Okta

Staff Software Engineer - Platform App Services

Okta$160K — $220K *
Information Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of software engineering experience leading large-scale initiatives
  • Expert proficiency in Golang and distributed systems design
  • Experience with Postgres, including schema design and query optimization
  • Proven ability to design resilient, high-availability services
  • Strong influence across engineering teams without formal authority
  • Exceptional communication skills for technical and non-technical stakeholders
  • History of resolving ambiguous technical debt and architectural bottlenecks

Responsibilities

  • Define and drive the technical roadmap for Golang-based backend services
  • Lead design and evolution of Postgres-backed distributed systems
  • Identify systemic redundancies and consolidate tools for developer simplicity
  • Set standards for observability and operational health
  • Partner with leadership across departments to negotiate technical trade-offs
  • Mentor and sponsor the growth of Senior and Mid-level engineers
  • Champion best practices in software design and promote technical excellence

Benefits

  • Health, dental, and vision insurance
  • RRSP with a matching contribution
  • Healthcare spending accounts
  • Telemedicine services
  • Generous paid leave, including PTO and parental leave
Full Job Description
As a Staff Software Engineer, you will serve as a technical leader and architect for our backend systems. You will be responsible for defining the technical vision of our platform, mentoring senior engineers, and solving complex challenges related to scalability and reliability. Your role is to be a force multiplier, ensuring that our engineering practices and architectures enable teams to deliver high-quality software at a global scale.

What You'll Do
  • Technical Strategy: Define and drive the long-term technical roadmap for Golang-based backend services, ensuring alignment with broader business objectives and platform initiatives.
  • Architectural Leadership: Lead the design and evolution of Postgres-backed distributed systems, prioritizing high performance, multi-region reliability, and complex data workflows (CDC).
  • Complexity Reduction: Identify systemic redundancies across teams; lead efforts to consolidate tools and services to simplify the developer experience and reduce organizational complexity.
  • Operational Excellence: Set the standard for observability and operational health. You will influence the strategy for platform availability and lead initiatives to improve system resilience.
  • Cross-Functional Influence: Partner with Product, Infrastructure, and Security leadership to negotiate technical trade-offs and ensure the platform scales efficiently.
  • Sponsorship & Mentorship: Actively sponsor the growth of Senior and Mid-level engineers through deep technical guidance, rigorous code reviews, and career-shaping feedback.
  • Culture of Excellence: Champion best practices in software design, CI/CD, and automation, fostering a culture of technical rigor and continuous improvement.
What You'll Bring
  • Professional Depth: 8+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of leading large-scale initiatives from architectural design to production.
  • Golang Mastery: Expert proficiency in Golang and a deep understanding of distributed systems design, concurrency patterns, and performance optimization.
  • Data Architecture: Significant experience with Postgres, including advanced schema design, query optimization at scale, and managing high-volume data pipelines.
  • Systemic Thinking: Proven ability to design resilient, high-availability services that operate under heavy global load.
  • Influence Without Authority: Exceptional ability to drive consensus across multiple engineering teams and influence technical direction through collaboration.
  • Communication: Excellence in distilling complex technical concepts into clear, actionable strategies for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Proactive Problem Solving: A history of identifying and resolving ambiguous, high-impact technical debt and architectural bottlenecks.
Preferred Qualifications
  • Distributed Systems: Experience with modern microservices communication patterns and service-oriented architectures.
  • Polyglot Awareness: Exposure to other languages such as TypeScript, JavaScript, or Node.js in a service-oriented environment.
  • Cloud Infrastructure: Familiarity with container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes) and deploying/operating services within major cloud providers (AWS or Azure).
  • Infrastructure as Code: Experience or familiarity with automating infrastructure deployment and management.
    #LI-Hybrid


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:

$160,000-$220,000 CAD

The Okta Experience
  • Supporting Your Well-Being
  • Driving Social Impact
  • Developing Talent and Fostering Connection + Community

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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