Senior Leader, Sales Compensation

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.

The Senior Leader, Sales Compensation is responsible for the global design and end-to-end execution of variable compensation programs supporting 800+ commission-eligible employees across multiple regions worldwide, including the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. The role operates in a highly complex, multinational environment, requiring strong alignment to regional go-to-market strategies.

The role primarily supports direct global sales, with a meaningful channel component, and includes services and renewals compensation models.

This Senior Leader ensures compensation programs are accurate, scalable, transparent, and financially disciplined at a global level, with a strong emphasis on automation, advanced analytics, and AI to improve payout accuracy, forecast performance, and manage cost of sales across regions. The Senior Leader reports into the FP&A, and serves as a strategic partner to global Sales, HR, Legal, and IT, and ensures the Sales Compensation function is viewed worldwide as a trusted strategic business partner.

Key Responsibilities

Sales Compensation Strategy & Plan Design

· Work with Sales Leadership on the sales compensation strategy for direct sales, services, renewals, and channel roles, ensuring alignment with revenue growth, product mix, margin objectives, and customer outcomes.

· Lead annual and in-year planning cycles including quota methodologies, incentive design, and scenario modeling.

· Establish analytics and metrics to measure plan effectiveness.

Operational Excellence & Governance

· Ensure accurate, timely, and compliant payouts. Establish and maintain strong governance, internal controls, auditability, and SOX-compliant processes.

· Lead preparation and presentation of material at the quarterly Sales Compensation Governance Board.

· Continuously improves processes to support scale, organizational change, and evolving sales models.

Forecasting, Cost Management & Analytics

· Provide forward-looking insights on attainment, payout exposure, and cost of sales, identifying risks and opportunities early. Use modeling, predictive analytics, and AI-enabled insights to improve forecast

· Leverage dashboards, self-service reporting, and AI-driven insights to give Sales real-time visibility into performance, earnings, and attainment.

Sales Experience, Trust & Partnership

· Ensure compensation plans, calculations, and outcomes are clearly documented, consistently communicated, and easy to understand.

· Actively gather and incorporate Sales feedback to improve processes and tools while maintaining strong governance and financial discipline.

Team Leadership

· Lead and develop a high-performing sales compensation team, setting clear standards for accuracy, accountability, and business partnership.

· Foster a culture of continuous improvement, automation, and data-driven decision-making.

Qualifications

· Bachelor’s degree required;

MBA or advanced degree preferred.

· 8–12+ years of experience in sales compensation, incentives, or commercial finance, including leadership experience with large, complex commission-eligible populations.

· Hardware, manufacturing, or technology industry experience is strongly preferred.

· Working experience in a compensation tool (Varicent and Anaplan a plus), SFDC/CRM and Power BI (or equivalent reporting tool)

· Strong collaboration, influencing and relationship building skills

· Deep analytical skills with experience modeling complex incentive plans and forecasting compensation expense.

· Clear, credible communicator interacting with both field sales and executives.

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 not