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I’m the President of Product & Technology at Okta, leading global product, engineering…
Articles by Ric
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Reflections on Product Engineering Management
Reflections on Product Engineering Management
I am often asked by current or aspiring engineering managers (EM): "What do you look for in an engineering leader?" or…
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Hiring Frontend Engineers: Are you a future Medallian?
Hiring Frontend Engineers: Are you a future Medallian?
Private Message (PM) if you think you’ve got the mindset to be a Medallian. You can also apply here.
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Hiring - Oracle Marketing Cloud Data Engineering
Hiring - Oracle Marketing Cloud Data Engineering
Oracle Marketing Cloud Data Engineering I am looking for some rockstars to help build an engineering organization from…
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Ric Smith shared this#Okta Showcase captures the shift happening across the product landscape. This isn’t business as usual—it’s a major rewrite. Identity is becoming the core engine behind the next wave of innovation. To navigate this new era, Okta is introducing the blueprint for the secure agentic enterprise. It’s designed to help every organization answer three critical questions for the agentic era: where are my agents, what can they connect to, and what can they do? To begin operationalizing this framework, I’m also excited to share that Okta for AI Agents will be generally available on April 30th. In this new landscape, speed is a given, but security is the real differentiator. It’s been great to be in New York this week, showing how we’re making identity the foundation for this next wave of autonomous innovation. #OktaSecuresAI
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Ric Smith shared thisI’m excited to share our strong Q4 results. We closed a record amount of total contract value and surpassed $3 billion in annual contract value. These numbers reflect the trust our customers place in us and the real value we're delivering. But what really stands out to me is how we're winning. Our channel partnerships are stronger than ever. Our newer products are driving meaningful expansions with customers. And the early momentum around our AI agent security solutions is something special. The future of the enterprise is agentic. AI agents are becoming as critical to manage as human identities, and that's exactly what we've been building for. With nearly two decades of identity security expertise and the broadest platform in the market, we're positioned to help organizations navigate this shift securely. For FY27, our top priority is clear: #OktaSecuresAI. We're focused on winning, growing, and becoming the standard for securing agentic AI. Kudos to the team. Excited for what's ahead. https://bit.ly/4b5Tt0t
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Ric Smith shared thisEly is one of the best product leaders I have worked with. This is a massive opportunity to work for a great leader and an amazing company!Ric Smith shared thisI’ve got some exciting positions opening up on my team. First up… VP of Product for Access Management. This will be a direct report to me and a member of our product leadership team. You will be leading our largest product line… our core MFA/SSO offerings. Check it out apply via the link below.
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Ric Smith shared thisIdentity is at a turning point. As we move toward an AI-driven future, our mission is to build a platform that is autonomous, intuitive, and secure by default. To help us meet this challenge, I’m proud to welcome four proven leaders to the Okta Platform team: ▶️ Pardha Reddy, CTO: Pardha will lead global engineering and operations, bringing deep expertise in scalable SaaS to our human and AI security strategy. ▶️ Ely Kahn, CPO: Ely is focused on our transition to an autonomous, AI-driven platform, drawing on a career of building high-growth security products at AWS and SentinelOne. ▶️ Stefan Krantz, SVP of Engineering: Stefan will lead our engineering function, leveraging 25+ years of experience in cloud architecture and enterprise-scale software delivery. ▶️ Adriana Corona, VP of Design: Adriana will lead our design strategy, focused on creating intuitive experiences that simplify complex identity and security workflows. This group represents a significant investment in the future of the Okta Platform. I’m energized by the depth of talent we’re bringing together to help our customers navigate the next chapter of cybersecurity. https://bit.ly/4qCEpwL #OktaSecuresAI
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Ric Smith shared this🚀 Identity is officially the control plane for the AI-first enterprise. Q3 FY26 demonstrated the velocity of our execution and the market’s demand for a unified identity platform. We delivered 12% revenue growth, but the underlying architectural shift is the real story. Organizations aren't just adopting AI; they are racing to govern and secure it. A few key takeaways from the quarter: ⭐ Enterprise Scale: Our base of $1M+ ACV customers grew 17%, driven by our specialized GTM strategy. ⭐ The Agentic Future: Auth0 for AI Agents is now GA. Coupled with the validation of Cross App Access (XAA) as an extension of MCP, we are setting the standard for how AI agents securely access data. ⭐ Platform Adoption: We are seeing accelerated uptake of Okta Identity Governance (OIG), Privileged Access (OPA), and Identity Threat Protection. ⭐ Ecosystem Power: Partners were involved in 20 of our top 20 deals. This collaboration is our greatest force multiplier. ⭐ To our team: thank you for the sharp execution. To our customers: thank you for trusting us to secure your most critical assets. #Okta #IdentitySecurity #AI #Cybersecurity
