Chief Information Officer

Ciena•Baltimore, MD

About The Position

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. Chief Information Officer (CIO) As the global leader in high-speed connectivity, Ciena is committed to a people-first approach. Our teams enjoy a culture that balances a results-orientation, a fast-growing business environment while empowering 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. Position Overview Reporting directly to the Chief Financial Officer and serving as a key member of Ciena’s extended leadership team, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) is the executive accountable for the vision, strategy, and execution of all enterprise technology and digital capabilities that power the company’s growth, agility, and competitive advantage. The CIO leads a global IT organization responsible for internal applications, infrastructure, architecture, data, analytics, collaboration platforms, and AI-enabled productivity tools. This is a highly strategic and business-oriented role that demands a proven technology leader who combines deep technical credibility with exceptional business acumen, influencing skills, and the ability to operate as a true partner to the many various stakeholders including R&D, Supply Chain, Finance, and Sales and Marketing.

Requirements

15+ years of progressive technology leadership experience, with at least 7 years as CIO, CTO, or direct report to the CIO in a global, publicly traded technology or telecommunications equipment company (preferably networking, optical, or data-center related).
Proven track record of running enterprise IT for a highly engineering-centric organization with significant R&D lab infrastructure and a large remote workforce.
Deep expertise across infrastructure (hyperscale cloud, HPC, optical/electrical lab environments), modern enterprise architecture, data platforms, and AI adoption at scale.
Demonstrated ability to influence C-level executives and Board members through business-oriented storytelling, financial acumen, and measurable outcomes.
Experience managing large IT budgets and delivering material cost savings and efficiencies without compromising effectiveness, speed or security.
Strong vendor negotiation and strategic sourcing background, particularly with service providers, hyperscalers and enterprise SaaS providers.
Exceptional leadership skills with a history of building diverse, high-trust teams across multiple continents.
Bachelor’s degree required

Nice To Haves

Master’s/MBA strongly preferred.
Business-first mindset: instinctively ties every IT decision to revenue, margin, or time-to-market impact.
Intellectually curious and hands-on; comfortable diving into optical test results one day and generative AI prompt engineering the next.
Executive presence combined with approachability and empathy for a distributed workforce.
Bias for simplicity, speed, and measurable results.

Responsibilities

Enterprise IT Strategy & Business Partnership Develop and execute a forward-looking IT roadmap that directly accelerates revenue growth, margin expansion, product development velocity, and operational excellence.
Serve as the primary technology advisor to the Executive Leadership Team and Board of Directors, translating complex technical concepts into clear business impact and ROI.
Collaborating with our Enterprise Transformation Office, to support transformation initiatives that leverage AI, generative AI, automation, and advanced analytics to re-imagine R&D workflows, supply-chain resilience, sales effectiveness, and customer support.
Global Infrastructure & Operations (Compute, Storage, Network) Own the strategy, architecture, and 24×7 operations of all on-premises and cloud-based infrastructure supporting R&D labs (high-performance compute clusters, optical/electrical test beds, simulation environments), corporate functions, and remote employees.
Ensure ultra-reliable, low-latency global networking that supports 40% fully remote workforce and geographically dispersed engineering teams.
Partnering with the CISO, Lead the evolution toward hybrid/multi-cloud environments, software-defined data centers, and zero-trust security architectures.
Applications, Collaboration & AI Ecosystem Oversee the full application portfolio (PLM, ERP, CRM, HCM, CPQ, custom engineering tools) with a relentless focus on simplification, consolidation, and user experience.
Champion an industry-leading collaboration and productivity platform strategy (ie, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Miro, AI-assisted code review, virtual lab access, etc.) tailored to distributed R&D and remote-first culture.
Partner to build and govern a next gen enterprise AI approach that enables responsible use of generative AI across code generation, documentation, test-case creation, failure analysis, and customer-facing knowledge systems.
Enterprise Architecture, Data Strategy & Analytics Define and enforce a modern, modular enterprise architecture that supports rapid integration of acquired technologies and scalability to 10x growth.
Lead the company’s data strategy: master data management, data mesh principles, real-time analytics, and predictive insights for R&D yield, supply-chain risk, and market intelligence.
Deliver executive dashboards and AI-driven decision support tools that provide a single source of truth for the leadership team.
Cybersecurity, Risk & Compliance Ensure world-class cybersecurity posture (zero trust, AI-powered threat detection, secure-by-design lab environments) commensurate with serving the world’s largest cloud and telecom operators.
Maintain compliance with SOX, ISO 27001, GDPR, and emerging data-sovereignty regulations across all operating geographies.
Team Leadership & Talent Development Build and lead a high-performing, globally distributed IT organization that attracts top engineering and architecture talent.
Foster a culture of innovation, ownership, and continuous improvement while maintaining operational discipline at scale.