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Okta is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to join the Advanced Threat Protection team within Auth0 Customer Identity. This role combines security research and engineering to address emerging AI-driven threats to identity systems while building AI-powered defenses.
The position operates at the intersection of threat research and product security, focusing on a 12–24 month forward-looking view of AI threats to identity infrastructure. You will research how attackers exploit AI against identity systems (adversarial ML, prompt injection, model poisoning, agentic protocol abuse) and architect defenses using AI to protect Auth0's infrastructure and customer tenants.
Key responsibilities include:
- Research and lead AI-powered defensive strategies, both proactive (hardening posture) and reactive (accelerating detection and response during incidents)
- Build protections against novel AI attacks targeting identity systems, including adversarial ML, prompt injection, and emerging agentic threats
- Partner with identity security teams to strengthen customer tenant security posture through AI-assisted defenses
- Establish and execute a long-term engineering and threat research roadmap aligned with business and security goals
- Own high-impact security architecture decisions across Auth0 and Okta Customer Identity infrastructure
- Drive cross-functional security strategies across engineering, product, and enterprise security leadership
- Actively mentor and coach Senior engineers, fostering technical excellence and leadership growth
This is not a dedicated application security, code review, or compliance role, nor is it primarily reactive patch and vulnerability management. The focus is on getting ahead of threats through research and proactive architectural work.
Requirements:
- 8+ years of security engineering experience with a proven track record of setting technical vision, driving cross-organizational initiatives, and leading architectural choices in cloud/product security
- Hands-on experience with AI/ML security (attacking, defending, or both), including adversarial ML, LLM/prompt-injection attacks, and agentic-system abuse
- Demonstrated experience mentoring senior-level engineers, defining multi-quarter technical strategy, driving architectural consensus, and influencing cross-organizational security initiatives
- Hands-on development experience (Go preferred) sufficient to prototype tooling, build AI-powered defenses, and operationalize research
- Working knowledge and hands-on experience with AWS and/or Azure security and/or Kubernetes
- Strong knowledge of OWASP (including OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications) and secure coding best practices
- Strong foundation in secure software development lifecycle best practices
- Strong written and verbal communication skills to translate research into clear guidance for engineering and product teams
- Experience working with globally distributed and remote teams
Bonus qualifications:
- Published threat research, CVEs, or conference talks in AI/ML security or identity security
- Built AI/ML-powered security tooling or defensive automation in production
- Experience with adversarial ML, model red-teaming, or AI safety research
- Knowledge of the AI agent/MCP ecosystem and its security implications
- Background in identity and access management, full-stack engineering, site reliability engineering, vulnerability and threat management, or governance/risk/compliance
