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.
- Lead and develop a software engineering team, fostering trust, accountability, and collaboration.
- Recruit, coach, and develop engineers to build technical and leadership capability across the organisation.
- Translate product and engineering priorities into clear plans, ownership models, commitments, and delivery outcomes.
- Identify and communicate delivery risks and dependencies, driving decisions that maintain project momentum.
- Collaborate with Product Line Management, QA, and engineering teams to align priorities and resolve issues.
- Lead design reviews, evaluate technical proposals, and facilitate resolution of technical disagreements.
- Drive continuous improvement in software engineering practices, product quality, performance, scalability, availability, and maintainability.
- Education: Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.
- Experience: 10+ years of experience in software development within networking, telecommunications, or another technically complex domain.
- Experience: 10+ years of experience working across Product Management, QA, and engineering organisations, including alignment of priorities and resolution of disagreements.
- People-management experience including hiring, performance management, coaching, and development.
- Track record of building capable, healthy, and high-performing engineering teams.
- Evidence of delivering complex software through others while managing priorities, dependencies, and risks.
- Application of technical depth to engineering discussions and communication with engineers, architects, and customers.
- Experience: Experience developing software in a Linux environment.
- Experience: Experience with open-source software development.
- Experience: Experience leading geographically distributed engineering teams.
- Knowledge of network routers, switches, or routing protocols including OSPF, IS-IS, EVPN, and BGP.
- Experience: Experience developing carrier-grade or high-availability networking software.
- Application of modern software engineering practices including automated unit testing, CI/CD, and AI-assisted development tools.
- Experience working directly with customers or participating in customer-facing technical discussions.
*LI-CN
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
- Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience
- 10+ years of software development experience within networking, telecommunications, or another technically complex domain
- 10+ years working across Product Management, QA, and engineering organizations, including priority alignment and disagreement resolution
- People-management experience, including hiring, performance management, coaching, and employee development
- Track record of building capable, healthy, and high-performing engineering teams
- Experience delivering complex software through others while managing priorities, dependencies, and risks
- Technical depth applicable to discussions with engineers, architects, and customers
- Experience developing software in a Linux environment
- Experience with open-source software development
- Experience leading geographically distributed engineering teams
- Knowledge of network routers, switches, or routing protocols including OSPF, IS-IS, EVPN, and BGP
- Experience developing carrier-grade or high-availability networking software
- Experience with automated unit testing, CI/CD, and AI-assisted development tools
- Experience working directly with customers or participating in customer-facing technical discussions
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
