Okta

A US identity security company with UK operations in London, helping organisations control who can log in to what.

About Okta

Okta is an identity security company. Its products manage logins and access, so the right people and systems can get into the right tools safely. If you have ever used one login to open several work apps, or used "Sign in with" on a website, that is the kind of thing identity software does. Okta's products include single sign-on (one login for many systems) and tools to protect customers' accounts. Wikipedia says it bought Auth0, another identity company, in 2021, and in 2025 announced capabilities for building secure AI agents.

Okta was founded in 2009 by Todd McKinnon and Frederic Kerrest, who had worked together at Salesforce. It started as SaaSure Inc. and was renamed Okta in 2010. It listed on the Nasdaq in 2017 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Its UK careers site is part of its main website and its UK roles are listed on job boards such as Built In London, but the UK careers page does not name UK offices and we did not find UK headcount.

Its UK careers page frames its mission as identity security in the AI era: "Okta is building the locks for the autonomous future." Its values are listed as: Love our customers; Always secure, always on; Build and own it; Drive what's next. Its ways of working are: Raise your own bar; Turn action into traction; Thrive in change; Move fast; Simplify; Repeat.

The company's work includes workforce identity (secure logins for employees) and customer identity (secure logins for the customers of other businesses). Okta describes a high-performance culture that values excellence, urgency and ownership of outcomes, with employee resource groups for community and mentoring. Through Okta for Good and a 1% Pledge, it says it commits time, product and equity to community causes, including volunteering and pro bono tech support. These are company claims.

For young people, Okta runs an early careers and internship programme. Its page says interns are "here to build, not just shadow": software engineering interns ship real code and business development interns work with customers. Interns get a dedicated manager and a one-to-one mentor, plus workshops and an executive speaker series. Roles include software engineering, site reliability, product analytics, sales, customer success and product marketing. The sites listed on that page are in the US, Canada, Ireland, India and Australia, with 12-week summer internships in the US and 16-week in Canada; the page does not list the UK, and the UK careers page says intern locations are shown on a map behind a form. So we could not confirm UK internships. Ask Okta directly or check its UK careers page for current openings.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Secure logins and access for employees.', 'title': 'Workforce identity'}
• {'desc': 'Secure logins for the customers of other businesses.', 'title': 'Customer identity'}
• {'desc': 'Protecting accounts and access, including for AI agents.', 'title': 'Identity security and AI agents'}

Key facts

• Founded: 2009 by Todd McKinnon and Frederic Kerrest (renamed Okta in 2010)
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California
• Mission (UK careers page): building the locks for the autonomous future
• Values include "Always secure. Always on."
• Internship programme exists; UK locations not confirmed (listed sites are US, Canada, Ireland, India, Australia)

Website: www.okta.com