Technical Lead, Optical network Engineering

What you will do

• Monitor optical network utilization, performance trends, and capacity thresholds to identify bottlenecks early and avoid service delivery impact.
• Forecast demand using historical trends, runrate data, and sales pipeline visibility to plan proactive capacity builds.
• Trigger proactive and reactive capacity expansions, ensuring the right balance between justified investment and delivery timelines.
• Use internal planning tools (e.g., OES) for automated capacity monitoring, hotspot detection, and license tracking.
• Coordinate with Supply Chain, Vendors, Implementation and Field teams to secure timely delivery of fibre, electronics, site infra, and licences.
• Support Sales and Service Delivery at presales and delivery stages for capacity checks, feasibility assessments, and technical inputs.
• Identify optimisation opportunities to recover unused capacity, reduce costs, and improve network efficiency.
• Maintain planning rules, design inputs, and deployment standards for Ciena and Nokia optical platforms.
• Track endtoend capacity delivery plans, risks, dependencies, and ensure commitments to the business are met on time.
• Define and maintain KPIs, dashboards, and reporting to measure performance, improvements, and alignment with business objectives.

What we're looking for

• Strong handson experience in DWDM/OTN technologies from Ciena, Nokia, Infinera, and ADTRAN.
• Experience of Optical network designing and planning, well understanding of vendor planning tools EPT & Planner+
• Experience of optical network configuration, well understanding of MCP and WS NOC
• Strong conceptual and technical understanding of ROADM, photonic nodes, shelves, transponders, and mux/demux systems.
• Experience in network planning and design- Link Engineering, Simulation, HLD/LLD creation, BOM creation, design validation, and building job packs for field teams.
• Experience in optical capacity management, utilisation analysis, forecasting, and proactive/reactive builds.
• Practical experience with tools: RTD/RTD+, OES, License Management, Node Exit tools, ARM, Siebel/XTRAC
• Experience in optimisation activities like dormantcapacity reuse, license optimisation, hardware recovery, and costsaving initiatives.
• Ability to support large expansion or transformation projects (overlays, subsea upgrades, proactive builds, node exits, regulatory projects).
• Strong stakeholder management with Sales, Service Delivery, Operations, Architecture, Finance, and Leadership.
• Innovation and Optimization: Drive improvements through technology innovation, network optimization, and process enhancement

Might have:

• Exposure to automation and digitalisation of planning processes, including AIdriven forecasting and automated monitoring.
• Experience improving endtoend capacity delivery processes, reducing lead times, defining SLAs, and standardising deployment guidelines.
• Knowledge of designing customerspecific optical solutions and bespoke delivery requirements.
• Experience with network functional testing, benchmarking, failure reproduction, and issue validation.