As part of Nokia’s Optical Architecture group, you will have a unique chance to shape the design of novel DWDM optical line systems. You will architect their Layer0 network element (NE) software in collaboration with our Systems Architecture, Systems Engineering and Software Development teams.

Working from business requirements, customer use cases and industry standards (such as ITU-T and IEEE), you will make and document trade-offs among cost, function, capacity and performance for network elements such as ROADMs and optical amplifiers.

How You Will Contribute And What You Will Learn In this role, you will own the requirements and architecture of assigned Layer0 NE software feature areas, and be accountable for their technical success from concept through release. Your key responsibilities will include:

Shaping product features and requirements with Product Line Management, and recommending solutions to new feature requests based on feasibility, cost and risk

Owning the system requirements, architecture specifications and acceptance criteria for these feature areas, and guiding development teams through implementation and validation

Driving the software architecture of these feature areas with fellow architects and development leads, including interfaces, data models and control algorithms

Partnering with the product documentation team to describe features and operational concepts for customers

Leading cross-functional feature teams to build consensus on architecture and technical concepts, and influencing their plans and priorities

Representing these feature areas in technical engagements with key customers

Assessing field issues in these feature areas when called upon by customer support teams

Mentoring engineers and architects on the team

Key Skills And Experience





Knowledge / Skills / Abilities

Deep understanding of DWDM line system fundamentals, including amplifiers, ROADMs, power control and OSNR

Extensive experience defining fault, performance and configuration management, service provisioning and control plane requirements for multi-layer networking products, especially at L0 and L1

Experience with optical networking technologies and standards, including ROADM/WSS, OTN, Ethernet and SDN/GMPLS control plane

Experience designing and validating link-level control algorithms and optical performance monitoring to optimize end-to-end transmission

Working knowledge of data models for operating and monitoring optical networks, including YANG, ONF TAPI, OpenROADM and OpenConfig

Familiarity with the SONiC Optical Transport Network Working Group, including the Optical Transport Abstraction Interface (OTAI)

Familiarity with AI tools, such as large language models (LLMs) and agents, and their use in product specification and development

Broad systems expertise, with a track record of writing and leading high-quality requirements and architecture specifications for robust, reliable end-to-end systems

Sound, independent judgment on ambiguous and novel technical problems

Excellent communication and presentation skills for internal and customer audiences

Highly motivated collaborator, effective in cross-functional, cross-cultural and international teams

Education & Experience Requirements:

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Telecommunications or a related field + minimum 5 years of relevant work experience in optical transport or a related telecommunications area

M.Sc. in the same fields + minimum 8 years of relevant work experience in optical transport or a related telecommunications area

📌 Principal Systems Architect – Layer0 NE Software (Montreal)
🏢 NOKIA
📍 Montreal