Staff Security Engineer: Cloud Security Automation

Okta; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 161,000 - 221,000; Full time

Job summary

Okta seeks a Staff Software Engineer to build and secure data and infrastructure platforms, leveraging automation and cloud-native tech to deliver scalable, resilient solutions for enterprise security. You will collaborate with Security, Business Technology Engineering, and Product teams to implement and manage security solutions across workforce, endpoints, and data.

You will develop ETL pipelines, automate security controls, and contribute to cloud infrastructure using Terraform, while

Qualifications

• 8+ years of strong coding and scripting experience, with a focus on building automation and custom tooling for security engineering teams.
• Experience with Python is required; proficiency in other languages (e.g., Bash, PowerShell, Go) is a plus.
• Experience developing and maintaining ETL/ELT pipelines for onboarding security data into Okta’s security data lake.
• Experience working with security teams to integrate log sources and ensure seamless data ingestion.
• Ability to build and maintain scalable, fault‑tolerant data pipelines to process security event data.
• Proven track record of automating security controls and workflows using a cloud‑first approach.
• Experience with Terraform and other infrastructure‑as‑code tools to orchestrate security infrastructure.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines for security automation and drift management.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to collaborate with technical staff, support teams, executive leadership, and external vendors.
• 2+ years of experience building engineering solutions within highly regulated environments such as FedRAMP High, IL4, IL5, and/or IL6 is a plus.
• Current or previous Secret, Top Secret (TS), or Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearance.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a security subject matter expert (SME) for solution engineering and architecture reviews, preferably in the Detection and Response and/or enterprise security tooling space.
• Lead technical efforts to evaluate, design, and implement new enterprise security systems and feature enhancements.
• Build, maintain, and enhance custom automation and cloud infrastructure using Terraform or similar tools to support team workflows and enforce security controls.
• Develop integrations with APIs, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), and security infrastructure to improve detection, response, and remediation.
• Write and maintain scripts and automations, with an emphasis on Python‑based solutions, to streamline security operations.
• Establish monitoring and alerting for security posture, misconfigurations, and threats across endpoints, SaaS, and cloud workloads.
• Proactively identify and remediate security gaps; stay updated on emerging threats, solutions, and tooling across the industry.

Skills

Python

Automation tooling

ETL/ELT pipelines

Security data lake

Terraform

CI/CD

Log integration

Security automation

Cloud platforms

Security clearance TS/SCI

Tools

Terraform

Job description

Okta seeks a Staff Software Engineer to build and secure data and infrastructure platforms, leveraging automation and cloud-native tech to deliver scalable, resilient solutions for enterprise security. You will collaborate with Security, Business Technology Engineering, and Product teams to implement and manage security solutions across workforce, endpoints, and data.

You will develop ETL pipelines, automate security controls, and contribute to cloud infrastructure using Terraform, while