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.
About the role:
As the Senior Director of Mission Critical Support, you are a crucial executive leader within the Larger Enterprise support organization, reporting directly to the Vice President of Supportability, Escalations, Mission Critical, and Trust. You will lead a highly strategic, global team dedicated to driving a premier level of service that helps our top-tier customers be successful at achieving their strategic outcomes. You will maintain a single-minded focus on ensuring our customers receive a differentiated, world-class support experience while extracting maximum value from their Okta investment.
The ideal candidate is a seasoned, business-minded executive with a proven track record of leading mission-critical support teams, driving operational excellence, and serving as a strategic partner to the Go-To-Market (GTM) engine in a fast-paced, high-growth enterprise software company (preferably in the security space). Employing both a strategic visionary mindset and a rigorous operational approach is a must. You will play a pivotal role in helping to drive the shift of this business unit to operate as a P&L, designing a premier service experience, and acting as an executive sponsor across complex, multi-year programs and sales motions.
Job Duties and Responsibilities:
- P&L Transition & Ownership: Help drive the shift of the Mission Critical Support organization toward a P&L structure. Transition the current model into a sustainable business unit, balancing resource investments with the delivery of a highly differentiated, premium service offering.
- GTM & Sales Partnership: Partner closely with the Go-To-Market (GTM) and Sales organizations to integrate premium support offerings into the core sales motion. Act as an executive sponsor during pre-sales, expansions, and renewals to drive premium support attach rates and articulate business value and ROI to C-level customers.
- Strategic Service Design: Drive the strategic vision, market research, and competitive analysis to define and refine mission-critical support service offerings, building a premier level of service tailored to driving successful strategic outcomes for our top customers.
- Proactive Governance: Design and scale proactive support and governance methodologies to deliver personalized, high-touch support to critical customers. Establish frameworks for support plans, health checks, risk mitigation, and executive reporting cadences.
- Organizational Performance: Develop and evaluate advanced measurement criteria to assess organizational health, including Customer Satisfaction (CSAT/NPS), Net Retention Rate (NRR), operating efficiency, premium support attach rates, and overall value delivered to top accounts.
- Leadership of Leaders: Direct management responsibilities for a highly strategic, global team, including managing Directors and Managers. Foster a culture of high performance, accountability, and morale.
- Strategic Goal Setting: Define multi-year organizational strategies and set quarterly OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) that align with overarching corporate objectives.
- Talent Strategy: Attract, hire, develop, and retain top talent across all functional roles. Provide executive coaching, ongoing performance feedback, and succession planning.
- Global Advocacy: Advocate for your organization to drive global visibility. Collaborate across boundaries on enterprise-wide process improvements, systemic customer concerns, and localized business objectives.
- Executive Escalation: Serve as the ultimate point of escalation for key accounts and critical issue management, engaging directly with customer executives to rebuild trust and map out resolution strategies.
- Cross-Functional Alignment: Build and maintain deep cross-functional alignment with Product, Sales, Professional Services, and Customer Success Management.
- Risk Mitigation: Anticipate and mitigate enterprise-level risks by leveraging industry experience, maintaining close involvement with macro-organizational challenges, and keeping a firm grasp on the big picture.
Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
- 15+ years of industry experience with strong exposure to Customer Support, Professional Services, or Customer Success in a software, SaaS, or systems development environment.
- 8+ years of leadership experience managing highly strategic, global teams in a fast-paced, enterprise-level environment, including proven experience managing managers/directors.
- P&L Experience: Demonstrated experience managing budgets, forecasting, and driving the transition toward (or actively running) a P&L for premium service or support offerings.
- GTM Alignment: Deep experience partnering with sales and marketing teams, participating in customer pitches, and driving value-focused service motions.
- Program Leadership: Enterprise program management experience—managing complex, global initiatives from inception to successful value realization.
- Core Competencies: Executive Leadership, P&L Experience, Customer Relations, Organizational Design, Data Analysis, Effective Communication, Critical Thinking, Business Insight, and Technical Curiosity.
- Operational Agility: The desire and ability to operate strategically at the 10,000-foot level, while retaining the ability to roll up your sleeves and get into the trenches when the mission requires it.
- Process Expertise: Experience defining and scaling support processes in a major SaaS company (e.g., SFDC, ServiceNow, Twilio, Netsuite, Workday, etc.).
- Communication: Outstanding executive presence and communication skills (presentation, written, and verbal) to interact with C-suite customers and internal boards.
- Technical Aptitude: Strong technical affinity; experience working hand-in-hand with software, test, and/or system engineering leaders. Familiarity with software development lifecycles, including Agile/Scrum.
- Thrives in a fast-paced environment with a high rate of change and ambiguity.
Education and Training:
- Bachelor's degree required; Master's/MBA degree strongly preferred.
Okta is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
#LI-MM1
#LI-Hybrid
P25086
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: https://rewards.okta.com/us.
The Okta Experience
- Supporting Your Well-Being
- Driving Social Impact
- Developing Talent and Fostering Connection + Community
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.
Okta is committed to complying with applicable data privacy and security laws and regulations. For more information, please see our Personnel and Job Candidate Privacy Notice at https://www.okta.com/legal/personnel-policy/.