Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering

Ciena is a global leader in high-speed connectivity, emphasizing a people-first approach in its culture. The Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering will lead a high-impact engineering organization, focusing on secure networking solutions for government customers, while managing team operations and driving financial stewardship across contracts.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and scale a high-performing Network Solutions Engineering team supporting secure, mission-critical government environments
• Own day-to-day services operations, balancing technical execution, people leadership, and contract performance
• Partner closely with Program Management, Sales, Account Management, Contracts, and government prime contractors to deliver successful customer outcomes
• Drive financial stewardship across active contracts, including utilization, burn rate, revenue forecasting, and funding alignment
• Serve as the senior technical escalation point for complex deployment challenges, removing obstacles and accelerating resolution
• Influence executive decision-making through clear, data-driven presentations on utilization, skills, capacity planning, and growth strategy
• Shape long-term services growth through business development, workforce planning, and execution of multi-year and consultative programs

Requirements:

• Active security clearance
• Bachelor's degree in Telecommunications, Networking, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience
• 8+ years of experience in telecommunications or networking, including 3+ years leading technical engineering teams
• Hands-on expertise across Layer 0, Layer 1, and Layer 2 networking technologies
• Strong working knowledge of Synchronous Optical Network (SONET), Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) architectures, and Carrier Ethernet
• Proven experience producing technical documentation, including engineering methods and procedures (EMOPs), network diagrams, and whitepapers
• Security+ or equivalent Department of Defense (DoD) 8570 Information Assurance Technical (IAT) Level II or higher certification
• Prior experience with the Ciena product portfolio
• Background supporting U.S. government programs, prime contractors, or highly regulated environments
• Project management experience with formal certification (Project+, ITIL, Agile, Scrum, or similar)
• Experience contributing to statements of work (SOWs), services scoping, and pricing alignment
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and build targeted development and training pathways
• Experience supporting network modernization, expansion, and cost-optimization initiatives