Staff Software Engineer - Platform App Services

Okta•Toronto, ON

25d•Hybrid

About The Position

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. As a Staff Software Engineer, you will serve as a technical leader and architect for our backend systems. You will be responsible for defining the technical vision of our platform, mentoring senior engineers, and solving complex challenges related to scalability and reliability. Your role is to be a force multiplier, ensuring that our engineering practices and architectures enable teams to deliver high-quality software at a global scale.

Requirements

Professional Depth: 8+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of leading large-scale initiatives from architectural design to production.
Golang Mastery: Expert proficiency in Golang and a deep understanding of distributed systems design, concurrency patterns, and performance optimization.
Data Architecture: Significant experience with Postgres, including advanced schema design, query optimization at scale, and managing high-volume data pipelines.
Systemic Thinking: Proven ability to design resilient, high-availability services that operate under heavy global load.
Influence Without Authority: Exceptional ability to drive consensus across multiple engineering teams and influence technical direction through collaboration.
Communication: Excellence in distilling complex technical concepts into clear, actionable strategies for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Proactive Problem Solving: A history of identifying and resolving ambiguous, high-impact technical debt and architectural bottlenecks.

Nice To Haves

Distributed Systems: Experience with modern microservices communication patterns and service-oriented architectures.
Polyglot Awareness: Exposure to other languages such as TypeScript, JavaScript, or Node.js in a service-oriented environment.
Cloud Infrastructure: Familiarity with container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes) and deploying/operating services within major cloud providers (AWS or Azure).
Infrastructure as Code: Experience or familiarity with automating infrastructure deployment and management.

Responsibilities

Technical Strategy: Define and drive the long-term technical roadmap for Golang-based backend services, ensuring alignment with broader business objectives and platform initiatives.
Architectural Leadership: Lead the design and evolution of Postgres-backed distributed systems, prioritizing high performance, multi-region reliability, and complex data workflows (CDC).
Complexity Reduction: Identify systemic redundancies across teams; lead efforts to consolidate tools and services to simplify the developer experience and reduce organizational complexity.
Operational Excellence: Set the standard for observability and operational health. You will influence the strategy for platform availability and lead initiatives to improve system resilience.
Cross-Functional Influence: Partner with Product, Infrastructure, and Security leadership to negotiate technical trade-offs and ensure the platform scales efficiently.
Sponsorship & Mentorship: Actively sponsor the growth of Senior and Mid-level engineers through deep technical guidance, rigorous code reviews, and career-shaping feedback.
Culture of Excellence: Champion best practices in software design, CI/CD, and automation, fostering a culture of technical rigor and continuous improvement.