CISO vs. CTO Pressure: Turning Identity into an Engine for Velocity and Trust

​As a CTO, you are constantly balancing the need for business velocity with the reality of security pressure. It often feels like you and the CISO are pulling in opposite directions — especially when it comes to topics like customer identity where user experience and security controls might collide.

Join us for a practical, peer-to-peer fireside chat on how engineering leaders can successfully navigate the CISO relationship, align on shared risk, and use smart identity architecture to satisfy security without sacrificing speed.
What we’ll discuss:

• ​The CISO vs. CTO Divide: Why engineering and security structurally pull in opposite directions, and how a CTO can proactively build trust and align with a CISO rather than treating them as a late-stage gatekeeper.

• ​Where Identity Sits in the Middle: Why customer identity is the one framework both sides must agree on—and how you can use identity to "buy back" developer velocity while giving the CISO the security controls they require.

• ​What "Good" Looks Like: How leading engineering organizations are using identity architecture to bridge the gap, turning security compliance from a manual roadblock into an automated enabler of business agility.

​Speakers: Markus Winkler, CTO at Oparco & Rachel Case, Senior Director Solutions Engineering at Okta/Auth0