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Ric Smith shared thisI’m proud to announce that Okta has been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Access Management for the ninth consecutive year. This multi-year recognition is powerful proof that our architecture and engineering strategy for delivering a secure, cloud-native platform remains ahead of the market. Joining Okta as President of Products and Technology means inheriting an incredibly strong foundation, and this award is a powerful early confirmation of the team's ability to execute at scale. Gartner's recognition of our leadership in Access Management affirms that our focus on robust product capability and streamlined market execution is successful. The challenge ahead is clear — securing the identity lifecycle for the AI-driven enterprise. This mission requires that we rapidly innovate to manage AI-related identities at scale, orchestrate secure and sophisticated workflows with simplicity, and deliver advanced risk detection that stays ahead of non-traditional threats. This continued leadership position is a direct result of the relentless dedication and engineering excellence of the entire Okta and Auth0 team, and I look forward to working alongside them as we define the next chapter of identity security. https://lnkd.in/gZd8M-yS #GartnerMQ
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Ric Smith shared thisOkta recently announced a new partnership with @Google Workspace and @Omnissa to deliver the Work Transformation Set. I’ve only been working with the Okta Platform team for a short time, but I’m super impressed with the work they’re doing with our partners to move our customers beyond the limitations of legacy technology and give them choice. The Work Transformation Set brings a lot to orgs looking to get out of their legacy ELAs: ➡️AI-powered productivity tools with frictionless collaboration and a consistent user experience ➡️A Zero Trust model to help verify users, devices, and applications before granting access ➡️An open ecosystem for improved business agility Read the full details here and keep an eye on this space for more from us: https://lnkd.in/guWShjsG
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Ric Smith shared thisToday is my first day as President of Product & Technology at Okta. I’m genuinely excited to start this new chapter. Identity has always been at the center of security, and with AI reshaping how organizations operate and defend themselves, the role Okta plays is more important than ever. I’m looking forward to learning from and working with an incredible team at Okta as we focus on securing human and AI identity, protecting the AI agent lifecycle, and continuing to build the most trusted identity platform in the world. I’m grateful to Todd McKinnon and the Okta leadership team for the trust they’ve placed in me. I’m looking forward to learning from and working with such an incredible team as we focus on securing human and AI identity, protecting the AI agent lifecycle, and continuing to build the most trusted identity platform in the world. I would also like to thank my family for their support, as well as the many mentors, colleagues, and friends who have guided and supported me throughout my journey. Your encouragement has been invaluable, and I carry those lessons into this next chapter. Here’s to what’s ahead. #Identity #Okta #AI #Cybersecurity #Leadership https://lnkd.in/g3KAGB5aOkta welcomes Ric Smith as the new President of Products and TechnologyOkta welcomes Ric Smith as the new President of Products and Technology
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Ric Smith shared thisYesterday marked a significant milestone in my life. After 4.5 years, I’ve decided it is time to take on a new set of challenges. Not better, just different. I am deeply grateful to Tomer and the broader SentinelOne leadership team, past and present, for their partnership and friendship throughout this journey. My gratitude not only extends to my peers but also to all the incredible individuals I have had the privilege of working alongside during my time at SentinelOne. I am equally thankful to the SentinelOne board (Dan, Charlene) for their support. And of course, none of this would have been possible without our amazing customers and partners, since we exist to serve and protect you. I wish Ana and her new team all the best as they begin this next chapter. I will not say "good luck," because your talent and track record speak for themselves. I am confident the best is still ahead. Thank you all.Ric Smith shared thisI am humbled and honored to welcome Ana Pinczuk as SentinelOne's new President of Product & Technology. With nearly 30 years of experience leading SaaS and cybersecurity innovation, and a front row seat on our Board since 2022, Ana is uniquely positioned to help us expand our AI-native innovation advantage and accelerate our vision to be the defining platform for securing the AI age. I would also like to thank Ric Smith for his leadership and friendship over the past five years. Ric, your vision, execution and unwavering dedication to protecting our customers have set an example for our company and set the bar for our product and engineering leaders. On behalf of all Sentinels, we wish you well in your next chapter.
