Software Developer - 2025 New Grads

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.
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How You Will Contribute:

We believe in the power of people. We are a network strategy and technology company that is motivated by making a difference in people’s lives – their efficiency, their creativity, their health and comfort.

Requirements for telecommunications networks are constantly evolving, and our products also need to advance and scale to meet the needs of our customers while also delivering uniform and consistent user experiences.

As a Software Developer in a dynamic team environment, you will push the boundaries of what is possible in optical network solutions. You will contribute to projects that play critical roles in our network solutions and help build upon our innovative technology. You will also challenge yourself and others by bringing fresh ideas to new challenges and leading by example.

• You will play a key role in crafting, developing, testing, deploying, maintaining, and improving software.
• You will be accountable for managing individual project priorities, assignments, and timelines.
• You will participate in the full software development lifecycle, collaborating with multi-functional teams of developers, UX designers, quality assurance teams & release managers.

What Does Ciena Expect of You?

• Initiative – You are a self-starter who works with limited direction and is committed to delivering against aggressive deadlines.
• Agility – you are readily able to make key decisions and manage competing and ever-changing account priorities.
• Communication expertise – the ability to influence and tailor your message and ideas to the audience to ensure understanding and buy in.
• An ability to go ‘up and down the ladder’ – capable of seeing the big picture, but also understanding the importance of the details and analysis.
• A commitment to innovation – you keep abreast of the market and competitive developments and are always keen to formulate new ideas and problem solve.
• The flexibility to work independently and as part of a broader team – you thrive in a multi-disciplinary team environment, but are comfortable working independently as required.
• Relationship builder – with an innate ability to influence, you can quickly develop trusted connections and get work done across multi sites.

The Must Haves:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering, Computer Science or a related field coupled with a proven track record in software development.
• Demonstrated ability to develop with one or more of the following programming languages - C, C++ or Python.
• Experience working with Linux-based developer tools and debugging environment such as GNU, GCC, GDB, Insight.
• Knowledge of development tools such as Git, JIRA, Yocto, Docker, Bitbucket, Confluence.
• Familiarity with CI frameworks such as Jenkins, Grafana, Kubernetes.

Assets:

• Proven experience developing software embedded solutions engineered for performance and reliability on multi-processor, highly concurrent systems.
• Real-time OS and embedded systems
• Agile development methodologies
• Messaging interfaces Netconf, REST/HTTP, gRPC
• YANG modeling language and toolchains
• Automation and Test

Why Ciena:

• We are big proponents of life-work integration and provide the flexibility and tools to make it a reality with remote work and potentially, part-time work.
• We believe an inclusive, diverse, and barrier-free work environment makes for empowered and committed employees.
• We recognize the importance of well-being and offer programs and benefits to support and sustain the mental and physical health of our employees and their families and provide a variety of paid family leave programs.
• We are committed to employee development, offering tuition reimbursement, in-house learning, and mentorship opportunities.
• We know that financial security is important. We offer competitive salaries and incentive programs, RSU’s (job level specific) and an employee share option purchase program.
• We realize time away to recharge is non-negotiable.  We offer unlimited paid time off!
• Great work deserves recognition. We have a robust recognition program, with ongoing and enhanced awards for exemplary performance.

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we want to foster an environment that values and respects all individual’s strengths, perspectives, ideas, and ability to meet the needs of our customers globally. Ciena values the diversity of its workforce and respects its employees as individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, veteran or marital status or any other category protected by applicable law. We do not tolerate any form of discrimination.

Ciena is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

If contacted in relation to a job opportunity, you should advise Ciena in a timely fashion of the specific accommodation measures required for you to be assessed in a fair and equitable manner.

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.