Specialist, Customer Technical Advocate

Job Description

Since 1992, Ciena has been driven by a relentless pursuit of network innovation. We believe in a network that grows smarter, more agile, and more responsive every day. This means that when you digitally interact in your world - picking up the phone, streaming video, texting a friend or loved one your interactions are being enabled by Ciena technologies. Ciena makes your social / entertainment / business existence REAL..Rewarding experience. Meaningful outcomes.Making a difference in peoples lives through design and implementation of leading network technologies. Thats what motivates us.Embrace inclusion. Celebrate diversity. Champion ideas. From across the table to around the world, our path to innovation comes from our friendly environment and outstanding people. Thats the Ciena network.Customer Technical AdvocateAs a Specialist, Customer Technical Advocate (CTA), you will be responsible for developing and nurturing the technical, service-oriented relationship between Ciena s Top Customers and the Global Services and Support team in a specific region or market. The Customer Technical Advocate within Global Customer Advocacy works in concert with the Customer Service Operations, promoting retention, loyalty and advocacy by developing and driving a World Class Customer Experience by providing a strong, proactive Technical Advocacy presence towards our customers.The Customer Technical Advocate is the primary technical contact for customer onboarding, escalation management, and proactive technical engagement throughout the customer s lifecycle and interactions with Ciena Global Services and Support.The Contribution:

• Closely collaborate with Sales and Customer Service Operations to facilitate a positive and welcoming onboarding experience for our customers making sure expectations are documented, aligned with the Services and Support deliverables, mutually agreed upon, and 100% achievable.
• Trusted technical advisor to develop rock solid customer relationships across the customer s business to include Engineering, Operations, and Implementation.
• Proactively monitor and engage on technical support case work to ensure all service level objectives and agreements are met.
• Coordinate and facilitate customer business meetings to answer technical questions or concerns related to product support issues on Ciena hardware and software platforms.
• Assume the role of escalation manager for extended outages and highly escalated Services and Support related issues. Provide timely communication updates, resolution strategies and action plan deliverables.
• Provide end-to-end analysis of technical issues and the customer experience by conducting detailed post-mortem reviews resulting in procedures, best practices recommendations and/or direct actions that will increase customer delight.
• Translate and communicate complex technical root cause analysis reports and relevant product bulletins between Ciena subject matter experts and the customer.
• Work with our Services and Support delivery teams closely monitoring Customer Success Indicators, ensuring post sales technical issues are proactively identified and addressed.
• Represent Global Technical Support during customer operational and business reviews and proactively suggests solutions to customer concerns.
• Establish a clear line of communication back into the Services and Support organization ensuring awareness of network changes, growth activities and new product implementations occurring on the customers network.
• Seek out and recommend Ciena Services opportunities within customer accounts by leveraging deep customer relationships and intimate knowledge of our customers existing networks and future business needs.

Success will evidence itself in the following ways:

• Timely resolution of escalated customer network issues and delight our customers
• Influence Ciena Services and Support value through retention, higher product and services adoption, and increased customer satisfaction and overall customer health scores
• Expanded account revenue through documented cross-sell and up-sell recommendations
• Lead new business growth through greater technical advocacy and reference-ability
• Defined and established operational tracking metrics for team and customer
• Fostered trusted advisor status for a meaningful customer relationship across the entire customer lifecycle

Ideal Profile:A highly energetic and relationship driven customer facing individual who is knowledgeable about the Ciena product portfolios, technology marketplace, dynamics, and trends and wants to make an impact on the future of communications. You re looking for a company where you have the opportunity to pursue your interests across multiple business functions and geographies. You bring to the organization the following competencies:

• Bachelor s Degree in Computer Sciences, Electrical Engineering, or Business Administration preferred or relevant years of work experience in a high-tech environment
• Min 6-8 years in the technology industry in a technical customer engagement role
• Experience with Ciena products (e.g. 6500, 8700, MCP, etc.) while serving in a Technical Support, Technical Account Management, Network Engineering, or Design role
• Leadership qualities with high integrity
• Out of the box thinker that challenges the status quo
• Ability to influence through persuasion, negotiation, and consensus building
• Strong business judgment and ability to think through complex business issues
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate data into actionable insights
• Relentless passion to drive business growth while elevating the customer experience
• Demonstrated years of retaining and delighting customers in a large product and services organization spanning regional countries in the technology sector
• A dynamic personality that is collaborative, empathetic, passionate, and customer focused
• Results-driven, a bias for speed, action and a relentless passion for the customer experience
• Professional presence to communicate and present to all levels of leadership within Ciena and customers
• Demonstrated experience creating and delivering professional technical presentations in writing, through email, reports, or in face-to-face meetings to an audience of high technical skill, management and operational experience

Willingness to travel 25% within the region/market for customer business reviews and serve in an after-houAbout CienaCiena is a network strategy and technology company with a passion to provide an experience, to you and our customers that is as rewarding as the outcome. We attract the best and brightest those with outstanding talent, motivation, and the right attitude to contribute to our success. Our culture balances our openness and informality with professionalism and trust and is built on the foundation of our core values: Customer First, Integrity, Velocity, Innovation, and Outstanding People. Ciena enables everyone to have a voice and a network that supports them while on the journey to discovering their passion and purpose. We trust each individual to do what they can to reach their full potential and make an impact on the business, whenever, wherever they are in the world. With Ciena s highly innovative, forward-thinking business practices, we reward people for pushing the boundaries. Unlock your potential at Ciena!Being You CienaAs 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. ,

Keyskills :
root cause analysissubject matter expertscustomer service operationsnew product implementationscase workpost salesroot causenew businessservice levelproduct supportbusiness growthstatements of work sow