Engineering Manager, Okta Access Gateway

<div class="content-intro"><p><strong>Secure Every Identity, from AI to Human<br><br></strong>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.<br><br>This is an opportunity to do career-defining work. We're all in on this mission. If you are too, let's talk.</p></div><h3><strong>The Opportunity: Okta Access Gateway (OAG)</strong></h3> <p>Enterprises run on a mix of modern cloud services and mission-critical on-premises systems (such as Oracle E-Business Suite, SAP, PeopleSoft, and custom legacy web apps). Okta Access Gateway (OAG) solves the enterprise hybrid cloud challenge by extending Okta’s cloud identity, Adaptive MFA, and Zero Trust security policies to on-premises and legacy applications without requiring custom code changes or traditional VPNs.</p> <p>As the Engineering Manager for Okta Access Gateway in Toronto, you will lead and grow a team of software engineers building the next generation of our hybrid access and gateway infrastructure. You will partner closely with Product Management, Architecture, Security, and Quality teams to deliver high-throughput, mission-critical security software deployed across multi-cloud and enterprise datacenters globally.</p> <h3><strong>What You’ll Do</strong></h3> <h4>People Leadership &amp; Team Growth</h4> <ul> <li>Lead, mentor, and empower an engineering team, fostering an inclusive, high-performance, and psychologically safe engineering culture.</li> <li>Drive career progression, goal setting, regular 1:1s, and continuous feedback to help engineers grow their technical and leadership skills.</li> <li>Attract, interview, and hire diverse engineering talent to scale Okta’s engineering presence in Toronto.</li> </ul> <h4>Delivery &amp; Operational Excellence</h4> <ul> <li>Own the end-to-end execution and delivery of key product roadmap initiatives, balancing feature velocity, technical debt, and software quality.</li> <li>Establish predictable agile delivery cadences (Scrum/Kanban), driving accurate scope estimation, milestone tracking, and stakeholder communication.</li> <li>Champion operational rigor, security standards, high availability, and performance benchmarking for customer-deployed gateway appliances.</li> </ul> <h4>Technical Strategy &amp; Collaboration</h4> <ul> <li>Partner closely with Product Managers, Technical Architects, and UX designers to define technical roadmaps and product requirements.</li> <li>Participate in architectural reviews, system design proposals, and threat modeling without micromanaging day-to-day code implementation.</li> <li>Guide the team in modernizing gateway capabilities, containerization, deployment automation, and seamless integration with the core Okta Identity Cloud.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>What You’ll Bring</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Engineering Leadership: 2+ years of experience formally managing software engineering teams (or 4+ years as a hands-on Lead / Staff Engineer leading complex, multi-engineer projects to delivery).</li> <li>Technical Background: 8+ years of total software engineering experience designing and operating enterprise-scale distributed systems or infrastructure products.</li> <li>Enterprise Stack Experience: Strong background in server-side technologies (e.g., Java / Spring Boot, Go, or C/C++) and distributed systems concepts (concurrency, caching, high throughput, and asynchronous processing).</li> <li>Security &amp; Networking Acumen: Solid understanding of network architecture, TLS/SSL, reverse proxies/gateways, HTTP headers, DNS, and cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP).</li> <li>Execution &amp; Agile Rigor: Proven track record of managing agile delivery, CI/CD automation pipelines, and cross-functional dependencies across distributed teams.</li> <li>Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with the ability to articulate complex technical trade-offs to both technical and executive stakeholders.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Bonus Points (Nice to Have)</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Deep knowledge of Identity &amp; Access Management (IAM) and authentication protocols: SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0 / OIDC, Kerberos / IWA, Header-Based Auth, and FIDO2 / WebAuthn.</li> <li>Experienc