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.
Senior Leader, Sales Compensation
The Senior Leader, Sales Compensation is responsible for the global design and end to end execution of variable compensation programs supporting 800+ commission eligible employees across multiple regions worldwide, including the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. The role operates in a highly complex, multinational environment, requiring strong alignment to regional go to market strategies.
The role primarily supports direct global sales, with a meaningful channel component, and includes services and renewals compensation models.
This Senior Leader ensures compensation programs are accurate, scalable, transparent, and financially disciplined at a global level, with a strong emphasis on automation, advanced analytics, and AI to improve payout accuracy, forecast performance, and manage cost of sales across regions. The Senior Leader reports into the FP&A, and serves as a strategic partner to global Sales, HR, Legal, and IT, and ensures the Sales Compensation function is viewed worldwide as a trusted strategic business partner.
Key Responsibilities
Sales Compensation Strategy & Plan Design
• Work with Sales Leadership on the sales compensation strategy for direct sales, services, renewals, and channel roles, ensuring alignment with revenue growth, product mix, margin objectives, and customer outcomes.
• Lead annual and in year planning cycles including quota methodologies, incentive design, and scenario modeling.
• Establish analytics and metrics to measure plan effectiveness.
Operational Excellence & Governance
• Ensure accurate, timely, and compliant payouts. Establish and maintain strong governance, internal controls, auditability, and SOX compliant processes.
• Lead preparation and presentation of material at the quarterly Sales Compensation Governance Board.
• Continuously improves processes to support scale, organizational change, and evolving sales models.
Forecasting, Cost Management & Analytics
• Provide forward looking insights on attainment, payout exposure, and cost of sales, identifying risks and opportunities early. Use modeling, predictive analytics, and AI enabled insights to improve forecast
• Leverage dashboards, self service reporting, and AI driven insights to give Sales real time visibility into performance, earnings, and attainment.
Sales Experience, Trust & Partnership
• Ensure compensation plans, calculations, and outcomes are clearly documented, consistently communicated, and easy to understand.
• Actively gather and incorporate Sales feedback to improve processes and tools while maintaining strong governance and financial discipline.
Team Leadership
• Lead and develop a high performing sales compensation team, setting clear standards for accuracy, accountability, and business partnership.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, automation, and data driven decision making.
Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 8–12+ years of experience in sales compensation, incentives, or commercial finance, including leadership experience with large, complex commission eligible populations.
• Hardware, manufacturing, or technology industry experience is strongly preferred.
• Working experience in a compensation tool (Varicent and Anaplan a plus), SFDC/CRM and Power BI (or equivalent reporting tool)
• Strong collaboration, influencing and relationship building skills
• Deep analytical skills with experience modeling complex incentive plans and forecasting compensation expense.
• Clear, credible communicator interacting with both field sales and executives.
Pay Range:
The annual pay range for this position is CAD $ 140,000 – $180,000.
The annual pay range for this position in US is USD $ 160,000 – $210,000
#LI-SG
#LI-Hybrid
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
- Bachelor's degree
- 5-7+ years of experience in sales compensation, finance, or related roles
- People management experience
- Proven ability to collaborate and influence across functions
- Strong time management skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- High attention to detail and commitment to accuracy
- Demonstrated aptitude for continuous process improvement
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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