Senior Director, Customer Engagement Information Technology Partner

As the global leader in high-speed connectivity, Ciena is committed to a people-first approach. Our teams enjoy a culture focused on a flexible work environment that empowers individual growth, well-being, and belonging. We are 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

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.

• Serve as the single-threaded technology leader for the Global Customer Engagement and Marketing organization.
• Build deep partnership with the business and earn 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.
• Balance 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Pay range: TBD. Pay ranges at Ciena are designed to accommodate variations in knowledge, skills, experience, market conditions, and locations.

• Competitive salary with discretionary incentive bonus for non-sales…