Technical Program Leader

locations
- Canada - Ottawa (Bill Leathem)
- time type
- Full time
- posted on
- Posted Today
- job requisition id
- 20251074
- It's fun to work in a company where people truly BELIEVE in what they're doing
- We're committed to bringing passion and customer focus to the business._
- If you like wild growth and working with happy, enthusiastic over-achievers, you'll enjoy your career with us_

Lumentum Canada was awarded the 2022 National Capital Region’s Top Employers _for the 6th consecutive year_ and the 2022 Career Directory Canada’s Best Employers for Recent Graduates _for the 5th consecutive year_.

Technical Program Leader - Optical Products (WSS / OCM / DGE)
- Location: Ottawa, Ontario - On-site with occasional travel
- As a global, multicultural, and innovative company, we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture where differences are valued and celebrated. We are united in our commitment to live our Guiding Principles: Innovate, Engage, Deliver, Excel, and Win. Our differences make us stronger, more creative, and more capable of delivering exceptional results.
- Why This Role Exists
- Lumentum’s Ottawa design center is at the forefront of scaling the next generation of wavelength-selective switches (WSS), optical channel monitors (OCM), and digital-gain equalizers (DGE). As a Technical Program Leader, you will blend the delivery focus of an Engineering Program Manager with the system-level ownership of a Design Authority. Your key contribution will be ensuring programs meet schedule and budget, and that product architecture consistently achieves performance, reliability, and manufacturability targets.
- What You'll Do
- Program Leadership
- Lead a multi-disciplinary, cross-functional team through the concept, development, qualification, and production release of complex optical modules, managing Alpha/Beta deliveries and executive status reporting.
- Develop, monitor, and control integrated master schedules, budgets, and risk registers; identify opportunities for improvement and drive process enhancements that challenge the status quo.
- Coordinate vendor interactions, prototyping, test & characterization activities, and maintain frequent communication with customers and product-line management.
- Technical Design Authority
- Define and maintain product specifications, translating market and customer needs into clear engineering requirements and system budgets.
- Own the system-level architecture, integrating optics, electronics, firmware, and mechanics into a cohesive design, and chairing formal design reviews (DRR/PRR/TRR).
- Guide problem-solving, root-cause analysis, and engineering-change control, ensuring the design continues to satisfy requirements throughout its lifecycle.
- Provide authoritative technical input to operations, quality, sales, and customers; mentor engineers in optics, electronics, algorithms, and software.
- What You Bring
- Exceptional leadership and communication skills with a proven ability to build collaborative relationships across various functions.
- 5+ years managing complex R&D programs in optical or photonic product development, coupled with hands-on system engineering or architecture experience.
- A degree in Optical, Electrical, Physics, or a related engineering field; an advanced degree is a valuable asset.
- Comfort navigating ambiguous situations, defining a clear path to resolution, and confidently interacting directly with customers and executives.
- Technical depth in one or more of the following areas: lasers, MEMS/LCoS, Si Photonics, coherent optics, and free space optics.
- Familiarity with DFx, Six-Sigma, ISO 9001/TL 9000, and project tools such as JIRA, Confluence, Oracle, Agile, Tableau, or PMI/Scrum/PRINCE2 methodologies.
- What Success Looks Like
- Programs launch on time and on budget, with quality metrics meeting or exceeding Telcordia and customer standards.
- Architectural decisions are thoroughly documented and traceable; design reviews promptly address actions, and field issues show rapid root-cause closure.
- The cross-functional team feels empowered, informed, and continuously improving—and customers view you as their trusted technical interface.
- Ready to drive both execution excellence and technical integrity for industry-leading optical modules?