Sr. Consultant, Submarine Systems Engineering

Overview

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.

SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES

We are seeking a dynamic and innovative Senior Consulting Field Systems Engineer to lead business development activities for Open Cable Systems and hyperscaler connectivity within our Submarine team.

As a specialist in submarine systems, you will work within a fast-paced, multidisciplinary group to advance Ciena\'s Submarine Solutions. This role requires a high degree of self-motivation, creativity, and a broad range of engineering experience to interact effectively with teams across Research and Development, Product Management, Sales, and Post-sales Deployment. You will play a crucial role in integrating new products, features, and applications, and in expanding our hyperscaler and MOFN deals with understanding of hyperscale network architecture. The ability to distinctly position Ciena as a leader in networking hardware and software solutions, and to highlight how our offerings stand out from the competition, is essential.

• Serve as the technical lead for customer engagements, including tender and contract clarifications for submarine customers focusing on Open Cables.
• Conduct technology workshops, roadshows, and deep customer engagements to engineer solutions for open cables.
• Respond to RFPs and address customer technical queries.
• Design network architecture and perform network design.
• Develop pricing schedules for RFP responses.
• Lead and support the creation of network designs and engineering documentation, including equipment rack layouts.
• Collaborate with regional product primes, PLM, link budgeting, and R&D teams to suggest product enhancements or new features based on customer needs.
• Present to large audiences, including at conferences, and support global sales engineering teams with pre-sales activities such as RFx technical support and solution design.
• Support global account/sales engineering community with pre-sales activities that include customer bid (RFx) technical support, market readiness support, technical consultation, solution evaluation and design, market trials support, and other engineering Q&A support.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of techniques and methodologies through post-mortem analysis.
• Mentor other Systems Engineers and act as an Advisor to the SE team.
• Define, create, and validate submarine network solution designs and field test parameters, including customer presentations, Methods of Procedure, test plans, and application guides.
• Act as the first-line support “Go-To” person for designated sales opportunities within assigned accounts.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• Highly self-motivated and capable of collaborating and interacting with cross-functional groups within Ciena, customers, and partners.
• Available for frequent travel, estimated at 30% with potential increases during peak periods.
• Excellent presentation, interpersonal, and communication skills.
• Strong relationship skills with the ability to inspire trust and influence others.
• Effective planner and organizer with strong networking abilities.
• Ability to handle stressful situations under time constraints.
• Proven ability to work in a self-directed team environment.
• Full working knowledge of Converged Optical Ethernet and Network Management techniques.

• Bachelor of Engineering or equivalent field of discipline. Master’s degree, preferred.
• Minimum 10 years in telecommunications industry related to DWDM (Layer 0) optical transmission systems, optical engineering concepts, technologies, instrumentation and/or test methodologies
• Minimum 5 years in a Submarine specific role with direct involvement in an upgrade project. Technical knowledge in submarine SLTE and SIE solutions. Experience on consortia upgrade projects a strong asset.
• Technical knowledge in Converged Optical Ethernet (Layer 1/2/3) systems, technologies (OTN, Carrier Ethernet, IP), instrumentation and/or test methodologies
• Experience with Layer 0 optical test equipment: Optical Spectrum Analyzer (OSA); SONET/SDH/Ethernet/OTN test sets; Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer (OTDR), etc
• Experience with optical test equipment and familiarity with link budgeting concepts and fiber-optic impairments (attenuation, CD, FWM etc).
• Knowledge/experience with 100G/400G/800G and higher rate modulation formats and concepts, especially coherent technology and an ability to articulate these to customers
• Building network cost models that drive optimization of network designs in both subsea and terrestrial network
• Understanding basic concepts of Data Center architectures, spine and leaf designs, edge networking and optical transport.
• Basic understanding of Automation SW architecture, common workflows, ZTP methods, DCN networking, APIs and networking models.
• Familiarity with cloud architecture and deploying / running applications in a cloud environment.
• Construction of product feature / price analysis spreadsheets.
• Understanding AI prompting skills involvecrafting effective input (prompts) to guide Generative AI models to produce desired outputs
• Excellent organizational skills due to dynamic nature of activities
• Superior English verbal and written communication skills.
• Knowledge of Ciena Submarine Solutions a definite asset.

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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.

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