Senior Manager, Defensive Cyber Operations (Americas)

Okta
vision insurance, flexible benefit account, parental leave, 401(k)
United States, California, San Francisco
100 1st Street (Show on map)
Feb 14, 2025
Get to know Okta Okta is The World's Identity Company. We free everyone to safely use any technology-anywhere, on any device or app. Our Workforce and Customer Identity Clouds enable secure yet flexible access, authentication, and automation that transforms how people move through the digital world, putting Identity at the heart of business security and growth. At Okta, we celebrate a variety of perspectives and experiences. We are not looking for someone who checks every single box - we're looking for lifelong learners and people who can make us better with their unique experiences. Join our team! We're building a world where Identity belongs to you. Senior Manager, Defensive Cyber Operations We safeguard Okta from threats and vulnerabilities that have the potential to disrupt our business or degrade our customers' trust in us. In addition to driving security in our enterprise environment and Okta service, the Security team is deeply entrenched in the Okta business. The team contributes to product roadmaps, promoting trust, research and other strategic aspects of Okta's operations. We work across multiple functions, business partners and the research community. We are an engineering-focused team that seeks to stay on the cutting edge of security technology and the threat landscape. The Role Okta is seeking an experienced Senior Manager of Defensive Cyber Operations (Americas) to play a key role in Okta's global cyber defense strategy, reporting to the Senior Director, Defensive Cyber Operations. You will lead the regional Americas team responsible for detecting, investigating, and responding to security threats and incidents. Your leadership will help shape Okta's security posture, ensuring swift and effective responses to emerging cyber threats. This role requires travel to our San Francisco, CA or Chicago, IL office for in-person onboarding during the first week of employment. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application, interview process, or onboarding please use this Form to request an accommodation. Core Responsibilities Team Leadership & Development Lead, mentor, and develop a team of detection engineers, and incident responders. Foster a culture of continuous learning, collaboration, and operational excellence. Ensure team members have clear goals, growth opportunities, and the tools they need to succeed. Threat Detection & Incident Response Oversee the identification, investigation, and response to security threats across Okta's global operations during the Americas shift. Ensure rapid response and containment of cyber incidents, coordinating cross-functional efforts when needed. Lead post-incident reviews and drive improvements to detection and response capabilities. Threat Hunting Develop and oversee the execution of proactive threat hunting programs to identify and mitigate advanced persistent threats (APTs) and sophisticated adversaries targeting Okta's infrastructure. Collaborate with the Threat Analysis & Research team to integrate threat intelligence and adversarial engineering into detection and response efforts, staying ahead of new and emerging cyber threats. Process & Technology Enhancement Continuously improve detection and response processes, integrating automation and ensuring quality in all aspects of the team's work. Optimize the use of security tools, such as SIEM, EDR, and case management platforms. Partner with engineering and IT teams to enhance security visibility and response capabilities. Collaboration & Communication Work closely with security leadership, IT, and engineering teams to strengthen Okta's security posture. Communicate key security risks, incidents, and trends to senior leadership. Contribute to Okta's broader security strategy and advocate for cyber resilience across the company. What does it take? You're a team player. You have great communications skills and a thirst for knowledge. You're curious about systems and how they interact, knowing that to properly defend a system you must first understand how it works. You enjoy automating tasks and if you can't find a tool for the job you create one. You're calm under pressure and have a good internal compass for taking calculated risks. If you don't have a degree, you have equivalent experience that's given you the foundational knowledge to understand complex computing environments. You're a leader. People want to work with you. You know what it takes to build a world-class defensive cyber capability and you're passionate about helping make ours stronger. Your experience probably includes: Leading, or contributing to, technology focused teams large or small. Mentoring staff and providing development opportunities to build high performing teams. Operating as, or providing support to, the incident commander or technical lead during cyber security incidents. Developing advanced detection capabilities, working with detection-as-code, and automating the triage and response of alerts they generate. Ideally you also have experience in several of the following areas: Researching the tactics, techniques and procedures of sophisticated adversaries and hunting for evidence of them within an enterprise environment. Developing detection and response validation techniques and automating tests to enable continuous assurance of defensive cyber capabilities. Analysing critical systems to understand both how to break them and defend them against attack. Working collaboratively within product and/or enterprise project teams, assisting to deliver large and complex technology solutions. Okta's Top 5 Core Leadership Competencies are part of the deeply ingrained principles that guide all of our company's actions. They also align strongly to our cultural cornerstones, our Okta values: love our customers, empower our people, never stop innovating, act with integrity, and maintain transparency. It's our expectation that our managers and leaders embody these core competencies: Builds Effective Teams: Building strong-identity teams that apply their diverse skills and perspectives to achieve common goals. Demonstrates Self-Awareness (EQ): Using a combination of feedback and reflection to gain productive insight into personal strengths and weaknesses. Develops Talent: Developing people to meet both their career goals and the organization's goals. Drives Results: Consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances. Strategic Mindset: Seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies. This position requires the ability to access federal environments and/or have access to protected federal data. As a condition of employment for this position, the successful candidate must be able to submit documentation establishing U.S. Person status (e.g. a U.S. Citizen, National, Lawful Permanent Resident, Refugee, or Asylee. 22 CFR 120.15) upon hire. #LI-REMOTE #LI-SH1 The annual base salary range for this position for candidates located in the San Francisco Bay area is between: $216,000 — $324,000 USD Below is the annual base salary range for candidates located in California, Colorado, New York and Washington. Your actual base salary will depend on factors such as your skills, qualifications, experience, and work location. In addition, Okta offers equity (where applicable), bonus, and benefits, including health, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), flexible spending account, and paid leave (including PTO and parental leave) in accordance with our applicable plans and policies. To learn more about our Total Rewards program please visit: https://rewards.okta.com/us. The annual base salary range for this position for candidates located in California (excluding San Francisco Bay Area), Colorado, New York, and Washington is between: $193,000 — $289,000 USD What you can look forward to as a Full-Time Okta employee! Amazing Benefits Making Social Impact Fostering Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging at Okta Okta cultivates a dynamic work environment, providing the best tools, technology and benefits to empower our employees to work productively in a setting that best and uniquely suits their needs. Each organization is unique in the degree of flexibility and mobility in which they work so that all employees are enabled to be their most creative and successful versions of themselves, regardless of where they live. Find your place at Okta today! https://www.okta.com/company/careers/. 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. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application, interview process, or onboarding please use this Form to request an accommodation. Okta is committed to complying with applicable data privacy and security laws and regulations. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy at https://www.okta.com/privacy-policy/.