VP IP Hardware Engineering

The Vice President, Hardware Engineering is responsible for defining and executing the hardware engineering strategy for Nokia's IP Networks portfolio, delivering industry-leading networking products for the Web Scale, Service Provider, Enterprise, and Critical Infrastructure markets. This executive leader drives innovation, product development, organizational excellence, and technology investment across a global engineering organization responsible for advanced networking platforms and systems.

As a key member of the engineering leadership team, the Vice President partners closely with Product Management, Software Engineering, Operations, Procurement, Manufacturing, Sales, and executive leadership to develop and deliver market-leading solutions that achieve customer, business, and financial objectives. The role is accountable for engineering execution, technology strategy, organizational performance, and long-term competitiveness of the hardware portfolio.

Strategy, Design, Development, and Delivery

• Define and execute the long-term hardware engineering vision, strategy, and technology roadmap aligned with corporate objectives and market opportunities.
• Provide executive leadership across system architecture, ASIC and FPGA development, hardware design, optics integration, signal integrity, power architecture, thermal engineering, mechanical design, prototyping, validation, manufacturing readiness, and product lifecycle management.
• Lead the successful delivery of multiple generations of networking platforms from concept through deployment, ensuring schedule, quality, performance, and cost objectives are achieved.
• Drive engineering alignment with product roadmaps, customer requirements, and business priorities while balancing innovation, speed, quality, and investment efficiency.
• Lead a global organization of Site Leaders, Directors, Engineering Managers, ASIC and Systems Leaders, Program Management, Product Lifecycle Management, and IT teams.

Technical Leadership and Engineering Excellence

• Establish technical direction, governance, and engineering standards across the hardware organization.
• Drive innovation, scalability, reliability, performance, and quality across all hardware development activities.
• Serve as the executive escalation point for critical technical and product issues.
• Partner with Software Engineering leadership to ensure successful hardware and software integration and product delivery.
• Champion advanced engineering methodologies, automation, digital engineering practices, and AI-enabled development capabilities to improve productivity, quality, and time-to-market.
• Establish and monitor key engineering performance indicators, including development velocity, quality metrics, schedule predictability, platform reliability, customer satisfaction, and engineering productivity.

Business and Product Strategy

• Partner with Product Management and executive leadership to define long-term platform strategies, technology investments, and portfolio priorities.
• Influence product roadmaps through market intelligence, competitive analysis, customer requirements, and technology innovation.
• Drive make-versus-buy decisions, platform reuse strategies, technology sourcing approaches, and engineering investment priorities.

Organizational Leadership

• Lead and inspire a large global engineering organization through growth, transformation, and change.
• Build organizational capability through strategic workforce planning, succession management, leadership development, compensation planning, and talent acquisition.
• Develop a strong leadership pipeline and foster a culture of accountability, innovation, collaboration, and execution excellence.
• Promote a diverse, inclusive, and high-performing organization focused on continuous learning and professional development.

Financial and Operational Management

• Own Hardware Engineering operating plans, budgets, capital expenditures, headcount planning, and resource allocation strategies.
• Drive operational excellence and continuous improvement initiatives to optimize engineering efficiency and effectiveness.
• Partner with Finance, Procurement, and Legal teams to manage major investments, supplier agreements, and commercial commitments.

Supply Chain and Manufacturing Partnership

• Partner closely with Operations, Manufacturing, and Procurement organizations to ensure product manufacturability, supplier readiness, quality, cost competitiveness, and supply continuity.
• Drive component strategy, risk mitigation planning, qualification activities, and end-of-life management for critical technologies and suppliers.
• Help develop and support contract manufacturing, ODM/JDM, and strategic sourcing initiatives to improve scalability, cost efficiency, and operational resilience.

Innovation and Technology Leadership

• Identify emerging technologies, industry trends, and market opportunities that can create sustainable competitive advantage.
• Drive strategic adoption of next-generation networking technologies, hardware architectures, optical interconnect technologies (for example: XPO, CPO, and NPO), next generation ASIC technologies and advanced design methodologies.
• Foster a culture of innovation that accelerates product differentiation and strengthens market leadership.

Strategic Partner and Ecosystem Management

• Develop and maintain executive relationships with key technology partners, suppliers, manufacturing partners, and ecosystem participants.
• Represent the company in strategic collaborations that shape future technology directions and industry standards.

Customer and Industry Engagement

• Serve as the executive engineering sponsor for strategic customer engagements, including roadmap discussions, executive briefings, design reviews, and escalation management.
• Collaborate with Sales and Product Management to support strategic account growth and customer success initiatives.
• Represent the company in industry forums, analyst briefings, and customer events.

Advocate the company's technology vision, product strategy, and innovation leadership within the industry.

Experience

• 20+ years of progressive engineering leadership experience, including leadership of large, global engineering organizations.
• Proven success delivering complex networking, cloud infrastructure, datacenter, or related hardware platforms from concept through volume deployment.
• Demonstrated experience leading senior engineering leaders and globally distributed teams across multiple regions and disciplines.
• Experience managing large-scale R&D organizations, significant operating budgets, and strategic technology investments.
• Strong track record of building and scaling high-performing engineering organizations in fast-paced technology environments as well as building out new teams in international geographic regions.
• Experience working directly with hyperscale, service provider, enterprise, government, or critical infrastructure customers is highly desirable.

Technical Expertise

• Deep understanding of networking technologies, systems architecture, hardware engineering, and product development methodologies.
• Extensive knowledge of Ethernet switching, routing, optical networking, cloud infrastructure, and high-performance networking systems.
• Experience with advanced ASIC development, hardware-software co-design, high-speed interfaces, system integration, and platform architecture.
• Strong understanding of design-for-manufacturing (DFM), design-for-test (DFT), reliability engineering, product lifecycle management, and operational excellence practices.

Leadership and Business Acumen

• Proven ability to align engineering strategy with business objectives, market opportunities, and customer requirements.
• Demonstrated success balancing innovation, execution, operational efficiency, and financial performance.
• Experience leading organizational transformation, change management, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Strong executive presence with the ability to communicate technology strategy and investment priorities to senior leadership, customers, and stakeholders.

Collaboration and Influence

• Exceptional communication, stakeholder management, negotiation, and executive influencing skills.
• Proven ability to drive alignment across Engineering, Product Management, Sales, Operations, Finance, Procurement, and executive leadership teams.
• Demonstrated success building trusted relationships across customers, partners, suppliers, and industry stakeholders.

Global Leadership

• Proven ability to lead high-performing teams in a dynamic, global environment.
• Strong track record of developing future leaders through coaching, mentoring, talent development, and succession planning.
• Commitment to fostering an inclusive culture that values collaboration, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, or a related technical discipline required.
• Advanced technical degree and/or MBA strongly preferred.