Okta

Principal Software Engineer - Developer Platform (Auth0)

Okta$184K — $253K *
Consumer Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of software engineering experience, including Principal or Staff level roles.
  • Experience with high-scale distributed architecture and event-driven systems.
  • Track record of designing and shipping developer-facing platforms at scale.
  • Deep understanding of identity and access management (IAM).
  • Ability to define clear technical direction from ambiguous problems.
  • Strong fundamentals in Node.js; familiarity with Go is a plus.
  • Experience with agent-aware design and tooling.

Responsibilities

  • Own the technical architecture of the developer platform and ensure coherence.
  • Design distributed systems for optimal throughput and reliability.
  • Translate vague platform challenges into modular, actionable designs.
  • Ensure the platform serves both human developers and AI agents effectively.
  • Set and maintain high engineering standards and lead design reviews.
  • Collaborate with tech leads from other teams to align architectural decisions.

Benefits

  • Health, dental, and vision insurance.
  • RRSP with a match.
  • Healthcare spending and telemedicine services.
  • Paid leave, including PTO and parental leave.
  • Immersive, in-person onboarding experience.
Full Job Description
Get to know the team

The Developer Platform team at Auth0 (an Okta company) owns the platform that developers build identity on. Increasingly they build alongside AI agents, and that raises the bar on everything underneath: interfaces have to hold up whether a person or an agent is calling them, and the systems behind them have to stay reliable and coherent as usage grows. We move fast, we own problems end to end, and we care deeply about the platform we put in front of the developers and agents who depend on it.
The opportunity

We're hiring a Principal Engineer (P5) to serve as the technical leader and compass for the Developer Platform team. You'll work across the breadth of the platform, tackling the highly complex, vaguely specified problems that span it and turning them into clear technical direction the team can execute against, without day-to-day oversight. Above all, you'll own how the platform is architected to scale: the distributed systems behind it, the reliability and consistency guarantees developers depend on, and the coherence that keeps it easy to build on as usage grows. You'll champion the team's technical execution, raise the engineering bar, mentor the people around you, and partner with tech leads across teams to keep the wider platform aligned. You'll have real influence over how our platform holds up in a world where developers and agents are both first-class consumers.
What you'll be doing
  • Own the platform architecture: Set the technical direction for the developer platform, and make the cross-cutting decisions that keep it coherent and easy to build on as it grows.
  • Architect for scale: Design the distributed systems behind the platform for throughput, reliability, and consistency, so the guarantees developers depend on hold up under real load.
  • Turn ambiguity into direction: Take the hardest, most vaguely specified platform problems and turn them into clear, modular technical designs the team can execute against.
  • Design for developers and agents: Shape the platform so it holds up whether a person or an agent is calling it, and so both can build and automate their work against Auth0.
  • Raise the engineering bar: Set the standard for how the team designs, builds, and operates the platform, and lead deep, constructive reviews that grow the engineers around you.
  • Partner across teams: Operate peer-to-peer with tech leads in adjacent groups to review major architectural decisions and keep the wider platform aligned.
What you'll bring
  • 10+ years of software engineering experience, with a proven track record as a Principal or Staff level individual contributor.
  • Distributed architecture depth: Extensive experience designing and operating high-scale, reliable backend and event-driven systems, with a strong grasp of the tradeoffs in throughput, consistency, and failure handling.
  • Platform thinking: A track record of designing and shipping platforms or developer-facing systems at scale, with an instinct for the interfaces and abstractions that keep them coherent as they grow.
  • IAM platform thinking: Deep understanding of identity and access management, with a sense for the platform capabilities and abstractions that make identity easier for developers to build on.
  • Ownership in ambiguity: You can own vaguely specified problems and drive them to a clear technical direction without heavy top-down scoping.
  • Strong engineering fundamentals: Strong Node.js fundamentals; Go a plus.
  • Agent-aware design: Hands-on familiarity with agentic tooling, MCP, or LLM-facing design, and a sense for how agents consume a platform.
  • Cross-functional collaboration: Experience working across engineering, product, and architecture in a fast-moving environment, and a habit of raising the bar for the people around you.
Extra credit
  • Work with agent frameworks, AI-facing systems, or developer toolchains in the LLM space.
  • A background at a company where developers are the primary customer.
  • Experience setting technical direction for a platform that other engineering teams build on.

#LI-HYBRID

#LI-SH1


Below is the annual salary range for candidates located in Canada. Your actual salary will depend on factors such as your skills, qualifications, and experience. In addition, Okta offers equity (where applicable), bonus, and benefits, including health, dental, and vision insurance, RRSP with a match, healthcare spending, telemedicine, 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/can.

The annual base salary range for this position for candidates located in Canada is between:

$184,000-$253,000 CAD

The Okta Experience
  • Supporting Your Well-Being
  • 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.

About Okta

Okta is a leading provider of identity and access management solutions for enterprises. The company's cloud-based platform enables organizations to securely connect people and technology, providing secure access to applications and data from any device, anywhere, at any time. Okta's solutions are used by thousands of organizations worldwide, including many Fortune 500 companies. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Okta is committed to providing innovative solutions that help organizations stay secure and productive in today's digital world.
Learn more about Okta
Size
5,342 employees
Market Cap
$10.5 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$266.3 million
Founded
2009
5 Year Trend
+51.9%
Revenue
$835.4 million
NASDAQ

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