Description
We are looking for an experienced Principal Software Engineer to work on our next-generation Imports Platform team. Imports Platform team is leading a strategic initiative to modernize Okta's identity lifecycle management capabilities by architecting and migrating from a legacy monolithic system to a highly scalable, distributed microservices platform.
As a Principal Software Engineer on the Imports Platform team, you will be a cross-team technical leader who takes difficult, ambiguously defined problems and drives them from ideation through production impact without oversight. You will own projects from zero to landing,defining scope, planning execution, making architectural decisions, and articulating measurable impact across the group.
Execution and Impact
- Own projects from zero to landing, including ideation, planning, scoping, design, implementation, deployment, and clear articulation of project impact
- Generate design ideas and expert solutions for ambiguous, cross-team problems, taking complete ownership from conception through production and customer impact
- Design and architect core, high-performance, scalable distributed systems with full ownership of all production aspects
- Research, determine, and articulate multiple design options balancing short and long-term needs
- Lead product delivery discussions and obtain stakeholder buy-in on technical design and architecture across group stakeholders
- Drive the migration strategy from monolithic to microservices architecture, planning and scoping the effort across multiple teams and aligning project members towards shared goals and standards
Operational Excellence
- Independently troubleshoot complex production incidents spanning cross-team within the group
- Identify systemic operational gaps and initiate cross-team improvement efforts
- Drive improvements in observability, monitoring, alerting, and production support capabilities across the Imports Platform and adjacent services
- Perform root cause analysis on cross-team incidents and drive systemic improvements to prevent recurrence
Engineering Craft
- Relentlessly drive the most important velocity and operations-impacting projects for the team
- Proactively identify process, service, product, and system debt across the team and adjacent areas
- Conduct code reviews with focus on systems design, reliability, performance, scalability, security, and maintainability
- Anticipate, communicate, and manage technical risks in collaboration with other teams and departments
Leadership
- Self-direct cross-functional collaborations as required to meet project goals
- Work with stakeholders to help convert group strategy into actionable milestones
- Participate in group strategy discussions
- Play an important role in decision-making and making judgment calls that benefit the entire team and group
- Lead implementation of solutions while delegating and guiding colleagues on sub-components
Citizenship
- Consistently set aside time for mentorship, collaboration, and technical leadership
- Mentor staff and senior engineers on the team, helping develop the next generation of technical leaders
- Help improve engineering culture through knowledge sharing, process improvements, and raising the bar on engineering practices
Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- 12+ years of software development experience building highly-reliable, mission-critical software at scale
- Deep expertise with object-oriented languages, particularly Java
- Expert-level knowledge of Spring Boot framework, Maven, and modern Java development practices
- Deep understanding of infrastructure-level technologies
- Solid experience with data stores including relational databases, caching layers, and cloud storage
- Experience with one or more Directory services
- Strong experience with RESTful APIs, gRPC, and microservices architecture patterns
Nice to Haves
- Experience with Protocol Buffers and building event-driven systems
- Experience with server-side technologies including advanced caching, asynchronous processing, multi-threading, and concurrency patterns
- Experience in Test-Driven Development and automated testing strategies
- Deep knowledge of Identity and Access Management protocols and technologies