Staff Software Engineer (Federal)

Join Okta, a leading identity management company, as a Staff Software Engineer (Federal). In this role, you will adapt Okta Identity Governance (OIG) to meet the needs of government customers. You will design, build, and maintain backend services and frontend interfaces, ensuring secure and scalable access. You will also collaborate with other engineering teams, prioritize tech debt, and invest in the growth of your peers. This is an opportunity to make a significant impact in the field of identity management and security.

- Operates well beyond basic AI tool usage - understands how to apply AI meaningfully across the full software development lifecycle, can evaluate and adopt new AI tooling with good judgment, and is able to establish practices and bring a team along
- 8+ years in software engineering, shipping enterprise cloud software
- Experience with CI/CD (CircleCI or equivalent), containers (Docker, Kubernetes), and a major cloud platform
- Architectural expertise: Proven experience defining scalable backend architectures and integrating complex APIs with modern web technologies, including making decisions with lasting, org-wide impact
- Backend proficiency: Deep expertise in building reliable, secure, enterprise-grade software in Java or another type-safe language
- Hands-on depth in coding at scale using: Java, Python, or TypeScript, plus API (REST, gRPC) and UI automation (Playwright, Selenium, or equivalent)
- Frontend flexibility: High proficiency in JavaScript/TypeScript with true fullstack range, including the ability to ship robust frontends
- Solid understanding of web authentication and authorization fundamentals - how auth flows work, and best practices for securing sensitive user data
- Must be a U.S. Citizen. Candidate must possess an active clearance or have the ability to obtain and maintain a high-level government security clearance (e.g., Secret / Top Secret / SCI) based on mission requirements
- Proven experience defining scalable backend architectures and integrating complex APIs with modern web technologies - including the ability to make and defend architectural decisions with lasting org-wide impact
- Federal Infrastructure Expertise: Hands-on experience building, scaling, and troubleshooting infrastructure in restricted environments (e.g., FedRAMP Medium/High, DoD Impact Levels, or air-gapped systems)
- Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) — access requests, certifications, entitlement management, separation of duties, or role modeling (Okta, SailPoint, Saviynt, One Identity, Oracle, or in-house)
- Network & Security Isolation: Solid understanding of air-gap architectures, strict access controls, zero-trust frameworks, and data diode/secure transfer mechanisms
- Identity and Access Management more broadly: SSO, SCIM provisioning, directory integration, or privileged access
- Work experience in a compliance context — SOX, SOC 2, ISO 27001, or FedRAMP — including audit evidence validation