Field Applications Engineer

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 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 working in Ciena and 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 technical 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.

How You Will Contribute:

• Hands-on testing and integration of Data Center Out-of-Band Management solutions in Ciena's lab facilities and in hyperscaler customer environments.
• Troubleshoot technical issues in real-time and provide strategic guidance to clients.
• Document deployment architectures, operational procedures, and best practices.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Ciena product, R&D, and account teams to define customer requirements for PON-based Out-of-band management solutions in Data Center applications.

Customer Lab Engagement

• Responsible for internal Project Management of key technical tasks and deliverables to align with customer-driven evaluation and integration schedules
• Configure, validate, and troubleshoot the end-to-end DCOM solution in customer environments.
• Support technical engagements with hyperscaler customers during lab evaluations, proof-of-concepts, and pilots.

Bridge Between Teams

• Translate customer requirements and observations into actionable feedback for Ciena R&D and product management.
• Provide input into roadmap decisions, feature prioritization, and usability improvements.
• Validate best practices, operational runbooks, and customer integration workflows.

Management Plane & Protocol Expertise

• Validate automated SDN provisioning solutions in hyperscaler DCOM environments.
• Measure operational performance under real-world workloads.
• Provide troubleshooting across management plane, control plane, and data plane layers.

Technical Enablement

• Train internal FAEs, account teams, and customer operations teams on the new platform.
• Ensure compliance with customer-specific lab and production certification standards.

The Must Haves:

Technical Expertise

• Engineering degree or equivalent experience.
• 5+ Experience in Field Application Engineering or similar roles (customer-facing with deep technical integration).
• Hands-on experience with hyperscaler or broadband service provider networks.
• Familiarity with OMCI Provisioning of PON FTTx solutions
• Knowledge of hyperscaler network operations, test methodologies, and tooling.
• Experience relative to the design and architecture of embedded Linux systems including docker containers, Linux kernel, TCP/IP stack, Forwarding Tables, VLANs
• 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.
• Familiarity with open networking or cloud-native networking projects (OpenConfig, gNMI/gNOI/g*, SONiC, etc.).
• Familiarity with any of the following data center / SP routing platforms (Arista 7800, Juniper PTX10K, Cisco 8800, Nokia IXR SRL, etc.).

Collaboration Skills

• 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.

The annual pay range for this position in California is $151,500 - $242,100 USD

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At Ciena, we are committed to building and fostering an environment in which our employees feel respected, valued, and heard. Ciena values the diversity of its workforce and respects its employees as individuals. We do not tolerate any form of discrimination.

Ciena is anEqual Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status.

If contacted in relation to a job opportunity, please advise Ciena of any accommodation measures you may require.