Director, Solutions Product Line Management

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.

This role serves as the technical and strategic interface between product management, sales, and customers-translating complex customer requirements into winning solutions that leverage Ciena's innovative routing, switching, and optical capabilities.

The ideal candidate blends deep networking expertise, market insight, and business acumen-acting as the 'tip of the spear' in developing and evangelizing differentiated IP/Ethernet solutions that address explosive traffic growth driven by AI/LLMs, 5G/6G, cloud, and next-generation digital services.

How You Will Contribute:

Customer and Market Engagement

• Act as the primary PLM interface for strategic tenders and new opportunities-defining solution approaches, product recommendations, and competitive positioning.

• Together with account teams and strategic sales, lead consultative engagements with service providers, MSOs, large enterprises to define optimal solutions based on their technical and business needs.

• Serve as a thought leader in the IP networking domain, representing Ciena at customer events, industry forums, and conferences.

Solution Definition and Demand Generation

• Develop solution frameworks and value propositions that showcase how Ciena's routing & switching portfolio solves real-world challenges-focusing on IP/optical convergence, metro/aggregation, IP service edge, cloud interconnect, and mobile transport.

• Identify emerging applications and technologies that can drive demand and revenue growth across multiple market segments.

• Collaborate with sales teams to define target solution / application opportunities and go-to-market priorities.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Coordinate cross-functional resources across RSD-including Solutions Engineering & Introduction (SE&I), hardware and software PLMs, and network / product line architects-to design, validate, and launch integrated customer solutions

• Provide direct input to product PLMs on roadmap priorities based on customer feedback, competitive dynamics, and evolving market needs.

• Partner with solution and product marketing to create compelling collateral (presentations, white papers, solution briefs) and support Ciena events such as Power Hours, Connections, and key trade shows.

Must Haves:

Technical Expertise

• 10+ years of experience in product management, network architecture/design, or technical pre-sales within the telecom or networking industry.

• Deep knowledge of IP/MPLS, SR-MPLS, SRv6, EVPN/IPVPN, BGP/MP-BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, and Ethernet technologies including MEF services, Ethernet OAM, and FlexE

• Solid understanding of network timing and synchronization (PTP, SyncE, G.8275), QoS, and OAM concepts and technologies

• In-depth knowledge of and familiarity with IETF, IEEE, and MEF standards relevant to IP/Ethernet.

• Strong understanding of network management, orchestration, and SDN implementations and their importance role in an overall solutions context

• Awareness of optical networking fundamentals such as coherent DWDM, photonic line systems / ROADMs, and OTN is highly desirable.

Application & Architecture Knowledge

• Strong grasp of IP/Optical convergence, AI infrastructure, data center and cloud connectivity, mobile transport (4G/5G/6G), and enterprise multi-cloud/SASE architectures.

• Understanding of virtualization (VMware, Hyper‑V, KVM), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and SDN concepts (centralized control, PCE, Netconf/YANG, open APIs).

Nice To Haves:

• Proven ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives with minimal oversight.

• Exceptional communication and presentation skills with the ability to engage both technical and executive audiences.

• Entrepreneurial mindset - comfortable taking ownership, driving clarity, and executing with speed.

• Willingness to travel globally as needed.

Educati…