Senior Director, R&D Planning & Operations

We are looking for a seasoned operations leader to run the financial and workforce operating engine for Okta's Product & Technology organisation , a 2,000+ person R&D function spanning the Okta Platform (ORD) and Auth0.

The team is accountable for the budget and workforce strategy components of the R&D Operating Plan, program spend and budget governance, financial compliance including Capitalised Software and R&D tax credit capture, vendor operations, and headcount governance in partnership with Recruiting.

The team also runs the annual goal-setting process and the operating cadence that tracks R&D performance against those goals.

Responsibilities

• Own the budget and workforce strategy components of the R&D Operating Plan, translating corporate strategy and the long-range plan into a fully resourced annual plan across ORD and Auth0.
• Direct R&D budget governance for a 2,000+ person organisation , program spend oversight, variance reporting, fiscal discipline, and executive-level budget reviews with the President of Okta R&D and Finance leadership.
• Own and evolve the P&L framework for R&D lines of business, arming executive leadership with the cost and investment data behind portfolio decisions.
• Model, govern and optimise AI token spend across the P&T organisation , establish the cost baseline and forecasting model, build the framework for measuring return on that spend, and partner with engineering leaders to drive efficiency as consumption scales.
• Lead engineering cost modelling, and partner with FP&A and Deal Desk on account-specific margin analysis to support pricing, packaging and large-deal decisions.
• Own financial compliance for R&D, including Capitalised Software entries and maximising US/Canada R&D tax credit capture.
• Build and own the P&T expense data platform on Snowflake to enable clean line-of-business cost distribution and self-service cost visibility for engineering leaders.
• Set the fiscal year workforce strategy in partnership with Recruiting leadership , headcount governance, real-time allocation tracking, backfills, organisational growth mapping, and location strategy.
• Own the contingent workforce program end to end, including contractor and agency lifecycle, capacity and spend.
• Own vendor operations for R&D , third-party relationships, capacity management, contract renewals, and performance SLAs.
• Continuously refine the financial and workforce operating processes to eliminate friction and ensure the organisation scales efficiently as it grows.
• Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to develop the fiscal year goals and OKRs for the R&D organisation, and run the program cadence , monthly and quarterly reviews , that gauges performance against them.
• Set the standard for AI-first operations , apply AI to financial analysis, dashboard generation and workflow automation, and build a team for which AI fluency is core to how the work gets done rather than an experiment on the side.
• Build, mentor and develop the operations team as a source of durable advantage for Okta R&D, including hiring and developing Director-level leaders.

Qualifications

Must Have

• 12+ years of work experience, including 6+ years leading business operations, R&D / engineering operations, or FP&A functions within a technology company.
• Demonstrated ownership of an engineering or R&D budget at scale , annual planning, in-year governance, variance management, and executive budget review.
• Proven ownership of workforce planning and headcount governance in close partnership with Recruiting and Finance.
• Experience managing a vendor portfolio, including contract negotiation and renewal, SLA management, and capacity planning.
• Hands-on experience with Capitalised Software accounting and R&D tax credit programs in the US and/or Canada.
• Strong understanding of B2B SaaS business models and engineering cost structures.
• Track record of building and developing high-performing operations teams, including hiring and developing Director-level leaders.
• Extensive experience navigating complex data sets and operating with ambiguity, where clean data is not available.
• Demonstrated use of AI to do the substance of finance and operations work , analysis, reporting, dashboard generation and workflow automation , with a clear point of view on where to apply it next.

Good to Have

• Experience operating across multiple product units or post-acquisition entities with distinct financial and operational systems.
• Familiarity with Snowflake, or comparable experience building financial data platforms and self-service reporting.
• Experience modelling or governing consumption-based spend, such as cloud infrastructure or AI / LLM token usage.
• Experience with global workforce and location strategy, including India-based engineering centres.
• Understanding of the B2B enterprise technology space, specifically Enterprise Security.
• Experience running an annual goal-setting or OKR process for a technology organisation, including the review cadence that tracks progress against it.
• Prior experience in FP&A, management consulting, or a central strategy and operations function.
• MBA, or an undergraduate degree with a concentration in Finance, Economics, Statistics or Engineering.

Benefits

• Health, dental and vision insurance
• 401(k)
• Flexible spending account
• Paid leave (including PTO and parental leave)