Level

Okta

Staff Software Engineer, AI Platform & Infrastructure

Okta is hiring a Staff Software Engineer, AI Platform & Infrastructure in San Francisco, United States. Level rates it ; you can apply on Okta.

Level's read on this job

  • Works on AI ●●●○ is how Level rates this software engineer role: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
  • The posting mentions OpenAI, Claude and Anthropic among its tools and skills.
  • Level classes it as a senior role.
  • Okta has 388 other open roles on Level.
  • Posted in the last few days.

AI in this role

Build and maintain backend platform and infrastructure for autonomous AI agents and digital workers.

openaiclaudeanthropiclanggraphbedrockpgvectorcodexpythonawsfastapipostgresqlclickhouse+1
ai-agentsbackendinfrastructuredistributed-systemsapi-design

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.

The Software Engineer Opportunity

The team that built Jeeva AI is building Digital Workers, a new suite of autonomous agents for identity operations and security inside Okta. The team works directly with Todd McKinnon, Okta's co-founder and CEO, with the opportunity to bring this product to Okta's 20,000+ customers. You will help shape the product with the ownership and pace of a startup and the resources of a public company.

You will build the backend and AWS platform that keep these workers running around the clock. The team owns services, connectors, workflow execution, data and production reliability. You will write Python services and infrastructure code that let workers make approved changes and preserve evidence.

About You

Reliable builder: You design for failure and prove that recovery works.

Hands-on engineer: You write production services and improve the tools engineers use every day.

Strong owner: You follow changes through deployment, monitoring and production support.

What you will be doing

  • Build Python FastAPI services, data models and reusable connectors for Okta, AWS, ServiceNow and enterprise applications.
  • Implement durable execution with Step Functions, SQS and EventBridge. Handle approval waits, rate limits, duplicate events and safe retries.
  • Manage PostgreSQL schemas, indexes, query performance and pgvector retrieval. Enforce tenant isolation across APIs, storage and credentials.
  • Build model API access for OpenAI, Anthropic and supported AWS paths, including credentials, quotas, timeouts and cost controls.
  • Add an analytics pipeline for worker events, traces, tokens, findings and verified outcomes. Evaluate ClickHouse and comparable systems such as BigQuery.
  • Create reliable usage records and reconciliation. Prevent retries, duplicate findings and incomplete work from being counted as new outcomes.
  • Build deployment pipelines, infrastructure as code, observability and safe release controls across development, staging and production.
  • Implement scoped write services, kill switches, audit retention and backup recovery. Test failures and verify that sensitive changes actually took effect.

What you will bring to the role

  • Experience building and operating production backend or distributed systems, with strong coding skills in Python or a comparable language.
  • Hands-on AWS experience with APIs, queues, containers, networking, IAM and databases.
  • Strong SQL and data modeling skills. Experience diagnosing database performance and asynchronous system failures.
  • Experience with infrastructure as code, deployment automation, observability and production incident response.
  • Sound judgment about customer data, tenant isolation, credentials and safe changes to external systems.

Scope by level

Senior: Own a backend or platform component, including deployment, tests and production operation.

Staff: Lead a domain such as execution, tenant security, data infrastructure or reliability across teams.

Principal: Set shared backend and platform contracts, resolve system tradeoffs and implement foundational services.

Our stack

Python FastAPI, AWS Step Functions, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Lambda, SQS, EventBridge, API Gateway and containers. Data and security use RDS PostgreSQL, pgvector, S3 Object Lock, KMS, Secrets Manager, CloudWatch and CloudTrail. The frontend uses React and AWS Amplify.

OpenAI and Anthropic model integrations are planned. We are also adding an agent harness and dedicated analytics. ClickHouse is a hiring focus for analytics, and BigQuery or equivalent experience is relevant. The harness and analytics choices remain open.

And extra credit for

  • ClickHouse, BigQuery or comparable analytics systems, event ingestion and usage metering.
  • Multi-tenant SaaS, OAuth, OIDC, SAML, SCIM or enterprise connector development.
  • Deploying agent frameworks, including Claude Agent SDK, Codex SDK, Strands Agents, Deep Agents or LangGraph. Prior identity experience is optional.

P26060_3596531

#LI-RWI

Below is the annual base salary range for candidates located in San Francisco Bay Area. 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 the San Francisco Bay area is between: $194,000—$267,300 USD

The Okta Experience

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.

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.

Notice for New York City Applicants & Employees: Okta may use Automated Employment Decision Tools (AEDT), as defined by New York City Local Law 144, that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, or other automated processes to assist in our recruitment and hiring process. In accordance with NYC Local Law 144, if you are an applicant or employee residing in New York City, please click here to view our full NYC AEDT Notice.

How we rate this

Staff Software Engineer, AI Platform & Infrastructure at Okta rates 65 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

AI agentsBackendInfrastructureDistributed SystemsAPI DesignOpenAIClaudeAnthropic

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Pay

Typical software engineer job
$168k

This posting doesn't list pay. Use the typical software engineer figure when pay comes up. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

  1. How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
  2. Tell me about a project where backend was part of your work. What did you do?
  3. Tell me about a project where infrastructure was part of your work. What did you do?
  4. Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
  5. Tell me about a project where api design was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: AI agents, Backend, Infrastructure, Distributed Systems, and API Design. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
  • Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
  • Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.

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