Account Director

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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Role:

As a Consultant, Account Management, you will be responsible for leading/owning major business accounts and managing the overall business relationship between the clients, the sales organization, Ciena executive team, product marketing, and product management.

You will be responsible for developing strong customer relationships that negate competitive infiltration into the account, and builds customer intimacy and sales execution within all levels of the customer organization, including the ‘C’ level.
 

• Your laser focus on execution and sales strategy, combined with your ability to maintain and expand opportunities in existing pipelines, will enable CIENA to maximize its revenue streams and margins in accordance with company expectations.
• You will initiate and develop strong customer relationships at all levels to include executives and hold responsibility for direct sales activities requiring bookings/revenue/margin presentations at all levels of management.
• You will play a key role in setting strategy and tactics for each specific sales objective, prioritizing sales opportunities and retaining overall responsibility for the sales and fulfilment process associated with the global activities.
• You will be accountable for managing and reporting the business through such tools as Salesforce.com, meetings with leadership and cross-functional support teams along with weekly status/progress reports. .
   

What Does Ciena Expect of You?

• Relationship Builder – you possess the know-how to build trusted, long-term relationships quickly.
• Agility – you are readily able to manage competing, time-sensitive and ever-changing priorities.
• Problem solver – you have the ability to readily assess a customer’s requirements and technical issues and identify optimal solutions.
• The flexibility to work independently and as part of a broader team – you thrive in a team environment, but are comfortable working independently as required.
• A savvy communicator – understanding how to tailor your communications and proposals accordingly to specific audiences to ensure your ideas recommendations are understood and well-received.
• A sense of urgency – what’s important to the customer is equally important to you.  You make getting things done a priority.
• Ability to stay current – on new technologies, architectures and customer applications.
• A commitment to learning – about Ciena’s products, competitor offerings and customer concerns.
   

The Must Haves:

• Business or Science/Engineering degree in a technical field or equivalent experience.
• Regional/ major account/global account management experience.
• Extensive experience in system sales or system engineering or product management.
• Extensive experience in Layer 1, Layer 2 and/ or Layer 3 networking experience.
• Demonstrated knowledge of the competitive landscape and the regional business market
• Proven experience with complex sales methodology.
• Existing or ability to become an expert a detailed understanding of Ciena products and future portfolio.
   

Assets:

• MBA and/or advanced technical degree.
• Proven understanding of markets, including market segmentation and service providers.
  Advanced knowledge of the competitive landscape and the L0-L3 network infrastructure, both hardware and software.
• Software and Professional services experience.
• Demonstrated understanding of regional and/ or major account sales and ability to think strategically about new business opportunities, coupled with the ability to make sound – and tough – judgment calls.
• Keen awareness of market intelligence with respect to competitors – in North America and globally.
• Budgetary assessment and planning experience to enable succinct forecasting at weekly. monthly and quarterly intervals as required.

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