NOC – Automation 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.

How You Will Contribute

• Develop and maintain network automation to support NOC operations across multi-vendor
  
  

environments, using Python and scripting tools to deliver safe, scalable mass configuration

changes.

• Build and operate Ansible Playbooks and Ciena tooling (e.g., Big Hammer) to push standardized
  
  

configurations and execute batch changes across Ciena OM6500, Cisco/Juniper routers, and

SAOS 6.x/10.x platforms.

• Integrate with northbound NMS APIs (Navigator) to automate inventory, event handling, and
  
  

change workflows; contribute to future-ready telemetry using gNMI/gRPC/NETCONF YANG.

• Lead device onboarding workflows into the NOC service, including credential standards, golden
  
  

configs, compliance baselines, and pre/post-change validation.

• Collaborate with NOC operations, GCC, Engineering, and IT to translate operational needs into
  
  

robust automation, documentation, and runbooks.

• Champion DevOps best practices (Git, CI/CD, testing) to improve reliability, repeatability, and
  
  

observability of automation in production.

Experience And Assets

Required Experience:

• 3+ years in Network Operations/Engineering with hands-on network automation.
• Proficiency in Python and Linux, with strong shell scripting capabilities.
• Experience building and operating Ansible (inventories, roles, Jinja2 templates, idempotent
  
  

playbooks).

• Working knowledge of L2/L3 networking, routing/switching, SNMP, syslog, NTP, AAA, and config
  
  

hardening.

• Proven experience across multi-vendor environments, including Ciena OM6500 and SAOS
• x/10.x, and Cisco/Juniper routing platforms.
• Experience consuming APIs (REST) and working with JSON/YAML for NMS/OSS integrations.
  
  

Knowledge/Abilities

• Ability to translate operational use cases into reliable automation and tooling.
• Strong Git practices, code review, and CI/CD fundamentals for network automation.
• Competent in designing safe change workflows with validation and rollback.
• Effective communication and collaboration with cross-functional teams and customers.
  
  

Assets:

• Familiarity with Ciena Navigator and Big Hammer, or equivalent NMS/mass-change tooling.
• Exposure to streaming telemetry and model-driven automation (gNMI, gRPC, NETCONF/YANG).
• Experience with config compliance, secrets management, and artifact/version management.
• Background in 24x7 NOC operations and ITIL-aligned change management.
  
  

Working Conditions

• Operates within a 24x7 NOC environment; flexibility to support planned change windows and
  
  

high-priority incidents.

• Fast-paced, production-critical setting requiring attention to detail, ownership, and resilience
  
  

under pressure.

• Collaboration with global teams across time zones as part of GCC.
  
  

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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.

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