Senior R&D Operations Lead

4 giorni fa

Milano, Provincia di Milano; Lombardia, Italia Ciena Tempo pieno

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.

Ciena is seeking a Senior R&D Operations Lead – Industrialization & Technology Transfer to bridge the gap between engineering prototypes and fully industrialized products, ensuring that innovative photonic technologies are translated into manufacturable, testable, cost-effective, and scalable solutions.

Working at the intersection of Technology Development, Product Development, and Manufacturing Engineering, the successful candidate will drive the transition from prototypes to production-ready products and processes, establishing the foundations required for reliable high-volume manufacturing.

The ideal candidate combines a solid understanding of high-tech manufacturing environments with strong business acumen, cross-functional leadership, and the ability to turn complex engineering challenges into practical industrial solutions.

Initially, this will be a hands-on, senior individual contributor role , offering the opportunity to build a new function, define its operating model, and directly contribute to industrialization activities.

How You Will Make An Impact

  • Drive Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), and Design for Test (DFT) activities throughout product development.
  • Translate engineering prototypes into manufacturable product configurations, considering process capabilities, tolerances, repeatability, yield, and cost.
  • Identify industrialization risks and manufacturing constraints early in the design process, working closely with engineering teams to address them.
  • Coordinate manufacturability reviews and define industrialization requirements, milestones, and acceptance criteria.
  • Support design optimization to ensure product architectures are compatible with scalable manufacturing processes.
  • Design and validate manufacturing, assembly, calibration, and testing processes.
  • Define process qualification requirements, manufacturing readiness criteria, and technical documentation necessary for production transfer.
  • Support the development of manufacturing workflows, process specifications, tooling requirements, and test methodologies.
  • Drive technical readiness assessments, identifying and addressing gaps before industrialization milestones and production release.
  • Coordinate technical activities with semiconductor foundries, photonic packaging partners, and contract manufacturers throughout product and process development.
  • Support technical evaluation and qualification of manufacturing capabilities, equipment, and processes.
  • Run engineering builds, pilot production activities, and process validation campaigns.
  • Facilitate technical troubleshooting, root-cause investigations, and corrective actions during industrialization.
  • Ensure manufacturing processes, technical documentation, qualification results, and production requirements are complete, validated, and ready for transfer to high-volume manufacturing.
  • Contribute directly to establishing and scaling the R&D Operations function, working closely with R&D leadership.
  • Develop practical methodologies, workflows, and tools to manage the transition from engineering development to industrial manufacturing.
  • Establish structured processes for industrialization planning, design transfer, process validation, and production readiness.
  • Identify technical and operational capability gaps and contribute to the development roadmap of the function.
  • Promote a collaborative, execution-oriented culture focused on manufacturability, scalability, and continuous improvement.

The Must Haves

  • Education: Degree in Engineering, Physics, or another relevant technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
  • Experience: 6+years of Significant experience in semiconductor, photonics, electronics, telecommunications equipment, or other advanced technology manufacturing environments.
  • Proven experience in industrializati