# William Dawson

> Building @ arcade.dev | MCP auth working group(s)

Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/williamdawson

I like building innovative products. I like being involved in important, strategic decisions and taking part in industry-defining technology shifts. Learning is like breathing for me; it's habitual and I have a very hard time without it.

## Work Experience
### Founding Software Engineer @ Arcade.dev
Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area

### Senior Software Engineer @ ngrok
Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco, California, United States
Tech Lead on the Security and Identity Team

### Principal Product Manager @ Kong Inc.
Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco, California, United States
Product lead for Insomnia, helping people build, test, and deploy APIs collaboratively.

### Group Product Manager @ Okta, Inc.
Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco, California, United States

### Senior Product Manager @ Okta, Inc.
Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area
Continued to lead and launch the Okta Identity Engine. Ran a successful beta program, incorporated learnings, and scaled effort across the entire product team to deliver a cohesive solution across all other product areas. Helped to build culture and process to enable velocity across the product team.

### Product Manager @ Okta, Inc.
Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | San Francisco Bay Area
Managed Okta's Universal Directory product then transitioned onto leading Okta's Identity Engine initiative, which powers customizable access experiences for Okta's customers with low to no code. Leveraged technical skills and customer experience focus to chart a rearchitecture of Okta's core access product.

### Principal Software Engineer @ Okta, Inc.
Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area
Continued to lead in the System Architect role for mobile products. Helped lead the transition away from mobility management products to a device-aware access product, Device Trust. Outlined technical architeture for Windows 10, macOS, iOS, and Android.

### Staff Software Engineer @ Okta, Inc.
Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area
Take on System Architect role for the mobile products where I was responsible for the technical product architecture of all mobile products. Partnered closely with the Product Owner and Dev Manager to build a vision for the product. Review code contributed from about twenty engineers across four scrum teams and advised and mentored engineers.

### Senior Software Engineer @ Okta, Inc.
Jan 2014 – Jan 2015
Helped set the technical vision on the System Architecture team to SoA, reusability, testability, efficiency. Planned and implemented the removal of scheduled read-only mode in deployment choreography. Embedded with the Analytics team to build a new event pipeline with AWS Kinesis, Storm, Elasticsearch, and a Java microservice. Continued ownership of the Policy Engine as it expanded into even more use-cases and products. Put more emphasis on reviewing code across the organization and diversifying skillset. Actively participated in Okta's online customer community; helping to solve issues and provide advice.

### Software Engineer @ Okta, Inc.
Jan 2013 – Jan 2014
Designed, implemented, and tested Okta's Policy Engine used across multiple teams and multiple products. Built and maintained REST API and authentication infrastructure for a variety of identity federation use-cases. Worked with tools across the stack including MySQL, Hibernate, Java, Spring, Jackson, Backbone.js, iOS, and Android mobile applications.

### Summer Research Fellow @ Bowdoin College
Jan 2011 – Jan 2013 | Brunswick, Maine
Granted a Maine Space Fellowship (2011) and a Faculty Research Grant (2012 and 2013) to conduct research in autonomous robotic behaviors. With a team of undergraduates, programed the Aldebaran Nao humanoid robot to play 5 on 5 soccer. Placed in the top 16 in the World Championship four years running. Also was the head referee for the championship game in 2012 and 2013.

### Test Environment Intern @ Intel Corporation
Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | Santa Clara, California
Added and maintained CI tests for multi-processor communication on XEON server product and created scripts for the team to increase velocity and testing efficiency.


## Education
### Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Computer Science, Mathematics, Theater
Bowdoin College

### The Thacher School


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/wilsdawson
- Website: https://wilsdawson.com

---
Source: https://flows.cv/williamdawson
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/williamdawson/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-05