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.
Ciena IT Program/Project Manager
Ciena is looking for a Program/Project Manager to join our team who is inquisitive, highly motivated, passionate about change, and enjoys being challenged by resolving complex problems. You must work well in a team oriented, matrixed environment and possess a mixed business and technical background focused on finance and accounting solutions.
The Program/Project Manager is responsible for the overall management of strategic projects focused on IT centric applications deployments across platforms such as Oracle EBS, SalesForce, ADP Payroll, and a variety of SaaS applications. The Project Manager should have experience implementing SaaS solutions including vendor management and large scale solutions delivery. The project teams are made up of globally distributed technical and business teams, often with a mix of internal and vendor resources to deliver solutions and services to clients.
The Program/Project Manager will collaborate with subject matter experts to translate project objectives and requirements into schedules and tasks. Candidate needs to demonstrate experience leading medium to large scale projects/programs and budgets.
Additional responsibilities will include:
- Lead all aspects of the ongoing review of projects(s) status; closely supervise project resources tasks, risks, and landmarks, make course corrections when necessary using defined change control procedures, recommend and implement solutions as appropriate.
- Partner with Business Functional Leads and System Implementation Partner to prioritize requirements, and estimate effort and resources required to satisfy both - Project Execution and Tracking.
- Ability to work at multiple levels and support the team across the lifecycle of the project to meet its goals (initiation through deployment and hyper-care support)
- Responsible for leading all day to day project activities for a team of individual contributors spanning cross-site, global locations.
- Direct activities, assign responsibilities, set expectations and motivate team members toward achieving program/project objectives.
- Provide input into vendor negotiations and lead vendor within defined contract parameters.
- Lead projects using different methodologies as needed by the project (Agile, Waterfall, Hybrid, FastFail, etc)
- Ensures alignment to strategic priorities.
- Coordinate with IT directors, Business Managers, Resource Managers and IT PMO Manager for resource assignments, creation of project deliverables, issue resolution and escalation.
Experience:
- 8+ years experience as a Project Manager with Oracle EBS experience, Financial, HR, Supply Chain SaaS Solutions, or other related business IT solutions
- Experience executing highly matrixed global projects with team members including Developers, Business Analysts, Business Owners and Service Owners.
- Experience managing vendors with both onshore and offshore teams as part of the engagement.
- Delivery expertise on projects that are multi-year efforts.
- Delivery expertise is driven from your balanced business & technical background: Sufficient level of technical background to provide highly-credible leadership to development teams and to be able to accurately and objectively evaluate complex project risks and issues
- Ability to provide leadership to business analysts and collaborate with customers and develop strategies and solutions of high business value
- Professional Scrum Master (PSM), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Practitioner or Project Management Professional (PMP) certification preferred
- Strong interpersonal skills including mentoring, coaching, collaborating, and team building
- Strong analytical, planning, and organizational skills with an ability to lead challenging demands
- Proven ability to lead IT development projects and ensure objectives, goals, and commitments are met
- Solid understanding of and demonstrated experience in using appropriate tools: Agile Project Management tools such as Jira, Rally or equivalent. Microsoft Project, Visio, and all Microsoft Office Tools.
- Creative approach to problem-solving with the ability to focus on details while maintaining the “big picture” view
Key skills:
- Able to manage large complex projects independently
- Established leadership skills in a global matrix organization structure
- Ability to manage efforts with a remote workforce
- Solid understanding of MS Office Tools (Word, Excel, Project, PowerPoint, Visio)
- Ability to effectively manage time, prioritize work, multi-task across many assignments and delegates
- Hands on experience using JIRA for issues management and SharePoint for Project Management (desirable)
- Ability to assess the impact of new requirements on an existing set of complex projects
- Strong technical writing skills producing clear and unambiguous deliverables
Required experience:
- Highly-experienced individual interested in progressing their career with proven history of successful project management
- Demonstrated record of accomplishment of successfully delivering infrastructure and/or software development projects, including project scope, schedule, resources, quality, costs and change management
#LI-SG
Pay ranges at Ciena are designed to accommodate variations in knowledge, skills, experience, market conditions, and locations, reflecting our diverse products, industries, and lines of business. Please note that the pay range information provided in this posting pertains specifically to the primary location, which is the top location listed in case multiple locations are available.
Non-Sales employees may be eligible for a discretionary incentive bonus, while Sales employees may be eligible for a sales commission. In addition to competitive compensation, 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.
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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 an Equal 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.
