contingent workforce program end to end, including contractor and agency lifecycle, capacity and spend.
• Own vendor operations for R&D — third-party relationships, capacity management, contract renewals, and performance SLAs.
• Continuously refine the financial and workforce operating processes to eliminate friction and ensure the organization scales efficiently as it grows.
• Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to develop the fiscal year goals and OKRs for the R&D organization, and run the program cadence — monthly and quarterly reviews — that gauges performance against them.
• Set the standard for AI-first operations — apply AI to financial analysis, dashboard generation and workflow automation, and build a team for which AI fluency is core to how the work gets done rather than an experiment on the side.
• Build, mentor and develop the operations team as a source of durable advantage for Okta R&D, including hiring and developing Director-level leaders.

This is a team leadership role with five direct reports.

Qualifications / Who You Are (Must Have)

• 12+ years of work experience, including 6+ years leading business operations, R&D / engineering operations, or FP&A functions within a technology company.
• Demonstrated ownership of an engineering or R&D budget at scale — annual planning, in-year governance, variance management, and executive budget review.
• Proven ownership of workforce planning and headcount governance in close partnership with Recruiting and Finance.
• Experience managing a vendor portfolio, including contract negotiation and renewal, SLA management, and capacity planning.
• Hands-on experience with Capitalized Software accounting and R&D tax credit programs in the US and/or Canada.
• Strong understanding of B2B SaaS business models and engineering cost structures.
• Track record of building and developing high-performing operations teams, including hiring and developing Director-level leaders.
• Extensive experience navigating complex data sets and operating with ambiguity, where clean data is not available.
• Demonstrated use of AI to do the substance of finance and operations work — analysis, reporting, dashboard generation and workflow automation — with a clear point of view on where to apply it next.

Qualifications / Who You Are (Good to Have)

• Experience operating across multiple product units or post-acquisition entities with distinct financial and operational systems.
• Familiarity with Snowflake, or comparable experience building financial data platforms and self-service reporting.
• Experience modeling or governing consumption-based spend, such as cloud infrastructure or AI / LLM token usage.
• Experience with global workforce and location strategy, including India-based engineering centers.
• Understanding of the B2B enterprise technology space, specifically Enterprise Security.
• Experience running an annual goal-setting or OKR process for a technology organization, including the review cadence that tracks progress against it.
• Prior experience in FP&A, management consulting, or a central strategy and operations function.
• MBA, or an undergraduate degree with a concentration in Finance, Economics, Statistics or Engineering.

Why this role?

• Own the full financial and workforce operating infrastructure for a 2,000+ person R&D organization at a category-defining security company.
• Rare breadth of charter: FinOps, workforce operations and vendor operations, across an at scale SaaS R&D organization.
• A genuinely new problem to own: defining how a 2,000+ person R&D organization budgets for, measures the return on, and optimizes its AI spend.
• Direct line of sight into executive decision making — your models and plans are the basis on which R&D investment is allocated.
• High degree of autonomy to shape the R&D operating model rather than inherit it.
• Strong executive sponsorship from Okta's product and engineering leadership team.

Additional requirements:

• There is no citizenship requirement. The Okta employee must be on US Soil, which means the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or outlying areas of the United States, as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 2.101

P7363

Below is the annual base salary range for candidates located in California (excluding San Francisco Bay Area), Colorado, Illinois, New York and Washington. Your actual base salary will depend on factors such as your skills, qualifications, experience, and work location. In addition, Okta offers equity (where applicable), bonus, and benefits, including health, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), flexible spending account, 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/us.

The annual base salary range for this position for candidates located in California (excluding San Francisco Bay Area), Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Washington is between: $258,000 — $355,000 USD

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