Generative AI Prompt Engineer, Network Troubleshooting & Automation

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.

This is a unique opportunity to work at the intersection of two cutting-edge fields: advanced networking and generative artificial intelligence. As a Generative AI Prompt Engineer, you will be the crucial bridge between our deep networking domain expertise and the powerful capabilities of LLMs like Google's Gemini. Your primary mission will be to design, craft, and refine the prompts, reasoning structures, and communication protocols that will guide autonomous AI agents to troubleshoot complex issues across Ciena's portfolio. You will essentially be teaching our AI to think, act, and collaborate like a team of expert network engineers.

What You Will Do

• Prompt Design and Development:Design, develop, test, and continuously refine a comprehensive library of prompts and prompt chains for network troubleshooting scenarios. This includes fault isolation, alarm correlation, log analysis, configuration validation, and performance degradation analysis.
• Domain Knowledge Translation:Collaborate closely with Ciena's Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), including Tier 3/4 Technical Support Engineers, Network Architects, and System Engineers, to deconstruct their expert troubleshooting methodologies into structured, machine-interpretable instructions and queries.
• Agentic Loop Design:Design and implement the core reasoning loops for our AI agents. You will buildReAct (Reason+Act) style workflowsthat enable the agent to form a hypothesis, execute a diagnostic command, observe the output, and then decide on the next best action, closely mimicking an expert's iterative troubleshooting process.
• Contextual Engineering:Develop sophisticated prompts that leverage Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) techniques, enabling the LLM to query and reason over Ciena's vast knowledge base of product documentation, technical notes, and historical case data.
• Performance Analysis and Optimization:Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure prompt and agent effectiveness, such as diagnostic accuracy, resolution time reduction, and clarity of AI-generated responses. Analyze agent behavior to identify failures in reasoning or collaboration, and iteratively improve the underlying logic.
• Stay at the Forefront:Continuously research and experiment with the latest prompt engineering techniques and architectures for AI agents to ensure Ciena's tools remain state-of-the-art.

What You'll Bring (Required Qualifications)

• A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Network Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience in a technical networking role such as Network Operations Center (NOC) Engineer, Technical Support Engineer, Network Architect, or similar.
• Deep understanding of networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, Ethernet, and network management protocols (SNMP, gNMI/gRPC).
• Solid experience with either:
  • Optical Networking:Concepts like DWDM, OTN, coherent optics, and familiarity with optical transport systems.
  • Packet Networking:Advanced routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, IS-IS), MPLS, and Segment Routing.
• 1-2+ years of demonstrable, hands-on experience working with Large Language Models (e.g., Gemini, GPT-4, Llama series) and a strong passion for generative AI.
• Proven ability in prompt engineering, including experience with few-shot/zero-shot prompting, context structuring, and managing conversational flow.
• Basic proficiency in a scripting language, preferably Python, for testing and automation tasks.
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, with an ability to think logically and translate complex processes into simple, clear instructions.

Stand-out Candidates Will Have (Desired Qualifications)

• Direct experience troubleshooting Ciena's hardware or software portfolio (e.g., 6500 Family, Waveserver, 8100/5100 Series, Blue Planet).
• Deep understanding of agentic reasoning architectures, especially the ReAct (Reason+Act) framework for tool use, and broader planning models like MCP (Model-Capabilities-Plan).
• Understanding of collaborative AI, including multi-agent systems (MAS) and communication protocols like Google's Agent-to-Agent (A2A) framework, for solving complex, multi-domain problems.
• Experience in designing, building, or evaluating Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems.
• Familiarity with AI/ML frameworks for building and observing agentic AI systems (e.g., LangChain, LangFuse, LlamaIndex).
• Experience building or contributing to conversational AI agents, chatbots, or virtual assistants.
• A Master's degree in a relevant technical field.

Why Ciena?

• Impact:Play a pivotal role in defining the future of autonomous networking and AIOps.
• Innovation:Work with the latest generative AI models and agentic architectures on a daily basis.
• Culture:Be part of a diverse, collaborative, and forward-thinking global team.
• Growth:Ciena provides extensive opportunities for professional development and learning.

Ciena is committed to building a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone feels they belong. We are an equal opportunity employer and encourage applications from all qualified candidates.

The salary range for this position is: in Canadian Dollars is:

Canada: $81,600.00 - $130,400.00

USA:$91,000 - $145,400.00

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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 anEqual Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status.

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