VP, Design
Get to know Okta
Okta is The World’s Identity Company. We free everyone to safely use any technology, anywhere, on any device or app. Our flexible and neutral products, Okta Platform and Auth0 Platform, provide secure access, authentication, and automation, placing identity at the core of business security and growth.
At Okta, we celebrate a variety of perspectives and experiences. We are not looking for someone who checks every single box - we’re looking for lifelong learners and people who can make us better with their unique experiences.
Join our team! We’re building a world where Identity belongs to you.
The Design team at Okta works cross-functionally to deliver strategic and tactical insights that inform product, design, and engineering decisions. Each researcher owns complex, technical product areas and drives their own roadmap. The team primarily specializes in qualitative research, with growing quantitative expertise, and partners closely with ResearchOps, Content Design, Visual Design, and Product Design to maximize impact.The Role
We’re looking for a strategic, people-first leader to grow and elevate our UX Research function, strengthen research influence across all levels of Okta, and deepen collaboration with Product and Engineering. This role reports directly to the Chief Design Officer.What You’ll Do
- Lead and grow the Design function: Manage research managers and ICs across Okta’s Workforce and Personal product portfolios.
- Be a people-first leader: Foster well-being, belonging, and professional growth across the team.
- Champion inclusion: Build and sustain a diverse, equitable, and inclusive team culture.
- Expand strategic impact: Partner with Product, Engineering, and Design leaders to embed research into product strategy and decision-making.
- Shape team culture and vision: Define and uphold the UXR team’s values, direction, and operational excellence.
- Drive scalability: Identify and address organizational or process gaps to support UXR’s growth and efficiency.
- Represent Design internally and externally: Advocate for user-centered decision-making across Okta and serve as a visible thought leader for the research community.
- Proven leadership: 5+ years managing and developing UX research managers and teams.
- Deep research expertise: 10+ years conducting and leading multi-method UX research with measurable product and business impact.
- Team builder: Experience hiring, developing, and retaining high-performing, values-driven research teams.
- Strategic mindset: Skilled in defining research strategy and translating insights into business and product outcomes.
- Influential communicator: Exceptional storytelling and executive communication skills, with the ability to connect research to business value.
- Collaborative operator: Proven success partnering cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Design.
- Adaptability: Comfortable leading through growth, transformation, and change.
At Okta, our leaders embody our five core competencies:
- Builds Effective Teams – Creates strong, diverse teams that deliver shared results.
- Demonstrates Self-Awareness (EQ) – Reflects, listens, and grows from feedback.
- Develops Talent – Invests in people’s growth and career goals.
- Drives Results – Achieves outcomes, even in challenging environments.
- Strategic Mindset – Anticipates future needs and shapes breakthrough strategies.
- 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.
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.
What you can look forward to as a Full-Time Okta employee!
- Amazing Benefits
- Making Social Impact
- Developing Talent and Fostering Connection + Community at Okta
Okta cultivates a dynamic work environment, providing the best tools, technology and benefits to empower our employees to work productively in a setting that best and uniquely suits their needs. Each organization is unique in the degree of flexibility and mobility in which they work so that all employees are enabled to be their most creative and successful versions of themselves, regardless of where they live. Find your place at Okta today! https://www.okta.com/company/careers/.
Some roles may require travel to one of our office locations for in-person onboarding.
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.
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/.
Average salary estimate
If an employer mentions a salary or salary range on their job, we display it as an "Employer Estimate". If a job has no salary data, Rise displays an estimate if available.
SOSi is hiring a mid-level Graphic Developer/Designer to create graphics, multimedia, and interactive intelligence products supporting WMD analysis at a government site in Reston, VA (TS/SCI required).
Lead the UX/UI design and front-end engineering team within AbbVie's Data Science & Analytics organization to translate complex analytics into intuitive, scalable user experiences and drive adoption across cross-functional stakeholders.
Peacock Creative Marketing is hiring a Senior Video Editor to shape premium trailers and promos with expert editorial vision and technical finishing skills in a hybrid New York City role.
Lead creative strategy and teams at Colibri Group as the Real Estate Creative Director, shaping brand storytelling and delivering cross-channel campaigns for the real estate portfolio.
A product-design internship at Tinder offering hands-on experience creating UX/UI designs, prototypes, and design-system components while working closely with designers, engineers, product, and data teams in a hybrid SF or NY environment.
Sourcebooks seeks a Production Design Summer Intern to help create and produce visually compelling book covers while learning print production and Adobe Creative Suite in a hybrid Naperville/remote internship.
Work hands-on with the New York Red Bulls creative team as a Graphic Design Intern producing fan-facing graphics across the club’s teams.
Lead lighting and AV design projects remotely for Luna Lux—delivering studio-to-site design, documentation, and on-site integration for museums, theme parks, and live events.
Instrumentl is seeking a Senior Brand Designer to lead a major rebrand and drive marketing creative across channels while working remotely with Pacific-time overlap.
Okta is a leading identity and access management company headquartered in San Francisco, California that is committed to allowing people to access applications on any device at any time, while still enforcing strong security policies.
8 jobs
🔮
Hi, I'm Risa! Your AI Career Copilot
you, just ask me below!
