VP, Information Technology Strategy Leader

Ciena•Baltimore, MD

About The Position

Ciena is seeking a VP, Information Technology Strategy Leader to define the enterprise technology vision, strategy, and roadmap in alignment with business priorities and growth ambitions. The role partners with R&D to align enterprise and product engineering on shared platforms, architecture, developer tooling, DevSecOps, CI/CD, observability, and reusable capabilities. It evaluates emerging technologies such as AI, automation, and cloud-native platforms while balancing innovation with cost efficiency, time-to-value, scalability, and resilience. The leader advises the CIO, CISO, and business executives on technology investment, platform strategy, and modernization priorities. The position establishes enterprise technology standards and design principles across applications, data, integration, and infrastructure, and oversees technology choices across platforms including Salesforce, Oracle ERP, and Workday. It leads the Integration Center of Excellence, setting integration strategy and governance, developing reusable patterns and an API catalog, and ensuring integrations are scalable, observable, secure, and resilient. It also builds enterprise engineering capabilities and leads UX/UI specialists in delivering consistent, intuitive experiences across internal and customer-facing applications. Ciena describes itself as a global leader in high-speed connectivity and a technology company building infrastructure for the AI era. It emphasizes innovation, integrity, collaboration, employee development, meaningful work, flexibility, and employee well-being. Ciena is committed to a respectful and inclusive workplace, is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and does not tolerate discrimination.

Requirements

15+ years of progressive technology leadership experience.
5+ years leading enterprise architecture at scale in a global, complex organization.
Software engineering and R&D leadership background, with technical credibility to partner with product engineering leaders and influence technology-stack, platform, and engineering-tooling decisions.
Proven track record leading enterprise-wide modernization and innovation programs with measurable business outcomes.
Hands-on depth and architectural leadership across Salesforce, Oracle ERP (Cloud or EBS), or Boomi ecosystems.
Demonstrated experience building and scaling AI/ML architecture practices in an enterprise setting.
Experience leading an Integration Center of Excellence and modern integration platforms such as MuleSoft, Boomi, Oracle Integration Cloud, Kafka, or equivalent.
Experience establishing enterprise engineering capabilities such as RPA, DevOps, CI/CD, GitHub, automated testing, and code quality.
Experience leading or partnering with UX/design organizations to improve user experience.
Fluency in cloud architecture (Azure, AWS, or GCP), API-led and event-driven integration patterns, iPaaS, data architecture, and security-by-design.
Strong grasp of AI/GenAI architecture patterns, including LLM integration, RAG, agentic frameworks, and responsible AI governance.
Experience with architecture frameworks such as TOGAF or Zachman, or equivalent, and modern delivery methods such as Agile, Lean, or SAFe.
Ability to translate business priorities into technical strategy and explain technical strategy to business leaders.
Pragmatic approach to innovation that balances ambition with execution discipline.
Executive presence and ability to influence at the C-suite and Board level.
Collaborative, low-ego approach and enthusiasm for building high-performing teams.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field is required.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree (MS or MBA) preferred.

Responsibilities

Define and own the enterprise technology stack vision, strategy, and roadmap aligned with business priorities and growth ambitions.
Partner with R&D to align enterprise and product engineering on shared platforms, architecture patterns, developer tooling, DevSecOps, CI/CD, observability, and reusable capabilities.
Identify, evaluate, and adopt emerging technologies, including AI, automation, and cloud-native platforms.
Make architectural decisions that balance cost efficiency, time-to-value, scalability, and long-term resilience.
Advise the CIO, CISO, and business executives on technology investment, platform strategy, and modernization priorities.
Establish and govern enterprise technology standards, reference models, and design principles across applications, data, integration, and infrastructure.
Oversee technology choices across core enterprise platforms, including Salesforce, Oracle ERP, and Workday, and guide buy-versus-build decisions.
Drive platform simplification and rationalization to reduce technical debt and total cost of ownership.
Partner with data and AI, security, and governance teams to embed responsible AI principles into solutions.
Lead the Integration Center of Excellence and define and govern enterprise integration strategy.
Build reusable integration patterns, accelerators, and an API catalog.
Ensure integrations across enterprise platforms and partner ecosystems are scalable, observable, secure, and resilient.
Drive integration governance, lifecycle management, and FinOps discipline across the integration portfolio.
Build and operate foundational engineering tools and practices, including RPA and intelligent automation, GitHub and source control standards, code standards, peer review, quality gates, CI/CD, DevOps tooling, automated testing, developer experience, observability, and platform engineering practices.
Lead UX/UI specialists in designing and delivering consistent, intuitive experiences across internal and customer-facing applications.
Champion human-centered design and embed UX early in architecture and product decisions.