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 Program Manager, TA Business Operations serves as the operating backbone of Ciena's global Talent Acquisition function, enabling programmes, projects, and commitments to remain on track across North America, EMEA, APAC, and India. This individual contributor role partners closely with the Senior Director, Talent Acquisition & HRBP, EMEA to establish operating discipline, identify risk early, strengthen accountability, and provide recommendations that support effective decision-making. The role applies business operations, programme management, recruiting data, and technology inputs to improve execution across the global function.
How you will make an impact:
- Lead end-to-end delivery of cross-functional Talent Acquisition initiatives, including process redesign, organisational changes, and systems rollouts, with defined owners, milestones, and risk logs.
- Drive accountability across HR Technology, Learning and Development, HR Data, Compliance, Legal, recruiting managers, and other cross-functional partners by tracking commitments, escalating slippage early, and proposing a course of action.
- Own the global Talent Acquisition operating cadence, including recurring reviews, dashboard readouts, action tracking, follow-through, and a single source of truth for initiatives, owners, and deadlines.
- Partner with the Senior Director as a constructive thought partner by pressure-testing plans, identifying blind spots, preparing briefing materials, talking points, and pre-reads, and representing the Senior Director in select forums.
- Govern the Talent Acquisition reporting framework with stakeholders, ensuring hiring volume, time-to-fill, pipeline health, offer acceptance, diversity, and recruiter productivity metrics are consistently defined, reviewed, and applied to business decisions.
- Partner with Compliance and Legal to align recruiting practices with applicable employment policies, right-to-work requirements, and screening obligations across operating geographies.
- Optimise Talent Acquisition operations by monitoring vendor performance and budget spend, recommending renewal, consolidation, and cost actions, resolving process friction, and defining requirements and outcome measures for recruiting technology, automation, and AI-enabled tools.
The must haves:
- Experience: 8+ years in business operations, programme or project management, or chief-of-staff-type roles; recruiting or HR domain experience is a plus.
- Track record of managing an operating cadence for a senior leader or function, including reviews, reporting, and follow-through without repeated direction.
- Demonstrated management of senior stakeholders across regions and time zones, including driving accountability without formal authority.
- Application of workforce and recruiting data, including dashboards, post-implementation reviews, and funnel metrics, to inform decisions; systems administration experience is not required.
- Written and verbal English communication experience, including preparation of materials for executive or board-level audiences.
Nice to haves:
- Certifications: Project or programme management credential, including PMP, PgMP, Six Sigma, or equivalent experience.
#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
- 8+ years of experience in business operations, program or project management, or chief-of-staff-type roles
- Experience managing an operating cadence for a senior leader or function, including reviews, reporting, and follow-through
- Experience managing senior stakeholders across regions and time zones and driving accountability without formal authority
- Experience applying workforce and recruiting data, dashboards, post-implementation reviews, and funnel metrics to inform decisions
- Written and verbal English communication experience, including preparing materials for executive or board-level audiences
- Recruiting or human resources domain experience
- Project or program management certification such as PMP, PgMP, Six Sigma, or equivalent experience
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Gallery
