Manager, Presales Innovation & Delivery Center

About the Role

This is an exciting opportunity for a seasoned Pre-Sales Leader to join Oktas Office of the Field CTO (OFCTO) and help build a Global Presales Innovation & Delivery Center a new, high-impact function that powers scale, efficiency, and innovation across our Solutions Engineering organization.

As the foundational Manager, Presales Innovation & Delivery Center, you won''t be managing deal-specific customer engagements. Instead, you will be a Global Force Multiplier, leading a specialized team to create high-leverage technical assets, standardized architectures, and automation that accelerate the sales cycle for thousands of customers and enable hundreds of field Solutions Engineers (SEs) worldwide.

This team will operate under the strategic and operational direction of the OFCTO AMER leadership, serving as an extension of their technical vision and priorities. The center will act as specialists to the specialists transforming the OFCTOs strategy into tangible, scalable assets, automation frameworks, and delivery mechanisms that amplify presales excellence across all regions.

The Opportunity

As Senior Manager, Presales Innovation & Delivery Center, you will establish and lead this new team based in Bangalore, partnering closely with OFCTO AMER leadership and specialists to deliver measurable business impact.This leader will be tasked with building out this specialized organization from the ground up.

A core function of this role is deep, strategic partnership with the OFCTO AMER leadership and specialized teams. The ultimate measure of success for this position will be the demonstrated ability to deliver significant and measurable business impact, specifically by driving innovation and enhancing delivery capabilities within the presales domain. You will be responsible for defining the centers operational rhythm, building and mentoring the initial team, and serving as a critical strategic liaison between the global SE field and the Okta Product teams. This is a rare opportunity to combine technical mastery, strategic program management, and people leadership with a direct, scalable impact on global revenue.

What youll be doing

As a Senior Manager, Presales Innovation & Delivery Office of the Field CTO you will:

Strategy, Vision, and Success Measurement

• Define the strategy and success metrics for the technical pre-sales innovation center in collaboration with OFCTO AMER leadership, focusing on effective and efficient task offloading, execution, and delivery.
• Strategic Alignment: Collaborate with Presales, Product, Demo Engineering, Enablement, Marketing to keep track of new product launches

Team Leadership and Development

• Understand the talent landscape to design and execute a comprehensive hiring strategy, partnering with Recruitment to source, attract, and hire top talent in Bangalore, thereby growing the team from scratch.
• Provide coaching and career development to cultivate team talent.
• Effectively balance the team''s workload and capacity while strategically building talent for future demand.
• Champion and nurture the Okta culture within the new India office and within your team.
• Maintain a high level of technical proficiency and be prepared to step in and be hands-on with the team when necessary.

Operational Excellence and Execution

• Partner with stakeholders across OFCTO, Product, and Demo Engineering to define, build, and deliver high-impact technical assets that align with strategic priorities and initiatives.
• Establish and oversee structured project management processes to ensure alignment, visibility, and on-time execution by tracking priorities, deliverables, and dependencies across OFCTO initiatives.
• Manage the creation of technical assets and establish essential support frameworks.
• Lead initiatives for driving automation, maintain environment readiness, and ensure overall operational excellence.

What youll bring to the role:

• Management & Team Scaling:

• At least 5+ years of pre-sales Management experience with supervisory responsibilities
• Proven ability to manage the recruitment process and scale a team effectively.

• Technical Sales & Domain Expertise:

• Strong background in Solutions Engineering, Sales Engineering, Technical Account Management, or Pre-Sales.
• Expertise in Cybersecurity and/or a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) environment.

• Program & Project Management:

• Proven experience in program management within a technical organization, including past experience as a Program Manager.
• Demonstrated ability to apply project management principles (e.g., Agile, Kanban) to manage multiple concurrent technical and operational initiatives.
• Experience using project management tools (e.g., Asana, Jira, Smartsheet, or Monday.com) to plan, track, and report on deliverables across teams and stakeholders.

• Operational Excellence & Efficiency:

• Proven ability to drive efficiency and scale operations through the identification and utilization of automation opportunities, including modern development and AI tooling.
• Experience managing teams responsible for technical content creation (e.g., guides, templates, demos, videos, troubleshooting documentation).

• Talent Development & Global Support:

• Must have experience developing soft skills in early-career talent.
• Ability to provide support for the AMER Time Zone.

And extra credit if you have the following

• 10+ years of combined experience across presales, solution architecture, or technical consulting.
• At least 4+ years of hands-on experience as a Solution Architect, designing and delivering complex security solutions in enterprise environments.
• Experience supporting Centre of Excellence / Global In-house Centre (GIC) experience.
• Knowledge of at least some of the following technologies: IAM, CIAM, SASE, IGA, PAM, CNAPP, MDM, Directory Services.
• Prior experience acting as a Product Manager or Product Marketing liaison.