Ric Smith commented on a post
2w
Congrats and well deserved, Hackim!
Ric Smith commented on a post
1mo
Hackim - I am honored by the mention. But let's be clear, you had all the talent and drive to get you where you are today and where you are going tomorrow. Keep truck'n and aiming high. Always here for you.
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Ric Smith liked thisRic Smith liked this🎉 Join us in welcoming Chris Corde, our new Chief Product Officer! Chris will be a key driving force in SentinelOne’s next chapter of innovation, as we set the standard for AI Security leadership. As CPO, he will lead our renowned global product organization, driving strategy, roadmap execution, and alignment across our portfolio. A security veteran, Chris brings more than 20 years of experience in cybersecurity and enterprise software. Most recently at Google, he led Product and UX for the Google Cloud Security portfolio — including Google SecOps (formerly Chronicle), Google Threat Intelligence, Chrome Enterprise Premium, and the Mandiant product suite — helping to scale the company’s security platform into a multi-billion dollar ARR business. His proven track record of building and scaling multi-domain security platforms, driving market-defining product innovation, and aligning teams across engineering and go-to-market speaks for itself. Welcome to SentinelOne, Chris! 💜
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Ric Smith liked thisI recently joined Nilay Patel on Decoder to talk about the “SaaSpocalypse,” the future of software, and why the identity layer for AI agents could become the biggest category in cyber. A recurring theme was guardrails, and why they’re critical as organizations race to deploy agents at scale. Every leader I talk to sees the potential of agents, but they also need ways to discover them, understand their connections, manage their permissions, and shut them down when they go rogue. The industry also needs better standards for how agents connect across systems. People are rightly excited by the opportunities that agents unlock. But as I shared with Nilay, that starts with making them secure: https://lnkd.in/gmHs4_nB
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Ric Smith liked thisRic Smith liked thisWow… Today marks 6 years with Okta. It certainly doesn’t feel like it. When I started, I didn’t fully appreciate the weight Identity Security holds. But today, it’s clear how critical getting identity right really is and I am grateful to be part of the journey so far. Reflecting on my journey, I’m incredibly proud of what the team has achieved, staying ahead of market shifts, delivering strong results, and setting new regional milestones along the way. As someone who loves to build, a company with the value Builder and Owner feels right. APJ has grown in both size and maturity, expanding our footprint, deepening customer relationships, and strengthening partnerships. We continue to raise the innovation bar to better support our customers every day. I’m grateful to lead such a strong post-sales organisation and to partner closely across our cross-functional where it feels like we are all one team with one goal. To learn, evolve, and shape how we engage with customers at scale together. The opportunity to work closely globally leading and collaborating across several strategic initiatives has been a stand-out experience working with such diverse talent. I’m proud of our results. We have strong customer and employee satisfaction, leading retention, and helping secure the identities of hundreds of thousands of employees and millions of customers across dozens of countries, cultures and languages. And yet, today still feels like day one. The pace of change with AI is unlike anything we’ve seen. I’m excited to innovate and create with our teams, customers, and partners as we run towards this shift with Okta Secures AI. #Anniversary #OktaSecuresAI
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Ric Smith liked thisRic Smith liked thisAnd that’s a wrap to RSAC 2026! Such a great opportunity to reconnect with the old friends and make new ones. The biggest takeaway for me was that RSA has become an AI conference. The conversation has shifted from simply securing tools like ChatGPT to a much more critical challenge: enabling enterprises to roll out AI agents securely and at scale. To truly unlock the value of AI, these agents need to be authenticated and given access to company resources, and that's where the security conversation is now focused. Check out how Okta secures AI https://lnkd.in/gRaezxPB. A few other observations: The Return of the Endpoint: with the rise of desktop agents, the need to track their behavior is bringing EDR back into the spotlight. SIEM Disruption Continues: Databricks is aiming to kill the SIEM with AI by rolling out Lakewatch, its open data lake solution. Public and Private Market Disconnect: despite public cyber companies retreating to all-time lows and a lack of IPOs, there is no shortage of VCs who are willing to fund Israel-based, AI-native cyber startups, resulting in $50M+ combined Seed and Series A rounds.
