Partner Delivery Project Manager at Ciena

Job description

As the global leader in high-speed connectivity, Ciena builds the critical infrastructure powering the AI era. We’re a technology company shaping the future of networking, guided by innovation, integrity, and collaboration. Through development opportunities, meaningful work, and flexibility, Ciena supports growth and well-being—on and off the job. Connect with a career that matters. 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 locat