Principal Software Engineer, FGA Core (Auth0)

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 flexible and neutral products, Okta Platform and Auth0 Platform, provide secure access, authentication, and automation, placing identity at the core 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.

The Team

The Fine-Grained Authorization (FGA) team builds and operates the high-availability, multi-region SaaS platform that provides flexible, high-performance authorization for our customers. We are focused on solving the complex engineering challenge of modeling intricate permissions at a massive scale. Our service is built on Relationship-Based Access Control (ReBAC), a powerful model that allows developers to define and query complex access rules that go beyond the limitations of traditional authorization models.

What you’ll be doing

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable, performant, and secure authorization solutions


• Architect the FGA platform for extreme performance, establishing and guaranteeing millisecond-level p99 check latencies and horizontal scalability to handle millions of QPS.


• Lead the deep design, continuous benchmarking, and relentless optimization of the core data models, query paths, and distributed caching strategies to meet these critical performance targets.


• Write clean, maintainable, and efficient code. Perform code reviews and ensure adherence to coding best practices


• Diagnose and resolve issues in authorization systems, ensuring reliability, performance, and security


• Engage in continuous improvement initiatives, including refactoring code to meet new requirements and optimizing system performance


• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for all developed features and systems


• Mentor and guide junior engineers, providing technical leadership and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement


• Participate in the team's on-call rotations to make sure we offer our customers the best availability for our services

What you’ll bring to the role

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a focus on Distributed Systems


• At least 3+ years of experience in designing, implementing, and optimizing production-grade, high-performance algorithms.


• Deep expertise in advanced graph theory applied to large-scale, low-latency systems and a strong command of set theory and Boolean algebra.


• Experience with programming and optimization of applications that require extremely low latency and high throughput


• Expertise in Go programming language


• Experience with cloud platforms, specifically AWS


• Knowledge of identity and access management principles


• Strong understanding of performance optimization, including chasing milliseconds and Big O notation


• Strong teamwork and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively in a diverse and inclusive team environment


• Experience working in an asynchronous remote environment


• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot and debug complex issues

And extra credit if you have experience in any of the following!

• Background in Mathematics or demonstrable experience applying statistical methods and probabilistic models to query optimization.


• Experience with OpenFGA

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The annual base salary range for this position for candidates located in the San Francisco Bay area is between:

$224,000—$308,000 USD

Below is the annual base salary range for candidates located in California (excluding San Francisco Bay Area), Colorado, Illinois, 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: .

The annual base salary range for this position for candidates located in California (excluding San Francisco Bay Area), Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Washington is between:

$200,000—$275,000 USD

What you can look forward to as a Full-Time Okta employee!

• Amazing Benefits


• Making Social Impact


• Developing Talent and Fostering Connection + Community at Okta

Some roles may require travel to one of our office locations for in-person onboarding.

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 complete any part of the job application, interview process, or onboarding please use this Form to request an accommodation.

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