Staff Software Engineer, Developer Experience
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 12, 2026. First seen by Alion on Mar 17, 2026. Okta scores A on the Alion truth index.
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.
About the Team
Authentication tells you who someone is. Authorization decides what they can do, and doing that well at scale is hard. Role-based access breaks down as applications grow, and AI agents are changing who, and what, asks for access. Auth0 FGAsolves this with fine-grained authorization. Its engine is OpenFGA, a CNCFincubating open source project that Okta maintains with contributors from other companies, and Auth0 FGAruns that same engine as a managed service.
FGADevEx owns how developers experience both: our SDKs, CLI, IDE plugins, Helm charts and docs, all developed in the open. The FGAgroup owns its product end to end, from infrastructure to docs, so we move quickly and see our work reach developers.
Our guiding principle: one developer experience, many deployment models.
About the role
We're hiring a Staff Engineer to set the technical direction for everything the team owns, and to mentor the senior engineers who build it, starting with our SDKs in Go, JavaScript, .NET, Python, Java and more. From there, you'll shape where the developer experience goes next, from how our SDKs evolve to new surfaces like MCPservers. You'll partner with the Core team on API design, so every new capability feels natural in each language.
This is an individual contributor role. You'll work closely with the engineering manager, who owns people and delivery
Responsibilities
Set the direction:
- Define and drive the technical direction for FGADevEx across open source and SaaS, and turn it into a roadmap with the engineering manager and the product team.
- Build support for that direction across the team, the FGA group and open source community
- Mentor the team's senior engineers, and raise the level of everyone around you.
- Establish how a new team builds software, from design reviews and coding standards to how we test and ship, and set the quality bar.
- Make the calls that are hard to undo: when an API is ready to ship across every language, how it evolves, and when to deprecate.
- Be the voice of developer experience across FGA: partner with the Core team on API design and with internal teams such as Integrations, and flag developer friction wherever you see it.
Own the Platform:
- Architect our SDKs in Go, JavaScript, .NET, Python and Java, including the generator every client is built from.
- Set the standards every SDK follows, from authentication and error handling to retries and rate limiting.
- Shape the tooling and content around the SDKs: the CLI, IDE integrations, Helm charts, GitHub automation, docs and examples.
- Drive the release and versioning strategy across all divisions
- Grow our open source community: build the contributor and maintainer base beyond the team today, and make it easy for outside developers to contribute.
Requirements
- 8+ years as a software engineer, including time leading the technical direction of a team or a significant area, with or without the title.
- Strong proficiency in at least one of Go, JavaScript/TypeScript, C#/.NET, Python or Java, and the curiosity to work across several.
- Experience building software other developers use: SDKs, API clients, libraries, developer platforms, CLIs or tooling.
- A strong sense of API design and ergonomics, and of how an interface should feel in different languages
- Clear communication and a track record of influencing decisions across teams and with outside contributors, without relying on authority
Nice to have
- Contributing to, maintaining or leading open source projects.
- Building with code generation tools such as OpenAPI Generator and templating frameworks.
- Designing resilient clients: authentication flows, retries and rate limiting.
- Setting up GitHub Actions and release automation.
- Working in authorization or identity, such as OAuth, RBACor ReBAC.
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The Okta Experience
- Supporting Your Well-Being
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- 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.
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