Principal Engineer Global NPI

The Principal Engineer, Customer Advocacy Engineering (CAE), is a senior individual contributor who provides technical leadership for Global New Product Introduction across optical networking products and solutions. The role drives product quality, serviceability, and customer experience from concept through First Customer Ship (FCS) and General Availability (GA) by translating field and customer needs into actionable engineering requirements. Working across Technical Support, Product Line Management, Hardware and Software Engineering, System Test, Services, and customers, the Principal Engineer serves as a trusted technical authority for product readiness, onboarding, and complex issue resolution.

Qualifications

You have

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in electrical engineering, Electronics, Telecommunications, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 10+ years of relevant industry experience in Optical Networking, Technical Support, Product Introduction, System Test, Systems Engineering, or a related technical discipline, including demonstrated leadership of complex cross-functional technical initiatives.
• Deep knowledge of long-haul and/or metro optical networks, with strong experience in customer onboarding, product introduction, deployment readiness, and critical escalation resolution.
• Proven ability to influence architecture, engineering, product management, quality, services, and support organizations without formal authority, using sound technical judgment and evidence-based recommendations.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, communication, presentation, and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to explain complex technical issues to engineering teams, customers, and senior leaders.

Nice to have

• Hands-on exposure to automation and management technologies such as Python, SDN, NETCONF, gNMI, OpenROADM, SNMP, network management systems, and domain or network controllers.
• Experience developing serviceability requirements, readiness frameworks, operational metrics, technical training, or reusable deployment and troubleshooting practices.
• Relevant optical networking, systems engineering, automation, cloud, or project/program leadership

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for customer onboarding, trials, certifications, demonstrations, and early deployment of new optical hardware and software.
• Define and drive clear, testable Serviceability Requirements across the product lifecycle.
• Lead resolution of complex product-introduction issues through cross-functional root-cause analysis and corrective actions.
• Assess product readiness, deployment risks, supportability, and customer adoption needs from concept through FCS and GA.
• Convert customer and field feedback into improvements in product reliability, usability, diagnosability, and maintainability.
• Influence product architecture, feature design, test strategy, documentation, tooling, training, and support models.
• Develop reusable readiness criteria, best practices, automation, and technical knowledge assets to scale NPI execution.
• Mentor engineers and stakeholders through design reviews, troubleshooting, and technical knowledge sharing.
• Track technical readiness, serviceability, adoption, and issue-resolution indicators, and communicate risks and recommendations.
• Represent CAE in customer and cross-functional forums, building alignment on technical priorities, trade-offs, and plans.