Senior Manager, AI Forward Deployed Engineering - Okta for AI Agents

Okta•Chicago, IL

6h•$252,000 - $388,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Okta is securing AI by building 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. The Okta for AI Agents team extends Okta's work in securing access for organizations and users to the agentic shift. Deploying an AI agent requires deep integration, continuous tuning, and change management, with each agent needing an identity, scope, audit trail, and a shutdown mechanism. This team hires builders who identify and solve enterprise agent identity challenges and leaders who can develop these builders into a functional team.

Requirements

3+ years managing engineers or technical field teams (forward deployed, solutions engineering, professional services, or platform), with a record of hiring and growing senior technical talent.
Ability to travel 35% (on occasion internationally).
Background shipping production software with current depth to deliver hands-on: review and write agent identity code, own an architecture, and earn a principal engineer’s respect.
Working command of OAuth 2.0, OIDC, RFC 8693 token exchange, and the agentic identity problem (delegation vs. impersonation, MCP, fine-grained authorization).
Personal experience delivering or leading complex technical engagements inside enterprise customers, with the ability to remain steady when account politics become sharp.
Comfortable in customer standups and CISO briefings, credible with both senior engineers and executives.
Ability to work well with sales, product, and engineering leadership, and translate field signal into roadmap influence.
High agency and a builder’s mindset, comfortable standing up a new function in an ambiguous, fast-moving space and owning outcomes end to end.

Responsibilities

Build and lead the team: Hire, onboard, and develop a team of five Senior and Principal Forward Deployed Engineers, setting and protecting the bar for the role, and building career paths.
Deliver hands-on: Personally own agent identity delivery in one strategic account, including writing production code, owning the architecture and kill-switch design, and passing security reviews.
Be the role model: Set the standard for engineering craft, customer trust, and handling difficult accounts.
Own the engagement model: Define how Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) embed in strategic accounts, scope engagements, and manage agent progression from prototype to production with full identity coverage and security review.
Be accountable for field outcomes: Ensure agents are in production, security reviews are passed, AI governance requirements are met, and posture and inventory visibility are online across the team's portfolio of strategic accounts.
Run the field-to-product loop: Aggregate recurring agent identity gaps found in the field and translate them into prioritized input for the O4AA roadmap with product and engineering leadership.
Coach on hard accounts: Assist engineers in navigating difficult technical and political situations, including architecture review boards, security councils, and CISO conversations.
Partner across go-to-market: Collaborate with sales, solutions engineering, customer success, and professional services to ensure FDE engagements land cleanly and scale.
Represent the function to senior leadership: Brief CISO, CIO, and Chief AI Officer audiences on agent security posture and translate agent risk into business terms.
Operate the team: Plan capacity, manage travel and on-call load to prevent burnout, and track metrics to demonstrate function effectiveness.