Senior Director, IT Business Operation & PMO

Ciena Government Solutions•Baltimore, MD

4d•Hybrid

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. The Senior Director, IT Business Operations & PMO is a newly created leadership role that consolidates IT business operations, internal IT processes, and budget management into a single, unified function. Acting as the Chief of Staff to the CIO, this leader will design and run the operating system of IT with rigor, transparency, and agility to how we plan, fund, govern, and deliver technology across the enterprise. This role sets the standards, methodologies, and guardrails by collaborating within IT organization with consistency, predictability, and continuous improvement across the entire IT organization.

Requirements

15+ years of progressive experience in IT, with at least 5 years in PMO, IT operations, or chief of staff roles in a large/complex enterprise.
Proven success standing up or transforming an IT PMO, intake, or portfolio function.
Deep expertise in Agile methodologies (Scrum, SAFe, Kanban) and Agile transformation at scale.
Strong financial acumen.
Experience managing budgets of $100M+ and partnering with Finance/FP&A.
Demonstrated experience in vendor management, sourcing strategy, and contract governance.
Track record of influencing without authority and driving standards adoption across peer organizations.
Excellent executive communication, storytelling, and stakeholder management skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a publicly traded, global technology or networking company.
Certifications: SAFe (SPC/RTE), PMP, Prosci (Change Management), ITIL.
Exposure to AI/automation in IT operations (AIOps, intelligent intake, predictive portfolio analytics).
Bachelor's degree required; MBA or equivalent preferred.

Responsibilities

Establish and evolve the Agile based PMO methodology, frameworks, and playbooks adopted across IT.
Ensure all projects follow the same PM methodology and SDLC process with proper governance and gate control.
Serve as the Agile Coach and Transformation lead, partnering with delivery leaders to mature SAFe agile practices across IT teams.
Define KPIs and maturity models that measure adoption, velocity, predictability, and value delivery.
Collaborate with Finance on IT budget management.
Lead IT budget planning, forecasting, and variance management process in partnership with Finance.
Drive transparency on IT spend (run vs. grow vs. transform) and ensure alignment to enterprise priorities.
Define and execute the IT vendor strategy, including rationalization, sourcing strategy, and partner segmentation in collaboration with indirect procurement department.
Oversee vendor performance, SLAs, contract governance, and renewal cycles in partnership with Procurement and Legal.
Rationalize IT vendor portfolio especially in professional services area.
Build a centralized view of IT third-party spend, risk, and value realization.
Design and run the IT demand intake process as a single front door for business requests with clear prioritization criteria.
Stand up enterprise IT portfolio management, providing executives with visibility into investments, dependencies, capacity, and outcomes.
Establish the IT change management COE including methodology, tools, training, and metrics.
Applied ADKAR change management in technology transformation and application rationalization or AI transformation.
Partner with Enterprise Transformation Org, HR, Communications, and business stakeholders to ensure adoption of major IT-driven transformations.
Drive the IT leadership operating rhythm: staff meetings, all hands, newsletter, QBRs, board materials, and strategic offsites.
Translate the CIO's strategy into actionable plans, OKRs, and scorecards; track and report progress.
Serve as a trusted thought partner, sounding board, and proxy for the CIO across the enterprise.