Job Description:

We’re looking for someone who can confidently and credibly help lead the organization through a period of massive growth. Like all management positions at Okta, the Sr. Solutions Engineering Manager is expected to be hand- on and leading from the front.

This individual will act as a leader within the Emerging Markets (SMB) Solutions Engineering team and across the larger Okta organization; constantly looking for ways to expand on our success. They will build teams that can execute today; and grow to meet our future needs. Will define and maintain a high bar for expectations and support the team in achieving it. Challenge the team to continually grow. Drive your team’s needs with the product teams in headquarters and use your internal network and the presales leadership team to leverage best practices from around the world.

Qualifications:

• BS or BA degree required.
• 7+ years experience supporting technical sales of enterprise IT solutions to corporate accounts or equivalent industry experience.
• Must be willing and able to act independently, including working at home and alone on client sites.
• Must be a self-starter, with both the ability to work independently or in a team.
• A strong technical background in Information Technology Security is desirable.
• A passion to serve the customer, which has played out in some customer-facing role like consulting or support, ideally sales engineering.
• An ability to quickly communicate complex ideas around a technical topic, ideally on the fly at a whiteboard.
• Understands SaaS business models and preferably has working experience on Saas platforms.
• Knowledge of at least some of the following technologies: IAM, CIAM, VPN, MDM, Active Directory, LDAP.
• Knowledge around the Okta platform and competitor product offerings would be an advantage.
• You are an elite communicator
• Typically 20-30% travel, with peaks of 40%.

Technical Skills/Requirements:

The following skills will further contribute to your credibility and success with your team, our customers, our product teams and your peers:

• Experience selling, designing or deploying an Identity Management Solution.
• Experience with at least one standard network security protocol.
• (ex: OAuth, OAuth2, SAML, LDAP)
• Proven hands-on experience in one or more of the following areas: web (Javascript, HTML, frontend frameworks) development, mobile (iOS, Android) development, backend (Java, C#, Node.js, Python, PHP, Ruby) development, IP-based real-time communications.
• An understanding of core security concerns within a typical application.
• (ex: password hashing, SSL/TLS, encryption at rest, XSS, XSRF)
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, MIS or a comparable field is preferred.

Primary Responsibilities:

Organization

• Provide leadership, guidance and direction to lead a high performing team.
• Manages the hiring, staffing, and development of a diverse and effective workforce.
• Define a technical strategy to support the company objectives.
• Define compensation plan based on goals.
• Develop and execute on a hiring/retention strategy, as well as analyze turnover.
• Define headcount plan to support the company objectives.
• Build a talent pipeline of potential candidates.
• Work with operations and finance to define quarterly budget.

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.

Resource Planning and Allocation

• Define Okta’s roles, responsibilities, and mappings.
• Collaborate with regional sales leadership to prioritize and target team opportunities.
• Review quantitative information to identify and explain trends. Align resources to deliver on commitments and drive results.
• Focus on building capacity to achieve high team performance based on customer and partner resource needs.
• Align resources to deliver on commitments and drive results.

Readiness

• Define a development path for each team in collaboration with other leaders. This will include both internal and external training, and certifications.
• Implement skills assessments.
• Develop and execute Okta’s strategies while identifying opportunities for process improvement. 

Account Engagement

• Participate in and contribute to regular sales forecast and pipeline reviews.
• Lead team to technical account and partner strategies that align to customer business requirements and goals. Assign and/or request for appropriate resources.
• Assist in determining and requesting for domain/solution-focused resources (e.g. Solution Architects, Product Management) when necessary.
• Drive qualified enablement.
• Drive tracking and reporting team metrics in SFDC.

Management Responsibility

• This includes establishing goals, assigning or delegating work, providing on-the-job training, giving guidance to staff, conducting performance evaluations, developing performance improvement plans, taking disciplinary action, and interviewing candidates for open positions.
• Responsible for career development/planning, performance and pay discussions of team members.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Expert project management and negotiation skills.
• Expert knowledge of the Okta product line.
• Ability to navigate and influence in matrix organization.
• Ability to lead in a constantly evolving environment, manage multiple priorities and ambiguity.
• Ability to converse with technical and business personnel fluently at all levels of the organization.
• Exceptional presentation skills with the ability to articulate complex technologies.
• Ability to partner effectively with sales executives to identify new sales strategies and market opportunities.

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