Senior Field Applications Engineer

Ciena

17d

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. 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 Field Applications Engineer (FAE) to join the Data Center PON Solutions product team. The FAE will ensure the successful introduction and adoption of our next-generation Data Center Out-of-Band Management solution 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.

Requirements

• Engineering degree or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years in passive optical LAN, routing, switching, or data center engineering roles.
• Hands-on experience with hyperscaler or Tier 1 service provider networks.
• Experience working with UNIX/Linux/RHEL/Ubuntu and/or any other server OS, be it on bare metal and/or Virtual Machine, and system admin functions.
• Experience relative to the design and architecture of embedded Linux systems including docker containers, Linux kernel, TCP/IP stack, Forwarding Tables, VLANs
• Familiarity with open networking or cloud-native networking projects (OpenConfig, gNMI/gNOI/g, SONiC, etc.).
• Familiarity with OMCI Provisioning of PON FTTx solutions
• Familiarity with any of the following data center / SP routing platforms (Arista 7800, Juniper PTX10K, Cisco 8800, Nokia IXR SRL, etc.).
• Knowledge of hyperscaler network operations, test methodologies, and tooling.
• Track record of successful Field Application Engineering roles (customer-facing with deep technical integration).
• 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.
• Ability to travel as needed to support client engagements.
• Experience working with strategic account environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead the certification, testing, integration, and initial deployment of Data Center Out-of-Band Management solutions in hyperscaler 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.
• Lead technical engagements with hyperscaler customers during lab evaluations, proof-of-concepts, and pilots.
• Configure, validate, and troubleshoot the end-to-end DCOM solution in customer environments.
• Act as the first line of technical defense for integration issues.
• 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.
• Validate automated SDN provisioning solutions in hyperscaler DCOM environments.
• Assess and tune operational performance under real-world workloads.
• Provide deep troubleshooting across management plane, control plane, and data plane layers.
• Mentor and train internal FAEs, account teams, and customer operations teams on the new platform.
• Ensure compliance with customer-specific lab and production certification standards.

Benefits

• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees