Senior Business Architect – Ciena Government Solutions, Inc.

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.

How You Will Contribute:

We are seeking a mission-driven Senior Business Architect to support and shape the strategic direction of our federal government solutions portfolio, with a focus on Ciena’s OEM technologies, partner capabilities and integrated network solutions. This role will drive enterprise-level architecture initiatives that align federal customer objectives, modernization strategies, and network transformation programs with Ciena, CGSI and partner capabilities and offerings.

You will act as a key liaison between business units, engineering, federal sales teams, and public sector clients to define innovative business architectures, solutions and services that support scalable, secure, and mission-critical government IT infrastructure.\

Strategic Architecture & Federal Alignment

• Lead the development of business capability models that map government customer missions to Ciena OEM and CGSI government offerings.
• Translate federal modernization mandates (e.g., TIC 3.0, Zero Trust, DODIN, JADC2, EIS transition) into actionable architectural roadmaps.
• Support the development of white papers, strategic solutions and unsolicited proposals aligning with government-wide acquisition initiatives and contracts (GWACs), OTAs, and agency-specific needs.
• Architect enterprise-level business solutions incorporating the full suite of Ciena’s portfolio including packet-optical, Wave Logic, Blue Planet, and adaptive IP technologies.
• Analyze mission customer use cases (DISA, DoD, DHS, VA, etc.) and design business-process frameworks supporting their transformation objectives.
• Align Ciena and CGSI - sales, engineering, product management, services, program capture, partners, etc., with large federal system integrators (e.g., Leidos, GDIT, Booz Allen), service providers (AT&T, Verizon, LUMEN) and Cloud Providers (Amazon, Google, Oracle) for joint government solutions, services and initiatives.
• Partner with federal account managers, solution engineers, and program managers to define customer-centric business outcomes.
• Facilitate workshops with government stakeholders to map mission needs to network infrastructure capabilities.
• Influence RFIs/RFPs with architectural insights that improve Ciena’s positioning in government bids.

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Systems Engineering, Information Technology, or related field; Master’s or MBA preferred.
• 8+ years of experience in business architecture or strategy roles within OEM, government integrator, or federal contractor environments.
• Deep familiarity with Ciena technologies, government telecommunications/networking procurement cycles, and federal program structures.
• Strong understanding of federal IT mandates (OMB, NIST, FISMA, FedRAMP) and acquisition vehicles (e.g., EIS, GSA Schedules, SEWP).
• Experience aligning technology solutions to mission outcomes in defense, civilian, or intel environments.
• Ability to navigate complex stakeholder landscapes across OEM, integrators, and government agencies.
• TS/SCI or ability to obtain government security clearance

• Strong technical aptitude with the ability to learn new technical information quickly.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to create a message to share verbally or in written form.
• Understands customer business outcomes, as described by the customer, with strong

knowledge of customer industry verticals.

• Understands the sales process and partners with the Account Executive to execute for
• Excellent skills for building rapport and trust with team members, customers, and partners.
• Travel requirements vary and can be up to 30% depending upon work location.

The annual total target compensation pay range for this position is $255,300 - $421,800 USD. This includes both base and incentive compensation.

Not ready to apply? Join our Talent Community to get relevant job alerts straight to your inbox.
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.