Staff Adversarial Engineer, Okta
CA$141-211k
+ Equity for eligible roles + Bonus
Management platform securing resources from cloud to ground
Open for applications
Management platform securing resources from cloud to ground
1001+ employees
Open for applications
CA$141-211k
+ Equity for eligible roles + Bonus
1001+ employees
Company mission
To improve the connections between people and tools to make companies more productive and secure.
Role
Who you are
- You’re a team player with excellent communication skills and a deep curiosity for understanding complex systems
- You know that to defend a system effectively, you must first understand how it works
- You enjoy testing assumptions, uncovering hidden risks, and making your own life harder in the process
- You come from a strong offensive security background, with experience in red or purple team roles
- However, you're now looking for an opportunity to work more closely with defensive teams, using your skills to help build stronger, proactive defenses
- You’re well-versed in attacker techniques, and can articulate how they work and how they can be detected and investigated
- You don’t just identify problems — you’re motivated to partner with others across teams to drive solutions
- You have experience working with remote teams and can remain self-motivated and focused, contributing effectively outside of a traditional office environment
- Proven experience in cybersecurity and/or related fields, with hands-on expertise in adversary simulation, red/purple teaming, or security research
- Proven experience simulating attacker behavior in SaaS applications, user endpoints, and cloud environments, including containerized infrastructure
- Strong understanding of cybersecurity principles, attack techniques, and threat actor methodologies
- Analytical mindset, with excellent problem-solving skills to uncover potential risks and improve detection and response
- Outstanding communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across teams and geographies
- Relevant certifications are a plus (OSCP, OSEP, OSMR, GXPN, GDAT, etc)
What the job involves
- The Adversarial Engineering and Operations team is integral to Cyber Defense’s intelligence-led strategy to safeguard Okta’s infrastructure, products and customers
- We specialize in planning and executing adversarial operations alongside Defensive Cyber Operations, simulating sophisticated threat actors and scenarios to provide critical insights into Cyber Defense’s ability to detect and respond to threats
- We’re seeking a highly skilled operator to join our global team
- In this role, you’ll be responsible for planning, executing, and delivering adversarial operations and research engagements
- You’ll work directly with Defensive Cyber Operations to simulate realistic threat scenarios, analyze security gaps, and uncover areas where we can strengthen our detection and response capabilities
- This is not a penetration testing or traditional red team role
- While you may identify vulnerabilities or weaknesses in our infrastructure, the primary purpose of this role is to provide actionable insights and enhance our overall ability to detect and respond to sophisticated threats
- Collaborate Across Cyber Defense: Work closely with various teams within Cyber Defense, including Defensive Cyber Operations, to simulate real-world threat scenarios
- Simulate and Document Attacker Behavior: Replicate sophisticated adversary tactics to enhance threat detection and response strategies, ensuring real-world scenarios are accurately represented
- Conduct Adversarial Research: Perform in-depth research on Okta’s products and platforms from an adversarial perspective to identify potential avenues of exploitation, abuse, and overlooked attack vectors
- Provide Actionable Insights: Translate adversarial operations and research into actionable recommendations that empower teams to implement proactive detection strategies and improve incident response workflows
- Partner Across Teams: Collaborate with the broader security and engineering teams to share findings, highlight security gaps, and drive improvements
- Document and Present Findings: Clearly document research, adversarial operations, and results, presenting actionable insights to stakeholders at all levels
- Contribute to Program Development: Drive the continuous improvement of the Adversarial Engineering and Operations program by developing internal tools, methodologies, and processes that enhance our approach and capabilities
Our take
Okta started off as an identity company where organisations, large and small, could tap into the company to have a single sign-on interface to access all cloud applications now centralised. Okta has since expanded to provide identity management at the device as well as the server level.
The new approach towards network security is increasingly based on identification and authentication, and Okta is on track to become the go-to vendor in the space. They aim to do so by developing products that enable people to access applications and other tools more smoothly and securely than ever before.
Okta has taken strides towards expansion through significant employee growth and shuffling executive leadership. The company has also made lateral moves such as tackling governance concerns, opening up new paths for revenue.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
19% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
Sep 2015
$75m
SERIES F
Jun 2014
$75m
SERIES E
Total funding: $229.3m
Company benefits
- Work from home opportunities
- Health + Wellness
- Financial Benefits
- Pay + Incentives
- Time Off
- Everyday Living
- Resources
Company HQ
The East Cut, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Todd McKinnon
(CEO)VP of Development at Salesforce.com and has nearly a decade of experience in various engineering and leadership roles at PeopleSoft.
Frederic Kerrest
(Vice Chairman)Worked in Sales and Business Development at Salesforce.com, and previously co-founded high-tech consulting firm Meridian Global Solutions.
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