As the global leader in high-speed connectivity, Ciena is committed to a people-first approach. Our teams enjoy a culture focused on prioritizing a flexible work environment that empowers individual growth, well-being, and belonging. We’re a technology company that leads with our humanity—driving our business priorities alongside meaningful social, community, and societal impact.
Strategic, sales and customer-facing consulting engineer combining the highest levels of proficiency in routing & switching (including hands-on depth) with the ability to articulate solution differentiation and business value. Operates alongside S3/SE/PLM in high-visibility customer engagements, mentors multiple TSEs, and serves as a sought-after resource for internal and external stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities
- Own consultative engagements end-to-end: discovery, architecture advocacy, test-plan influence, and value articulation.
- Lead strategic trials, capture outcomes and learnings, and translate them into adoption-driving collateral.
- Evangelize solution differentiation and drive corresponding solution implementation for customer demo lab.
- Shape portfolio strategy through competitive insights and standards participation; publish patents/white papers.
- Work closely with SE&I leadership to identify SVS opportunities and position value to Ciena customers , helping to drive adoption of SVS.
- Lead the process of providing SE&I inputs into PLM during release planning process
- Prime the incubation of new products/solutions targeted at large market opportunities, and lead technical engagement with top customers
- Partner with Solution Architects; define relationships and handoffs; coach TSE engineers as a mentor-of-mentors.
- May provide SE&I team leadership coverage from time to time to fill-in for manager when he is away or on PTO
Customer-specific (DCOM) Responsibilities
- Collaborate with Customer's Technical Staff as their Ciena DCOM Design Partner.
- Define gaps and opportunities to improve performance and capabilities of existing Ciena DCOM solution.
- Work with SMEs inside Ciena to define new features and functions
- Work with Customer's Technical Staff to refine and align proposed solutions with production deployment requirements
- Once productized by Ciena R&D and Test, support integration testing in customer's pre-production test environment
- Coordinate the responses to DCOM customer pre-production issues, requests and technical questions posted on Workplace and Google Chat
Required Skills & Knowledge
- Broad multi-domain networking expertise; strong awareness of competitive landscape and positioning.
- Exceptional communication, storytelling, and negotiation skills; executive presence.
- Ability to connect technical capabilities to business outcomes and ROI.
Experience
15+ years; proven record influencing strategic customer decisions and driving adoption.
Education & Certifications
Bachelor’s degree (EE/CS/E&C) or equivalent; thought-leadership contributions preferred (public speaking, publications).
Success Metrics (KPIs)
- Adoption and revenue influence; trial success and differentiation demonstrated.
- Executive stakeholder satisfaction; repeat strategic engagement invitations.
- Mentoring impact and thought-leadership footprint (white papers/patents).
The annual pay range for this position is $169,100 - $270,100 USD
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Pay ranges at Ciena are designed to accommodate variations in knowledge, skills, experience, market conditions, and locations, reflecting our diverse products, industries, and lines of business. Please note that the pay range information provided in this posting pertains specifically to the primary location, which is the top location listed in case multiple locations are available.
Non-Sales employees may be eligible for a discretionary incentive bonus, while Sales employees may be eligible for a sales commission. In addition to competitive compensation, Ciena offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision plans, participation in 401(K) (USA) & DCPP (Canada) with company matching, Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP), Employee Assistance Program (EAP), company-paid holidays, paid sick leave, and vacation time. We also comply with all applicable laws regarding Paid Family Leave and other leaves of absence.
At Ciena, we are committed to building and fostering an environment in which our employees feel respected, valued, and heard. Ciena values the diversity of its workforce and respects its employees as individuals. We do not tolerate any form of discrimination.
Ciena is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status.
If contacted in relation to a job opportunity, please advise Ciena of any accommodation measures you may require.
Skills Required
- 15+ years experience influencing strategic customer decisions and driving adoption
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Electronics & Communications, or equivalent
- Broad multi-domain networking expertise, especially routing and switching
- Experience collaborating as Ciena DCOM design partner and supporting customer pre-production integration testing
- Exceptional communication, storytelling, negotiation skills, and executive presence
- Ability to connect technical capabilities to business outcomes and ROI
- Mentoring and coaching technical support/engineering teams (TSEs)
- Thought-leadership contributions (public speaking, publications, patents)
Ciena Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Ciena and has not been reviewed or approved by Ciena.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is often characterized as competitive or above-market in certain roles and regions, with references to market-aligned salary ranges and transparency around pay bands.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is frequently framed as comprehensive, including medical, dental, and vision, with indications that coverage can extend to dependents and is viewed as a meaningful component of total rewards.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off offerings are described as flexible and generous, including Flex/uncapped PTO in many cases and additional paid time for volunteering.
Ciena Insights
What We Do
Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is a global leader in networking systems, services, and software. We build the world’s most adaptive networks to enable our customers to deliver richer, more connected experiences for all users. At our core, Ciena is a company rooted in people. We prioritize deep, collaborative relationships within our teams and alongside our customers, partners, and communities around the world. For three-plus decades, we’ve brought our humanity to our relentless pursuit of innovation. We continue to lead the evolution of networking with a strong track record of industry firsts. As end-user expectations skyrocket, our customers and their networks must transform. Ciena powers this transformation by driving next-generation solutions built for maximum openness and agility—today and into the future. Corporate/Brand Values: • Customer First • Integrity • Velocity • Innovation • Outstanding People We're the perfect size for you to make an impact. W Only Ciena has the depth of expertise and the culture of collaboration and partnership required to help our partners evolve. We do this by strategically integrating hardware, services, and software in an open environment to ensure our clients’ networks are ‘fit for flexibility’ today and into the f
Why Work With Us
We are known for our industry-firsts, including the first coherent optical solution, converged packet-optical platform, and intelligence automation platform. Our commitment extends beyond innovation, logging in over 35,000 volunteer hours and $2 million to worthy causes in 2023. We're the perfect size and culture for you to make a difference.
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