What Does Okta Do?
Millions of people across every industry rely on Okta everyday. When people think of Okta, they often recall the simple experience of logging in to their work accounts. However, behind this simple user experience is a complex system managed by IT and Security teams. It’s a big responsibility – including more than just the sign in widget – and we don’t take that lightly. Okta’s products allow administrators to set access policies, evaluate risk, and ensure that the right people have the right level of access to their tools. We also build secure integrations that make all of this possible and more.
Who We Are: The People Behind the Platform
Making a secure, seamless experience for both workers and their administrators a reality requires deep UX system thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and creative problem-solving. This is where our team truly excels, and we seek these qualities in every hire, from early-career designers to our most tenured Principal-level team members.
Throughout my time at Okta, I’ve seen our team navigate external market changes, reorganizations, and new processes with incredible transparency, empathy, and support for each other. We're a team that is excited to tackle complex problems without straightforward answers, and we bring this passion for problem-solving to every project. Designers are always ready to help each other, whether it’s on a strategy project, a usability fix, or even a demo for our annual customer conference.
As for our design management philosophy, our goal is to create a great organization by helping people grow their careers and learn continuously. Developing our people is the top priority for every design and research manager. Our global team of Product Designers, UX Researchers, Content Designers, and Operations all work as one unified team, giving us visibility across the org and ensuring a cohesive approach to solving our biggest UX challenges.
Our Vision: Securing the Digital World Through Great UX
Okta's vision is to "free everyone to safely use any technology." As the UX team, we work to make this a reality by giving security and IT teams shared visibility into their systems and the knowledge to act. We are currently tackling the new risks posed by the increase of AI usage, working closely with our cross-functional partners to solve these emerging challenges.
The way we build our UX strategy is something that I have found unique and special to Okta Design. We include everyone on the team, gathering their domain expertise and building content to illustrate our vision. Every six months, we refresh our strategy to incorporate the latest insights from our UX research team and reflect new concepts developed by our designers. This inclusive approach makes our strategy a truly collaborative team effort and gives everyone a voice.
Our Collaborative Culture: A Day in the Life
Creating cohesive, end-to-end user flows means we work closely with each other across all levels—from individual contributors (ICs) to senior leadership. Designers often have counterparts on other teams to ensure the full user journey makes sense and are often sharing work with leadership as well. We encourage and celebrate frequent sharing of your work!
We own the design system together, making it a true reflection of what every specific product in the suite needs. Our hybrid operating model for our Design Systems team means that every product designer has a bit of ownership and responsibility to continually unify patterns, working alongside our Principal Product Designers. We also have a dedicated design systems team to help polish those components once the patterns are built.
What this all means is that there’s a lot of opportunities for high visibility and impact of your work across the company regardless of your level. There’s so many chances for everyone to have a voice and represent their own work. You’ll definitely grow your skills for presenting to senior leadership!
Why Join Okta Design?
The biggest takeaways about our team are:
- High impact work: Do work that impacts millions of people around the world every day
- Appreciation for the craft: We love unified systems thinking and focus on the entire end-to-end customer journey.
- A focus on our people: We are dedicated to the growth and well-being of our team members
- Collaborative spirit: We encourage designers to work together across their domains and with other functions.
If this sounds like an interesting environment and a good fit for what you're looking for, we encourage you to apply to our open roles. We look forward to hearing from you!