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Ric Smith liked thisRic Smith liked thisWe built something new. 🚀 Transforming how defenders operate takes an absolute village, and over the past year, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside an amazing crew of engineers, data scientists, and intel practitioners here at Google. 🤝 We’ve spent countless hours diving deep into a massive problem: the underground cybercrime economy is a sprawling, complex machine that's evolving faster than defenders can track it. 📉 Legacy tools were not designed for an economy. Because they rely on brittle keyword matching, they completely miss the nuance, context, and intent of threat actors. If an adversary doesn't explicitly drop your brand name, traditional monitoring stays completely silent. Today, we are officially introducing our new dark web intelligence capability within #GoogleThreatIntelligence. 🕶️ By leveraging #GoogleGemini, the system moves way beyond simple keywords to autonomously build an organizational profile that is highly specific to your business. 🧠 It tracks the #cybercrime economy at scale, analyzing millions of dark web events daily to elevate only the threats relevant to your mission—connecting the dots even when your company isn't named directly. 🎯 Internal tests show it can analyze these millions of daily external events with 98% accuracy. Thanks to the relentless dedication of this team, we are finally using AI to give defenders a true computational advantage to move faster than the adversary. ⚡ Check out the full announcement below. ⬇️ If you're heading out to #RSAC2026 this week, come hang out at Booth N6062 to see it live! 🎪 Our blog here: https://lnkd.in/gXnY_5Aw #GoogleCloud #Cybersecurity #ThreatIntelligence #RSAC2026 Vijay Ganti Emiliano Martinez Contreras 👩💻Megan DeBlois David Histon Sara Ouled Paloma Echevarría Dópido Vicente Diaz Chris Corde Jon R. Ramsey Francis deSouza Claire Weir Juan Antonio Infantes Díaz Patrik Westin Karin Lundberg Ramya Chitrakar Jose Nazario, Ph.D. Supriya M. TJ Alldridge Tim Gallo Alyssa Reilly (Foo) Shanyn Ronis Tom Snyder Oleg Bondarenko Nicole Oppenheim Jayce Nichols Michael Schilling John Hultquist Sandra Joyce Scott Coull Phil Tully Christopher Galbraith Shane Huntley Ben Cook Robert Lowe Dominic Chua Chris Betz Chris Ralph Bien N. Peter Bailey Sunil Potti Adityashankar Kini Michael Rubin Rodney NelsonBringing dark web intelligence into the AI era | Google Cloud BlogBringing dark web intelligence into the AI era | Google Cloud Blog
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Ric Smith reacted on thisRic Smith reacted on thisI'm joining Anthropic and I couldn't be more excited. After years at Salesforce and Okta building enterprise businesses and teams of great people I'm proud of, I'm stepping into something that feels like the center of gravity of this moment in tech. I'll be working with strategic enterprise accounts, a few of which I have worked for previously, partnering with some of the world's most important companies on how they drive productivity and build product with AI. It's the kind of work that makes everything that came before feel like preparation. I'm deeply grateful 🙏 to Todd McKinnon, Jon Addison, Oliver Parker and Daniel R Stein for giving me the opportunity at Okta, and to the people who made it meaningful every day: Payal Pan - Rob Osterhouse - Joel Hanson - Sandeep Kumbhat - Katy Mann , everyone on my team, and far too many others to name. Okta is a great company and extraordinarily well positioned for what's coming. Identity has never been more relevant, and the best chapters are still ahead. To Sam Werboff, Sarah O'Brien and Michael Hartman, thank you for this shot. Let's ####### go!
