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.
Location: Alpharetta, GA (alternative Maple Lawn, MD)
Reports to: VP, Chief Information Officer
Company: Ciena
About the Role
The Senior Director, Customer Engagement Information Technology Partner is a strategic technology leader accountable for the platforms, products, and technology delivery that power our Sales, Service, Marketing, and Digital Commerce experiences end-to-end. Partnering directly with the VP of Global Customer Engagement, this leader sets the technology vision and roadmap across the leads-to-order and customer lifecycle, and leads a multidisciplinary team of technical product owners, delivery leads, business analysts, and engineers to deliver scalable, modern, AI-enabled capabilities. This is a business-facing, outcomes-driven role with equal parts strategist, product leader, and delivery executive.
What You’ll Do
In this role, you will:
- Serve as the single-threaded technology leader for the Global Customer Engagement and Marketing organization. Builds deep partnership with the business and earns a seat at their table
- Create and co-own the multi-year technology roadmap with business teams while aligning technology investments to revenue, customer experience, and operational outcomes.
- Lead the vision, roadmap, health, and outcomes for technology platforms like Salesforce Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, CPQ platforms, digital commerce, marketing technology stack, customer master data and integration layer connecting front office to ERP, Finance and Supply Chain.
- Stay ahead of CRM, CPQ, and commerce industry trends; bring outside-in thinking
- Translate business priorities into clear product outcomes, OKRs, and measurable value
- Drive simplification, standardization, and modernization — reducing customization, technical debt, and time-to-value.
- Lead a portfolio of agile PODs organized around business capabilities. Be accountable for delivery predictability, quality, cost, and business value realization.
- Drive technology platform health including performance, security, compliance, and scalability
- Balances strategy with execution — comfortable in the boardroom and in the backlog
- Manage strategic vendor and systems integrator relationships
- Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Data, and AI teams to embed AI, automation, and analytics into customer-facing workflows
- Foster a culture of ownership, agility, customer obsession, and continuous improvement. Champion diversity, mentorship, and team engagement
What You Bring
Required Qualifications:
- 10–15+ years of progressive IT leadership experience, with deep expertise in enterprise CRM (Salesforce) ecosystems
- Proven track record leading large-scale, multi-platform delivery across Sales, Service, Marketing, or Commerce
- Strong experience with CPQ, lead-to-order, and customer lifecycle processes
- Demonstrated success leading agile, product-based delivery models at scale
- Experience managing managers, architects, and product owners
- Executive-level communication, influence, and stakeholder management
- Track record of partnering with C-suite or SVP-level business leaders
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts for diverse stakeholders
Preferred Qualifications:
- Salesforce certifications or platform leadership credentials
- Experience with digital commerce / B2B eCommerce platforms
- Background in telecom, manufacturing, or complex global B2B environments
- Experience driving AI-enabled sales, service, or marketing transformations
- Vendor and SI management at scale
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering or a related field
Compensation
- Pay range: TBD
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
- 10-15+ years progressive IT leadership experience with deep expertise in enterprise CRM (Salesforce) ecosystems
- Proven track record leading large-scale, multi-platform delivery across Sales, Service, Marketing, or Commerce
- Strong experience with CPQ, lead-to-order, and customer lifecycle processes
- Demonstrated success leading agile, product-based delivery models at scale
- Experience managing managers, architects, and product owners
- Executive-level communication, influence, and stakeholder management
- Track record of partnering with C-suite or SVP-level business leaders
- Ability to translate technical concepts for diverse stakeholders
- Salesforce certifications or platform leadership credentials
- Experience with digital commerce / B2B eCommerce platforms
- Background in telecom, manufacturing, or complex global B2B environments
- Experience driving AI-enabled sales, service, or marketing transformations
- Vendor and systems integrator management at scale
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering or related field
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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