Partner Delivery Project Manager

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.

Partner Delivery Project Manager
Ciena is transforming how technology enables its global partner ecosystem through simplified delivery processes, reliable infrastructure, trusted operational data, AI-enabled workflows, and scalable support capabilities. This role serves as the primary Project Manager for the Partner Delivery portfolio, partnering closely with Supply Chain, IT service owners, End User Support, external partners, vendors, and business stakeholders to define strategy, prioritize investments, and deliver measurable business outcomes.

How you will make an impact:
You will lead the planning, execution, and transition of partner delivery initiatives supporting supply chain infrastructure, fulfillment delivery, and integrated systems. Working across IT service owners, Network, End User Support, Supply Chain, external partners, vendors, and technical teams, you will align scope, schedules, dependencies, risks, decisions, and operational handoffs.

- Lead end-to-end delivery of partner technology initiatives, ensuring agreed scope and business outcomes are delivered on schedule, within budget, and to established quality and operational-readiness standards.

- Partner with business owners, IT service owners, technical teams, and external partners to define project scope, objectives, success measures, deliverables, roles, and acceptance criteria aligned with business priorities and partner commitments.

- Develop and maintain project plans, schedules, and budgets, and monitor progress against key milestones, metrics, and deliverables.

- Identify and mitigate project risks and issues, and develop contingency plans as needed.

- Coordinate and facilitate cross-functional project teams, ensuring effective communication, collaboration, and alignment of resources.

- Manage project budgets, track expenses, and provide regular project status updates to stakeholders.

- Conduct post-project evaluations to identify lessons learned and best practices, and implement process improvements for future projects.

- Process management & improvement defined, work a well-defined project management process and champion ongoing process improvement initiatives to implement best practices for Agile Project Management

- Drive AI enablement and continuous enhancement across partner delivery processes by identifying high-value use cases, coordinating adoption, measuring outcomes, and improving automation, efficiency, and the partner experience.

The knowledge:

- Project and program management methodologies, governance practices, delivery lifecycle controls, and Agile or hybrid ways of working.

- Risk, issue, dependency, change, financial, resource, and stakeholder management across complex initiatives.

- Portfolio reporting, dashboards, collaboration platforms, financial tracking, and data-driven performance measurement.

- Operational readiness, change adoption, knowledge transfer, support-model design, and structured transition to operations.

- Endpoint technologies and support practices, including laptops, printers, scanners, device management, security controls, connectivity, software deployment, and lifecycle management.

- AI, automation, and digital productivity concepts, including use-case identification, responsible governance, adoption, outcome measurement, and continuous enhancement.

The must-have experience:

- Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Project Management, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

- Proven experience leading complex technology or partner-delivery initiatives across external partners, vendors, distributed teams, or global locations.

- Demonstrated ability to manage scope, schedules, budgets, resources, risks, dependencies, decisions, and operational handoffs.

- Strong written, verbal, and executive communication skills, including the ability to translate technical issues into business impact and manage escalations constructively.

- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet commitments.

- Hands-on experience troubleshooting endpoint hardware, operating systems, applications, device management, network connectivity, and access issues, with the ability to coordinate resolution across support teams, vendors, and partners.

- Ability to lead through influence, build accountability across teams, and work effectively across technologies, partner organizations, cultures, and time zones.

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Nice to haves:

- Experience supporting supply chain, manufacturing, endpoint, fulfillment, infrastructure, or other partner-operated environments.

- Experience enabling AI, automation, or digital productivity solutions and driving stakeholder adoption and measurable outcomes.

- Experience in change management, organizational transformation, or adoption of new technology and operating models.

- Experience with portfolio reporting, executive dashboards, collaboration platforms, financial tracking, or data-driven performance measures.undefined

Why this role matters:
This role will help shape the future of Ciena’s Partner Delivery capabilities by simplifying delivery processes, strengthening operational readiness, expanding scalable support, and accelerating the responsible adoption of AI and automation. The Partner Delivery Project Manager will play a critical role in enabling Ciena and its partners to operate more efficiently, scale with the business, reduce delivery risk, and deliver greater strategic value across the enterprise.

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.