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Ric Smith reacted on thisRic Smith reacted on thisThe #Identitypioneers It was such an honor podcasting with Ely Kahn, Chief Product Officer, Okta on Ctrl Alt Podcast with Vida Patil at RSA Conference! From the #WhiteHouse to Okta: Securing the Non-Human Frontier with Ely Kahn....stay tuned! 🎙️🎙️ The 2026 threat landscape has moved beyond humans. We are officially in the era of the Shadow Agent crisis, where autonomous AI agents - often unauthorized - are creating invisible data pipelines and persistent access points that legacy IAM was never built to govern. From White House Cyber Director to Okta CPO, he has a 25-year career spanning federal policy, startup exits, and hyperscaler leadership. Co-founded Sqrrl (acquired by Amazon Web Services (AWS)) and built AWS Security Hub into the platform’s fastest-growing security service. Architected the US National Strategy for #TrustedIdentities and scaled SentinelOne’s Purple AI in redefining threat response. A Harvard University and The Wharton School graduate now pioneering identity governance for the era of autonomous AI and non-human agents. In this #RSA special episode of Ctrl Alt Podcast with Vida Patil , we sit down with Ely Kahn, Chief Product Officer at Okta and former White House Cybersecurity Director. Ely has an unprecedented track record of building the "fastest-growing" security products in history, from AWS Security Hub to SentinelOne’s Purple AI. We dive deep into the technical architecture of 2026 security: 1-> The Non-Human Identity (NHI) Gap: Why API keys and OAuth tokens are the new primary attack vector and how to manage identities that never "log out." 2-> Autonomous Remediation: The specific threshold for moving past AI-assisted detection to letting the system execute self-healing security actions. 3-> Shadow AI Discovery: How to find and govern the "invisible workforce" of AI agents operating inside your enterprise without IT oversight. Whether you’re a CISO re-architecting your stack for agentic AI or a founder looking for the next "whitespace" in the market, this conversation provides the blueprint for the next decade of #identity-centric security. Thank you for making this happen Will Stickney Courtney Ingersoll ! #Cybersecurity #IAM #GenAI #CloudSecurity #Okta #CISO #IdentitySecurity #AI #TechPodcast
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Ric Smith liked thisI'm joining JetStream Security Inc. as Head of Forward Deployed Engineering—and co-leading JetStream AI Advisory with Patrick E. Zeller. Thirty years in cybersecurity teaches you one thing above all else: the gap between what organizations think they've controlled and what's actually happening is where significant risk lives. I've spent my career in that gap—leading incident response, conducting forensic investigations, serving as an expert witness, and translating technical findings into language that legal teams and executives can act on. The through-line is typically the same: by the time I'm in the room, someone is having a bad day. AI is creating that gap again, faster and wider than anything I've seen. Autonomous agents with access to sensitive systems. Recording tools capturing conversations no one consented to. Outputs creating legal exposure that looks perfectly reasonable on the surface. The risk isn't theoretical. It's operational, it's happening now, and most enterprises don't have the visibility to see it. Patrick and I wrote about the risk landscape we're seeing firsthand—and why the organizations that assess their exposure now will be the ones that can actually move forward with confidence. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/geYDe7aG Looking forward to the conversations ahead.Ric Smith liked thisWhat's the AI risk your organization is underestimating? Over the last six months, we've watched rooms full of CISOs and CIOs react the same way. They walk in confident they understand their AI risk. Then they see the full picture—trade secrets entering third-party models, attorney-client privilege being waived without anyone realizing it, autonomous agents operating with access no one approved—and the conversation changes completely. That pattern is why we built JetStream AI Advisory. Led by Patrick E. Zeller, General Counsel, and Keith Weisman, Head of Forward Deployed Engineering, this is expert-led guidance for enterprises navigating the AI risk landscape that most organizations haven't fully mapped yet. Patrick and Keith wrote about what they're seeing — and why the exposure is deeper than most security leaders expect. Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/geYDe7aGThe AI Risks Your Enterprise Isn’t Seeing - Jetstream SecurityThe AI Risks Your Enterprise Isn’t Seeing - Jetstream Security
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