Senior Forward Deployed Engineer

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.

We are seeking a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join the AI/DC infrastructure routing product team. The FDE will ensure the successful introduction and adoption of our next-generation Petabit-class routing platform targeted at hyperscalers. This role sits at the intersection of customer architecture and engineering, Ciena R&D, and product management. You will be the technical bridge—embedding with customer labs to validate and integrate our platform, feeding critical insights back to R&D, and guiding the product team to deliver a solution that precisely meets the most demanding hyperscaler requirements.

This is a hands-on, high-impact role where success is measured by the speed and quality of customer acceptance, smooth integration into their infrastructure, and the ability to influence product direction with real-world feedback.

• Lead the certification, testing, integration, and initial deployment of Petabit-class routing platforms across customer environments.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Ciena product, R&D, and account teams to deliver economic value.
• Troubleshoot complex technical issues in real-time and provide strategic guidance to clients.
• Document deployment architectures, operational procedures, and best practices.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to internal knowledge sharing.

Customer Lab Engagement

• Lead technical engagements with hyperscaler customers during lab evaluations, proof-of-concepts, and pilots.
• Configure, validate, and troubleshoot large-scale routing platforms in customer environments.
• Act as the first line of technical defense for integration issues.

Bridge Between Teams

• Translate customer requirements and observations into actionable feedback for Ciena R&D and product management.
• Provide deep input into roadmap decisions, feature prioritization, and usability improvements.
• Document best practices, operational runbooks, and customer integration workflows.

Control Plane & Protocol Expertise

• Validate advanced control plane protocols (BGP, IS-IS, IP tunneling, etc.) in hyperscaler-scale environments.
• Assess and tune routing stack performance under real-world workloads.
• Provide deep troubleshooting across management plane, control plane, and data plane layers.

Technical Enablement

• Mentor and train internal FDEs, account teams, and customer operations teams on the new platform.
• Ensure compliance with customer-specific lab and production certification standards.

Technical Expertise

• 8+ years in large-scale routing, switching, or data center engineering roles.
• Hands-on experience with hyperscaler or Tier 1 service provider networks.
• Strong background in dual-stack (IPv4 / IPv6) control plane protocols, BGP / IS-IS / OSPF, and the corresponding forwarding plane instantiation (VRF, LAG, E/WCMP, uRPF, et al)
• Familiarity with any of the following data center / SP routing platforms (Arista 7800, Juniper PTX10K, Cisco 8800, Nokia IXR SRL, etc.).

Collaboration Skills

• Proven ability to act as a liaison between customer engineering teams and internal R&D.
• Excellent communication and client-facing skills, conveying technical issues precisely and accurately.
• Comfortable balancing short-term customer demands with long-term product goals.
• Strong understanding of control and management plane protocols and their implementation in very large-scale networks.
• Ability to travel as needed to support client engagements.
• Experience working with strategic account environments.
• Certifications such as CCIE, JNCIE, ACE, or equivalent.
• Experience deploying merchant-silicon based platforms.
• Knowledge of hyperscaler network operations, test methodologies, and tooling.
• Track record of successful forward-deployed engineering roles (customer-facing with deep technical integration).
• Familiarity with open networking or cloud-native networking projects (OpenConfig, gNMI/gNOI/g*, SONiC, etc.).
• Familiarity with EVPN, Segment Routing (MPLS and/or SRv6) desirable.

The annual pay range for this position is $134,100 - $214,100 CAD

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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.

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