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OktaOktaSan Francisco, CA

Staff Software Engineer, Agent Gateway

Leads architecture and delivery of secure, highly available backend services for an identity-aware gateway connecting enterprise AI agents to authorized tools and data. Requires 7+ years of distributed backend experience, production Java or Go, and deep OAuth, OIDC, and token-exchange expertise.

194k – 267k/yr
Hybrid7+ YOEBackend Engineering

About the role

Responsibilities

  • Own the end-to-end design and delivery of major gateway capabilities, including virtual MCP server aggregation, Agent-to-Agent brokered delegation, and on-premises deployment models.
  • Design secure gateway handling for credentials, tokens, tenant isolation, and audit logging.
  • Track and shape MCP, OAuth token exchange, and agent identity specifications; incorporate production lessons into specifications and reference implementations.
  • Use agentic development tools such as Claude Code and MCP-connected agents for design, code generation, code review, and operations.
  • Drive code review, testing standards, incident retrospectives, and technical design documentation.
  • Mentor engineers and foster alignment across adjacent groups.

Requirements

  • 7+ years building distributed, highly available production backend systems.
  • Hands-on experience shipping production services in Java and/or Go.
  • Strong grounding in OAuth 2.0, OIDC, and RFC 8693 token exchange.
  • Experience implementing spec-driven code.
  • Experience shipping identity, authorization, or edge-of-network services at scale.
  • Understanding of operational practices including rollouts, feature flags, observability, and incident response.
  • Working fluency with agentic development tools, including Claude Code, MCP servers, or AI-assisted code review.
  • Direct communication style and strong technical design documentation skills.
  • Ability to work across data-plane services and identity control planes.

Nice-to-haves

  • Experience building or operating an MCP server, agent framework, or LLM-facing gateway in production.
  • Experience with multi-tenant SaaS platforms at Okta or an equivalent enterprise identity provider.
  • Contributions to standards work in the agent identity space, including MCP, OAuth, GNAP, or DCR.

Compensation and Benefits

  • Annual base salary range for candidates in the San Francisco Bay Area: $194,000–$267,000 USD.
  • Equity, where applicable, bonus, health, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), flexible spending account, and paid leave, including PTO and parental leave.

Skills

JavaGooauth 2.0OIDCrfc 8693mcpgnapdcrDistributed Systemsbackend servicestoken exchangeauthorizationObservabilityfeature flagsClaude Code

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