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Okta

Washington, DC

Security Architect - U.S. Public Sector

Posted 9 days ago

Level
Senior
Experience
10+ years
Work style
Hybrid
Clearance
TS/SCI with Poly

At a glance

The role in plain English

This Security Architect role at Okta focuses on supporting U.S. Public Sector clients, particularly those with highly regulated requirements. The position suits experienced professionals with a background in security, compliance, or technology, and prior work with the U.S. Public Sector. Day-to-day tasks include technical leadership, cross-team collaboration, compliance validation, and mentoring junior staff. The role requires a TS/SCI clearance with polygraph and must be performed on U.S. soil.

What you'll do

  • Act as subject matter expert for Public Sector security initiatives
  • Define technical vision for regulated products and services
  • Collaborate with engineering, compliance, and product teams
  • Review and update compliance documentation and network diagrams
  • Mentor and coach junior engineers

What they're looking for

Essential

  • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
  • 10+ years in security, compliance, or technology
  • Experience with U.S. Public Sector clients
  • TS/SCI Clearance with Poly
  • Must work on U.S. soil

Core skills

  • Identity management
  • Compliance validation
  • Risk assessment
  • Technical leadership
  • Vulnerability management
  • Network architecture

The shape of the job

Technical depth

5/5

FoundationalSpecialist

Pace

3/5

SteadyFast-moving

Ownership

4/5

GuidedSelf-directed

Teamwork

5/5

Heads-downHighly collaborative

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Application toolkit

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Questions to prepare for

  1. 01Describe your experience supporting U.S. Public Sector compliance requirements.
  2. 02How have you led technical vision for regulated products?
  3. 03What steps do you take to validate and update compliance documentation?
  4. 04How do you approach mentoring junior engineers in a security-focused team?

About Okta

Okta provides identity and access management solutions, with a focus on securing cloud and hybrid environments. The company supports clients in both the private and public sectors.

Full job descriptionAs published by Okta

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 Okta Security team’s mission is to strengthen Okta’s position as the leading Identity-as-a-Service solution through identifying and resolving risks to the employees, product, and most importantly, our customers. With the ever-increasing pace of cloud application adoption, companies are struggling to find ways to accurately assess risk and act at the speed of their business.

The U.S. Public Sector Security Architect is a key member of the Okta Security Federal team and works across multiple functions to contribute perspectives in engineering, product, sales and marketing in support of the growth of our public sector business.

This position requires a strategic leader with strong collaboration skills, detailed working knowledge of identity and security requirements within the public sector, familiarity of working within a product company and a strong desire to exceed our customer’s security and compliance needs.

This position will be located within the Washington DC metropolitan area

Responsibilities:

  • Be the point of contact and subject matter expert for all highly regulated Public Sector initiatives across the company
  • Lead and define the technical vision for the highly regulated products and services
  • Clearly define priorities and roadmaps for meeting highly regulated requirements
  • Work with management, sales, CSM, and the rest of the GTM team to set expectations and validate communications
  • Work across security, compliance and engineering to communicate requirements
  • Work with security and compliance teams for vulnerability management, security standards, and compliance validation
  • Review, validate, and update SSPs in coordination with GRC and engineering teams
  • Review all network and boundary compliance diagrams. Work with TechOps to keep diagrams updated
  • Collaborate and partner with TPM on project planning, execution, problem resolution, obstacle removal, and status reports
  • Define and collaborate with product engineering architects on new features for Okta's US Public Sector Compliance production infrastructure
  • Review significant changes to the service and coordinate significant change requests with DISA/DoD and FedRAMP
  • Work with Product and Engineering to ensure the platform can support US Public Sector use cases
  • Assist the GRC team in to effectively conduct the CONMON process
  • Build and implement agentic workflows to automate complex tasks
  • Assist in supporting and maintaining the Okta Federal agentic infrastructure and business processes
  • Represent Okta Security with IC and DoD Classified customers
  • Bring clarity to design and solution discovery processes and guide teams on how to meet classified requirements
  • Mentor and coach junior engineers to leverage their full potential

Requirements:

  • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
  • 10+ years experience across either security, compliance or technology
  • Prior experience working within or supporting the US Public Sector
  • TS/SCI Clearance with Poly

Additional requirements:

  • U.S. soil status - the employee must be on U.S. soil, which means the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or outlying areas of the United States, as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 2.101
  • U.S. Security Clearance status - the employee must be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance (Secret or Top Secret) to the extent required by U.S. Government contracts.

#LI-HYBRID

#LI-SH1 P26227_3601752

Below is the annual base salary range for candidates located in California (excluding San Francisco Bay Area), Colorado, Illinois, New York and Washington. 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 California (excluding San Francisco Bay Area), Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Washington is between:

$216,000 — $297,000 USD

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.

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.

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