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About the Role
As the Senior Director of Mission Critical Support, you are a crucial executive leader within the Larger Enterprise support organization, reporting directly to the Vice President of Supportability, Escalations, Mission Critical, and Trust. You will lead a highly strategic, global team dedicated to driving a premier level of service that helps our top-tier customers achieve their strategic outcomes. You will maintain a single-minded focus on ensuring our customers receive a differentiated, world‑class support experience while extracting maximum value from their Okta investment.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
- P&L Transition & Ownership: Help drive the shift of the Mission Critical Support organization toward a P&L structure. Transition the current model into a sustainable business unit, balancing resource investments with the delivery of a highly differentiated, premium service offering.
- GTM & Sales Partnership: Partner closely with the Go‑To‑Market (GTM) and Sales organizations to integrate premium support offerings into the core sales motion. Act as an executive sponsor during pre‑sales, expansions, and renewals to drive premium support attach rates and articulate business value and ROI to C‑level customers.
- Strategic Service Design: Drive the strategic vision, market research, and competitive analysis to define and refine mission‑critical support service offerings, building a premier level of service tailored to driving successful strategic outcomes for our top customers.
- Proactive Governance: Design and scale proactive support and governance methodologies to deliver personalized, high‑touch support to critical customers. Establish frameworks for support plans, health checks, risk mitigation, and executive reporting cadences.
- Organizational Performance: Develop and evaluate advanced measurement criteria to assess organizational health, including Customer Satisfaction (CSAT/NPS), Net Retention Rate (NRR), operating efficiency, premium support attach rates, and overall value delivered to top accounts.
- Leadership of Leaders: Direct management responsibilities for a highly strategic, global team, including managing Directors and Managers. Foster a culture of high performance, accountability, and morale.
- Strategic Goal Setting: Define multi‑year organizational strategies and set quarterly OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) that align with overarching corporate objectives.
- Talent Strategy: Attract, hire, develop, and retain top talent across all functional roles. Provide executive coaching, ongoing performance feedback, and succession planning.
- Global Advocacy: Advocate for your organization to drive global visibility. Collaborate across boundaries on enterprise‑wide process improvements, systemic customer concerns, and localized business objectives.
- Executive Escalation: Serve as the ultimate point of escalation for key accounts and critical issue management, engaging directly with customer executives to rebuild trust and map out resolution strategies.
- Cross‑Functional Alignment: Build and maintain deep cross‑functional alignment with Product, Sales, Professional Services, and Customer Success Management.
- Risk Mitigation: Anticipate and mitigate enterprise‑level risks by leveraging industry experience, maintaining close involvement with macro‑organizational challenges, and keeping a firm grasp on the big picture.
Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- 15+ years of industry experience with strong exposure to Customer Support, Professional Services, or Customer Success in a software, SaaS, or systems development environment.
- 8+ years of leadership experience managing highly strategic, global teams in a fast‑paced, enterprise‑level environment, including proven experience managing managers/directors.
- P&L Experience: Demonstrated experience managing budgets, forecasting, and driving the transition toward (or actively running) a P&L for premium service or support offerings.
- GTM Alignment: Deep experience partnering with sales and marketing teams, participating in customer pitches, and driving value‑focused service motions.
- Program Leadership: Enterprise program management experience—managing complex, global initiatives from inception to successful value realization.
- Core Competencies: Executive Leadership, P&L Experience, Customer Relations, Organizational Design, Data Analysis, Effective Communication, Critical Thinking, Business Insight, and Technical Curiosity.
- Operational Agility: The desire and ability to operate strategically at a 10,000‑foot level, while retaining the ability to roll up your sleeves and get into the trenches when the mission requires it.
- Process Expertise: Experience defining and scaling support processes in a major SaaS company (e.g., SFDC, ServiceNow, Twilio, Netsuite, Workday).
- Communication: Outstanding executive presence and communication skills (presentation, written, and verbal) to interact with C‑suite customers and internal boards.
- Technical Aptitude: Strong technical affinity; experience working hand‑in‑hand with software, test, and/or system engineering leaders. Familiarity with software development lifecycles, including Agile/Scrum.
- Thrives in a fast‑paced environment with a high rate of change and ambiguity.
Education and Training
- Bachelor's degree required; Master's/MBA degree strongly preferred.
Salary Range
The annual base salary range for this position for candidates located in the San Francisco Bay area is between $242,000—$332,000 USD.
The annual base salary range for this position for candidates located in California (excluding San Francisco Bay Area), Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Washington is between $216,000—$297,000 USD.
The Okta Experience
- Supporting Your Well‑Being
- Driving Social Impact
- Developing Talent and Fostering Connection + Community
Okta is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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