Professional Services Program/Project Manager

Ciena Communications is a global leader in high-speed connectivity, focusing on a people-first approach. They are seeking a Professional Services Program/Project Manager to lead customer-facing projects, manage project lifecycles, and ensure adherence to contract requirements while fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as the project leader for the customer and Blue Planet Sales, PMO, Consulting, Engineering, Finance, Operations, IT, Commercial Management, Resource Management, and Customer Support organizations
• Collaborate within the internal Blue Planet organizations and with customers to initiate projects
• Understand how to interpret commercial documents and ensure that adherence to these is managed through the delivery lifecycle
• Establish strong project governance and ability to develop work plans
• Manage and control the execution of customer-facing projects throughout entire project lifecycle, in accordance with the contract(s) and customer expectations
• Lead cross-functional and global project teams, consisting of software architects, developers, testers, administrators, sub-contractors and other support personnel
• Track and report status/forecasts to stakeholders for project schedule, scope, issues, and budget
• Ensure project time and expenses are submitted/approved and POs accrued, in accordance with policy and revenue recognition guidelines
• Obtain and manage scope acceptances and approvals, customer invoicing etc
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation and identify opportunities for process improvements
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to motivate and inspire teams to achieve project goals
• Strong stakeholder management skills

Requirements:

• Ideally a bachelor's degree in business management, communications, engineering, or related field(s)
• Demonstrated project management, analytical and problem-solving skills with strong sense of personal accountability
• Proven track record of successfully delivering projects on time, within budget, and with a high level of customer satisfaction
• Sufficient level of technical background to provide leadership to software development teams. Ability to evaluate complex project risks and issues accurately and objectively
• Experience in Telecommunications related industry(s), ideally with Operational experience and/or implementing OSS projects within those markets
• Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills, and experience interacting with both business and IT executive level personnel
• Strong competency of interpersonal skills, team leadership, business acumen, relationship building and conflict management
• Willingness to work in a collaborative environment and promote teamwork mentality
• Experience with Agile methodology, Scrum framework and SDLC process
• Proficiency with Jira, MS Project, SharePoint, and Excel (experience with Mavenlink and Salesforce applications are a plus)
• Ability to travel occasionally
• Minimum 5 years of Project Management Experience
• Experience within a software company and working with tier 1 Telco's
• PMP or Prince2 certification is preferred