Staff Software Engineer, AI-Core (Federal)

Okta; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 194,000 - 267,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Bonus

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

401(k)

FSA

Job summary

Okta is building a scalable Agentic AI platform within the AI-Core Team in the San Francisco Bay Area. You will own backend services, agent identity, and the knowledge/memory layers for autonomous agents that perform real engineering tasks, code writing, incident triage, and more.

This role emphasizes security, reliability, and ownership in a rapidly evolving environment. The team focuses on design and implementation of the backend that powers agent workflows, with opportunities to shape

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend software engineering experience.
• ≥1 year in AI/ML or agentic applications.
• Proficient in Python, TypeScript/Node.js, or Go.
• Experience designing distributed systems: APIs, microservices, containers, serverless.
• Security-focused with OAuth/OIDC familiarity.
• Comfort with ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
• Bonus: LangChain/LangGraph or Claude/OpenAI SDKs.
• Bonus: policy-as-code authorization (Cedar, OPA).

Responsibilities

• Design and implement backend APIs and services for the agentic platform.
• Build the agent identity and machine-to-machine authentication system, including credential management and delegated access flows.
• Develop the agent knowledge base and memory layer for context retention.
• Create observability layer: tracing, cost tracking, audit logs, dashboards.
• Develop governance and safety layers: policy enforcement, PII protection, human-in-the-loop approvals.
• Build the orchestration layer for multi-step agent workflows with state persistence and error recovery.
• Collaborate with Product, SRE, Security, Data Platform, Observability and other domain partners to shape integrations.

Skills

Backend software engineering

AI/ML exposure

Python

TypeScript/Node.js

Go

Security mindset

OAuth/OIDC

Job description

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.

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.

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.

The AI-Core Team

The team is building a scalable Agentic AI platform for agents that run real engineering work, agents that write code, triage incidents, investigate alerts, remediate vulnerabilities, upgrade libraries, patch flaky tests, automate runbooks, and other workloads across Okta's infra. Owning this platform means owning the hard cross cutting problems: agent identity, delegated access, secure isolated execution, orchestration, and governance, at the scale and reliability bar that Infra demands. The work is novel and high ownership, and the candidate should be drawn to problems the industry hasn't solved yet.

What You'll Work On

• Design and implement backend APIs and services that make up the agentic platform
• Build the agent identity and machine-to-machine authentication system, including credential management and delegated access flows
• Build the agent knowledge base and memory layer so agents retain context within and across sessions
• Build the observability layer for agents: tracing, cost tracking, audit logs, and dashboards that make agent behavior debuggable in production
• Build the governance and safety layer: policy enforcement on tool calls, content filtering, PII protection, and human-in-the-loop approval flows
• Build the orchestration layer that coordinates multi-step agent workflows with state persistence and error recovery
• Collaborate with Product, SRE, Security, Data Platform, Observability and other domain partners to shape what each layer looks like and how it integrates with the broader Okta platform

You Might Be a Good Fit If You Have

• 5+ years of software engineering experience building production backend systems.
• 1+ years of exposure to AI/ML or agentic applications, whether through production work, side projects, or hands-on experimentation.
• Strong proficiency in one or more backend languages (Python, TypeScript/Node.js, Go, or similar)
• Hands-on experience designing and operating distributed systems: APIs, microservices, container orchestration, and serverless technologies
• A security-conscious mindset around credential handling, trust boundaries, and what can go wrong at integration points; familiarity with OAuth, OIDC, or other modern auth patterns.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-moving environments where the problem definition evolves alongside the solution and the right abstractions are still being invented.

• Bonus: Exposure to LLM integration, RAG pipelines, MCP, or agent orchestration frameworks like LangChain, LangGraph, or the Claude/OpenAI SDKs.
• Bonus: Experience with policy-as-code authorization (Cedar, OPA), agent identity patterns, or building developer-facing APIs and SDKs.

Why You'll Love It Here

• You'll learn fast. The problems this team works on, agentic systems, secure execution at scale, the platform layers that make agents reliable in production, are ones the industry is still figuring out, and you'll be in the room when those answers get written. You'll also have room to shape how you grow, whether that means going deeper on backend systems, leaning into AI/ML, or moving toward technical leadership over time.
• And you'll build things that actually get used. The platform you ship will be the foundation other teams build their agents on, and the work compounds quickly, what you ship this quarter shapes what's possible next quarter.

Required

The employee must be either a U.S. citizen as defined in 42 U.S. Code § 9102; a natural person who is a lawful permanent resident as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(20) or who is a protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3); or a U.S. national (i.e. includes citizens and non-citizens born in outlying possessions such as American Samoa and Swains Island), green card holders, refugees, and asylees. Working on a U.S. visa does NOT qualify as a U.S. person.

(P16362_3441309)

Below is the annual base salary range for candidates located in San Francisco Bay Area. 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 the San Francisco Bay area is between: : $194,000 USD - $267,000 USD

The Okta Experience

• Driving Social Impact
• Developing Talent and Fostering Connection + Community

We are intentional about connection. Our global community, spanning over 20 offices worldwide, is united by a drive to innovate. Your journey begins with an immersive, in-person onboarding experience designed to accelerate your impact and connect you to our mission and team from day one.

Okta is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, or status as a protected veteran. We also consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and convictions records, consistent with applicable laws. If reasonable accommodation is needed to complete any part of the job application, interview process, or onboarding please use this Form to request an accommodation. Notice for New York City Applicants & Employees: Okta may use Automated Employment Decision Tools (AEDT), as defined by New York City Local Law 144, that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, or other automated processes to assist in our recruitment and hiring process. In accordance with NYC Local Law 144, if you are an applicant or employee residing in New York City, please click here to view our full NYC AEDT Notice.