Senior Director, R&D Planning & Operations
San Francisco · USD 290,000-398,000 / year · 6+ years experience · Posted Oct 16, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 6+ years experience
- Location
- San Francisco
- Salary
- USD 290,000-398,000 / year · Base salary
About the role
- We are looking for a seasoned operations leader to run the financial and workforce operating engine for Okta's Product & Technology organization — a 2,000+ person R&D function spanning the Okta Platform (ORD) and Auth0.
- The team is accountable for the budget and workforce strategy components of the R&D Operating Plan, program spend and budget governance, financial compliance including Capitalized Software and R&D tax credit capture, vendor operations, and headcount governance in partnership with Recruiting.
Responsibilities
- Own the budget and workforce strategy components of the R&D Operating Plan, translating corporate strategy and the long-range plan into a fully resourced annual plan across ORD and Auth0.
- Direct R&D budget governance for a 2,000+ person organization — program spend oversight, variance reporting, fiscal discipline, and executive-level budget reviews with the President of Okta R&D and Finance leadership.
- Own and evolve the P&L framework for R&D lines of business, arming executive leadership with the cost and investment data behind portfolio decisions.
- Model, govern and optimize AI token spend across the P&T organization — establish the cost baseline and forecasting model, build the framework for measuring return on that spend, and partner with engineering leaders to drive efficiency as consumption scales.
- Lead engineering cost modeling, and partner with FP&A and Deal Desk on account-specific margin analysis to support pricing, packaging and large-deal decisions.
- Own financial compliance for R&D, including Capitalized Software entries and maximizing US/Canada R&D tax credit capture.
- Build and own the P&T expense data platform on Snowflake to enable clean line-of-business cost distribution and self-service cost visibility for engineering leaders.
- Set the fiscal year workforce strategy in partnership with Recruiting leadership — headcount governance, real-time allocation tracking, backfills, organizational growth mapping, and location strategy.
- Own the contingent workforce program end to end, including contractor and agency lifecycle, capacity and spend.
- Own vendor operations for R&D — third-party relationships, capacity management, contract renewals, and performance SLAs.
Requirements
- 12+ years of work experience, including 6+ years leading business operations, R&D / engineering operations, or FP&A functions within a technology company.
- Demonstrated ownership of an engineering or R&D budget at scale — annual planning, in-year governance, variance management, and executive budget review.
- Proven ownership of workforce planning and headcount governance in close partnership with Recruiting and Finance.
- Experience managing a vendor portfolio, including contract negotiation and renewal, SLA management, and capacity planning.
- Hands-on experience with Capitalized Software accounting and R&D tax credit programs in the US and/or Canada.
- Strong understanding of B2B SaaS business models and engineering cost structures.
- Track record of building and developing high-performing operations teams, including hiring and developing Director-level leaders.
- Extensive experience navigating complex data sets and operating with ambiguity, where clean data is not available.
- Demonstrated use of AI to do the substance of finance and operations work — analysis, reporting, dashboard generation and workflow automation — with a clear point of view on where to apply it next.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience operating across multiple product units or post-acquisition entities with distinct financial and operational systems.
- Familiarity with Snowflake, or comparable experience building financial data platforms and self-service reporting.
- Experience modeling or governing consumption-based spend, such as cloud infrastructure or AI / LLM token usage.
- Experience with global workforce and location strategy, including India-based engineering centers.
- Understanding of the B2B enterprise technology space, specifically Enterprise Security.
- Experience running an annual goal-setting or OKR process for a technology organization, including the review cadence that tracks progress against it.
- Prior experience in FP&A, management consulting, or a central strategy and operations function.
- MBA, or an undergraduate degree with a concentration in Finance, Economics, Statistics or Engineering.
Benefits
- health, dental and vision insurance
- 401(k)
- flexible spending account
- paid leave (including PTO and parental leave)
- equity
- bonus
Workplace
- We expect this leader to work from the office multiple days each week.
Skills
- Snowflake
- FP&A
