Vice President, Supply Chain Planning

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Vice President, Supply Chain Planning

Job Summary

As demand accelerates for cloud and AI networking infrastructure, Supply Chain is at the center of how Ciena scales—enabling resilience, global reach, and sustained growth.

Reporting to the Chief Supply Chain Officer, the VP of Supply Chain Planning translates demand signals, product roadmaps, and business strategy into an integrated, executable supply plan across a complex, multi-tier global network of contract manufacturers (CMs) and component suppliers. This role is the architect and orchestrator of Integrated Business Planning (IBP)/S&OP, balancing service level, inventory, cost, and working capital across a portfolio with long-lead-time optical components, high product mix, and volatile demand.

This role will be instrumental in evolving Ciena's end-to-end supply chain operating model, planning capabilities, and digital planning ecosystem. As the organization continues to mature its alignment to industry best practices, the Vice President will partner closely with leaders across Sales, Manufacturing & Network Operations, Procurement, and IT to clarify decision rights, establish integrated governance, advance tools and AI-enabled planning capabilities, and ensure current system transformation efforts are successfully delivered.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and continuously mature the end-to-end Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process, aligning Sales, Finance, Product Management, and Supply Chain on a single set of numbers each month.
• Lead global demand planning (statistical forecasting, consensus demand, new product ramp/EOL demand shaping) across global direct-customer, partner and distribution channels.
• Lead the evolution of the Supply Chain operating model toward a more integrated planning organization, defining decision rights, processes, governance mechanisms, and capabilities across the key functions of supply chain.
• Lead the development of supply network and capacity planning strategies across contract manufacturing, fulfillment, and operations partners, partnering closely with Manufacturing & Network Operations to strengthen end-to-end planning capabilities and supply chain resilience.
• Establish and govern inventory strategy and policy (safety stock, buffer profiles, strategic buys) to hit target inventory turns and working capital goals while protecting revenue/service levels.
• Own enterprise excess and obsolete (E&O) inventory performance, driving cross-functional governance, prevention, disposition, and lifecycle planning actions to improve inventory health and working capital efficiency.
• Build and lead the sensing/response capability for supply risk — component shortages, allocation, geopolitical/export-control disruption — partnering closely with Procurement and Manufacturing Operations.
• Own planning systems strategy, roadmap, and advanced analytics/AI capability for demand sensing, forecasting, and scenario simulation, partnering closely with IT to deliver near-term project milestones and shape the longer-term digital planning evolution.
• Partner with Product Management/Engineering on NPI demand ramps and EOL/last-time-buy planning, and with Manufacturing Operations on rough-cut and detailed capacity planning.
• Represent Supply Chain in quarterly business reviews, guidance discussions, and board-level supply risk reporting.
• Build and lead a world-class global planning organization, establishing the operating model, talent strategy, and leadership culture needed to drive accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and business results across a complex global matrix.

The Must-haves

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Business, or related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 15+ years of progressive supply chain experience, including 5+ years in senior planning leadership roles within a complex, high-mix technology hardware environment.
• Deep expertise in demand/supply planning, S&OP/IBP process design and governance, and network/capacity planning.
• Proven experience managing outsourced manufacturing supply chains and long-lead-time categories.
• Strong track record with planning systems and data-driven, analytics-led decision-making.
• Experience presenting to C-suite audiences.

The Nice-to-haves

• APICS/CPIM, CSCP, or CPSM certification.

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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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