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.
The Partner Leader role at Ciena drives growth by expanding and enabling strategic partnerships that accelerate service innovation for service providers. This position blends partner strategy, consultative sales execution, and service creation to deliver measurable business outcomes across regional markets. The role plays a critical part in scaling Ciena’s partner ecosystem and supporting revenue growth through new services and joint market execution.
How you will make an impact:
Lead and expand partnerships across System Integrators, VARs, Distributors, and CMS partners within the Ciena Partner Network ecosystem.
Develop and execute joint business plans aligned to inflight tenders, regional priorities, and strategic growth opportunities.
Drive service creation initiatives from concept through productization and monetization, ensuring operational readiness.
Translate complex networking technologies into partner-ready solutions that enable adoption and customer value.
Execute coordinated marketing and demand-generation programs with partners and sales teams.
Identify, qualify, and progress consultative sales opportunities and inflight tenders in collaboration with direct sales teams.
Monitor execution against business targets and CPNe program requirements.
The must haves:
Education: Business degree required; MBA preferred; technical undergraduate degree beneficial.
Experience: 8+ years of experience in Sales, Channel Sales, Business Development, Product Management, or Consulting within telecommunications or IT sectors.
Minimum of 5+ years of experience in a telecommunications-based role.
Background working with global carriers, Tier 1 and Tier 2 operators, regional service providers, MSOs, indirect channels, data center operators, or cloud providers.
Demonstrated application of partner management, sales enablement, and organizational transformation practices.
Nice to haves:
Education: MBA.
Experience working across multiple partner types within complex, multi-stakeholder ecosystems.
Exposure to service monetization models and business case development for transformation initiatives.
LI-SG1
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
- Business degree required; MBA preferred; technical undergraduate degree beneficial
- 8+ years of experience in Sales, Channel Sales, Business Development, Product Management, or Consulting
- 5+ years of experience in a telecommunications-based role
- Background working with global carriers, Tier 1 and Tier 2 operators, etc.
- Demonstrated application of partner management, sales enablement, and organizational transformation practices
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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