Optical Systems Engineer

Ciena is committed to our people-first philosophy. Our teams enjoy a culture focused on prioritizing a personalized and flexible work environment that empowers an individual’s passions, growth, wellbeing and belonging. We’re a technology company that leads with our humanity—driving our business priorities alongside meaningful social, community, and societal impact.

Optical Systems Engineer – Middletown N.J. USA

Introducing Ciena

Since 1992, Ciena has been driven by a relentless pursuit of network innovation. We believe in a network that grows smarter, more agile, and more responsive every day. This means that when you digitally interact in your world - picking up the phone, streaming video, texting a friend or loved one – your interactions are being enabled by Ciena technologies. Ciena makes your social/entertainment/business existence REAL.

Ciena enables everyone to have a voice and a network that supports them while on the journey to discovering their passion and purpose. We trust everyone to do what they can to reach their full potential and make an impact on the business, whenever, wherever they are in the world. With Ciena’s highly innovative, forward-thinking business practices, we reward people for pushing the boundaries.

Our culture balances our openness and informality with professionalism and trust and is built on the foundation of our core values: Customer First, Integrity, Velocity, Innovation, and Outstanding People.

What will you do at Ciena:

Ciena collaborates with customers worldwide to unlock the strategic potential of their networks and fundamentally change the way they compete. With focused innovation, Ciena brings together the reliability and capacity of Converged Packet Optical portfolio with the flexibility and economics of open white box technology, unified by a software suite that delivers the industry’s leading network automation.

This position in based in AT&T’s Middletown, NJ R&D facility supporting their lab trials/testing of optical transport solutions. This is an on-customer premise technical role with a focus on working side-by-side with customer technical experts to deliver training, set up our hardware solutions for their testing, demonstrate and explain Ciena technology through "hands on" operations for their product evaluation and approval testing. The candidate must have strong trouble shooting skills to help evaluate the debug issues found in the lab with remote support from R&D when needed. These issues could be in the AT&T lab or on occasion, in AT&T production network. As AT&T deploys multi-vendor solutions, at times, you will interact with other vendors in the process for troubleshooting. This position will also include the creation of customer specific documentation including procedures, alarm patterns, circuit diagrams, etc.… and execution of customer acceptance test cases.

As an individual contributor (subject matter expert hands-on), your past knowledge of transport network operations maintenance and provisioning optical networking solutions on (Ciena, Fujitsu, Cisco, Nokia etc.) is meaningful for your success and being familiar with the Ciena’s Converged Packet Optical portfolio will set you apart in performing these tasks:

• Turn-up and configuration of Ciena’s optical transport capabilities systems in Customer or Ciena lab to assess product performance, reliability, scalability and technical security; by way of type-approval evaluation or demonstration for solutions based on Ciena’s Optical White Box technology and Ciena OEM pluggable’ s with third party integration.
• Assist during troubleshooting sessions with the customer, third-party network controller software vendor and other equipment vendors to help identify the root cause of multi-vendor integration issues.
• Develop trusted working relationships with the customer is essential for success.
• Lead the troubleshooting (collecting data and observations) and the resolution by working with R&D resources to address raised customer issues.
• Bring observations and requirements to the PLM, R&D and account teams for product improvement, documenting issues via tracking tool, manage updates for issue resolution.
• Ensure customer is updated regularly on all issues during the testing and field trials.
• Support upgrades and turn-up of system hardware updates as required, as well as reconfiguration of testbed networks.
• Utilize advanced test methodologies, troubleshooting techniques with test equipment.
• Unit Test of application interface testing, integration testing, end-to-end testing and/or user acceptance testing

What personality traits and technical experiences are meaningful for this role?

• Highly self-motivated great teammate with ability to collaborate with multi-functional organizations both within Ciena and with our customers.
• The desire and ability to meticulously implement test plans or method of procedure while thoroughly documenting results in a comprehensive matter.
• Excellent interpersonal/communications skills to deliver outstanding customer service.
• Strong planning, time management, organizational and multi-tasking skills
• Ability to thrive in high pressure situations during lab activities and technical issue resolution.

Technical:

• BS or MS in CS/EE/CE coupled with 6+ years in telecommunications related industry, experience with Major Telco’s a plus.
• Familiarity with telecommunication optical transport systems, optical engineering concepts and technologies (e.g., Fixed and Flex grid networks, L0 Control plane, coherent modems), instrumentation and/or test methodologies in the context of large carrier is preferred.
• Must have a thorough understanding of OTN Transport and Switching, Ethernet Transport, SONET, DWDM, and CWDM protocols and standards.
• Hands-on experience in engineering, testing, or deploying networks on DWDM, Packet Optical and/or OTN platforms with Ciena solutions is a strong asset.
• In-depth knowledge of ROADM platforms from multiple vendors to include Ciena, Fujitsu, Cisco, Infinera, and/or Nokia etc.
• Familiarity with Ciena’s Converged Optical portfolio (i.e., 6500 S-Series, Waveserver, RLS, 6500 T series) strongly desired.
• Knowledge of ROADM Network controllers, preferably Ciena’s Network Management solutions Navigator / Network controller, operation and telemetry.
• Experience with API based provisioning and automation using Netconf/yang, XML, Python, etc. is a plus.
• Complex network troubleshooting & support
• Working knowledge of the Open ROADM MSA

Being You @ Ciena

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we want to foster an environment that values and respects all individual’s strengths, perspectives, ideas, and ability to meet the needs of our customers globally. Ciena values the diversity of its workforce and respects its employees as individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, veteran or marital status or any other category protected by applicable law. We do not tolerate any form of discrimination.

Ciena is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

If contacted in relation to a job opportunity, you should advise Ciena in a timely fashion of the specific accommodation measures required for you to be assessed in a fair and equitable manner.

The annual pay range for this position is $110,600 - $176,800 USD
 

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.
 

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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.If contacted in relation to a job opportunity, please advise Ciena of any accommodation measures you may require. Apply