Principal Software Engineer | Optical Solutions LeadOptical Solutions Lead (DWDM/ROADM)

Overview

Serve as a principal-level authority and advisor to Cisco's engineering business and management, guiding the direction of DWDM optical line systems, ROADM platforms, and high-speed coherent transponders.

What you'll do

• Guide engineering leaders and teams through the orchestration of DWDM projects and the architecture of optical transport systems.
• Advise senior management on sophisticated physical-layer challenges, providing insights for product and portfolio decisions.
• Lead the definition, design, and integration of DWDM line systems, open optical line systems (OOLS), ROADM architectures (CDC/Flex-Grid), controllers and coherent transponder platforms.
• Work closely with PLM, Eng, and Architecture teams to translate hyperscaler requirements into engineering deliverables and take accountability for the final outcome.
• Define technical vision, system specifications, and multi-year roadmaps for DWDM solutions that drive market leadership across Service Provider and Hyperscaler networks.
• Mentor and develop senior engineering talent, encouraging a culture of technical rigor, patent creation, and optical engineering excellence.
• Represent Cisco in key industry standards bodies and guide the development and customer delivery of new DWDM products.

What you'll need

• Bachelor's degree + 15+ years of related experience, or Master's degree + 12+ years of related experience, or PhD + 9+ years of related experience, in Electrical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Physics, Telecommunications, or a related technical field.
• 15+ years of hands-on experience in Optical DWDM Systems.
• Extensive domain expertise in DWDM line system design, ROADM architectures (CDC, Flex-Grid, WSS), coherent optics, optical amplification (EDFA, Raman), and optical link budget/impairment modeling (OSNR, CD, PMD, nonlinearities).
• Experience crafting technical strategy, making critical architectural decisions, and developing product roadmaps for sophisticated optical transport platforms.
• Experience integrating hardware, embedded software, optical planning tools, and optical physical-layer control into carrier-grade and hyperscale production environments.

Nice to have

• Prior experience guiding engineering teams and interacting directly with Tier-1 Service Provider and Hyperscaler optical architects on large-scale DWDM deployment challenges.
• Consistent track record leading end-to-end delivery of complex optical line systems, transponders/muxponders, or open optical platforms from concept to commercial deployment.
• Deep knowledge of modern optical network modeling, automated power/gain equalization algorithms, and optical performance monitoring.
• Active contributor to or recognized leadership in optical standards bodies and consortia (Open ROADM MSA, OIF, ITU-T SG15, or TIP Open Optical).
• Strong multitasking, multi-functional communication, and technical leadership skills in a fast-paced product development environment.

Details

• Location: Bangalore, India.