Professional Services Program/Project Manager

Ciena is committed to our people-first philosophy. Our teams enjoy a culture focused on prioritizing a personalized and flexible work environment that empowers an individual’s passions, growth, wellbeing 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 looking for a highly experienced project/program management professional to join our Professional Services team at Blue Planet, a software division of Ciena. You will be the face of Blue Planet and will lead a fully cross-functional team to successfully deliver service contracts. This position requires true end to end experience in program management spanning the entire project lifecycle including management of scope, financials, people, work, risks, issues, communications, quality, configuration, infrastructure, procurement, and most importantly, our customers.
This is an Executive-facing role requiring a capable and confident leader who can clearly and concisely communicate across multiple levels. You will report into our Director of Project and Program Management for the Americas region.
Responsibilities

• Foster a fun, cohesive and high-achieving project environment.
• Find ways to constantly improve and propose better ways of working to enable the team and the business to succeed.
• Lead, manage and monitor cross-functional teams and customers throughout the entire project lifecycle to ensure delivery to established objectives.
• Mentor junior and new team members to ensure organizational success.
• Anticipate and manage risks and issues internally and externally.
• Ensure project time and expenses are submitted/approved and POs accrued, in accordance with policy and revenue recognition guidelines.
• Track and report status/forecasts to stakeholders for project schedule, scope, issues and budget.
• Negotiate, facilitate and broker to align teams to the best possible outcome.
• Lead internal and external teams in finding solutions to risks and issues.
• Perform all necessary administrative duties in a timely manner such as:
• Lead teams to define and create holistic cross-functional execution plans balancing scope, budget and schedule.
• Other duties as required to fulfill role.
• Obtain and manage scope acceptances and approvals, customer invoicing etc.
• Establish management plans such as contingency, risks, issues, communications and working agreements.
• Serve as the project liaison for the customer, Blue Planet and our partners/vendors.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required, ideally in business management, communications, engineering or related field(s).
• Experience with Agile methodology, Scrum framework and SDLC process.
• PMP required (MBA or extensive experience in lieu of PMP).
• Minimum 7 years of Project Management experience, preferably in professional services.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with strong sense of personal accountability
• Strong competency of interpersonal skills, team leadership, business acumen, relationship building and conflict management.
• Ability to travel occasionally.
• Ability/flexibility to work across multiple time zones.
• Proficiency with Jira, MS Project, SharePoint and Excel (experience with Mavenlink and Salesforce applications a plus).
• Excellent ability to interpret commercial documents and formulate plans accordingly.
• MBA preferred.
• Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills, and experience interacting with both business and IT executive level personnel.
• Strong ability to understand technical requirements and terminology to manage technical teams accordingly.
• Ability and willingness to learn and incorporate new concepts and technologies.
• Experience within a software company and working with tier 1 Telco’s.

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