Optical Network Engineer

Mario
Nunes

9+ years designing, configuring and managing transmission equipment from 2 Megs to 1.6Tb. Currently deploying Meta's Optical Backbone Network with Astreya.

Get in Touch View Experience
9+
Years Experience
1.6Tb
Max Bandwidth
5
Major Employers
01

Experience

Aug 2025 – Present
Astreya
(Meta Contingent Worker)

Optical Network Engineer III

Deploying Meta's Optical Backbone Network — remotely managing onsite resources, validating fibre losses and reflections, applying and verifying configuration scripts, and troubleshooting faults and alarms through to handover of new optical spans.

QC'ing designs, BOMs, and on-site installations, raising tickets for fibre issues, and managing resources to minimise deployment blockers and delays.

Optical Backbone OTDR Configuration Scripting QC & QA Fault Clearance
Jul 2024 – Jul 2025
Ciena

Solutions Engineering & Introduction Engineer (Optical)

Acted as SME across Ciena's full optical product portfolio — 6500, 6500-T, RLS, ELS, Waveserver AI/5/E, and Navigator NCS NMS. Supported customers with product demonstrations, type approval testing, PoC testing, MOP production, and lab support.

Ciena 6500 Waveserver AI Navigator NCS Type Approval MOP Production PoC Testing Lab Management
Nov 2021 – Jul 2024
CityFibre

DWDM Engineer

Designed and planned a greenfield Transmission/Core network, evaluating power, space and equipment requirements. Acted as 3rd-line NOC support, evaluated new technologies, and produced/maintained all network documentation including circuit information, designs/LLVs, and test records.

DWDM Greenfield Network Design 3rd Line NOC Network Architecture Documentation
Nov 2019 – Nov 2021
Vodafone UK

Core Transmission NOC Engineer — Shift Team A

Managed, faulted and fixed Packet-Optical, OTN, DWDM, SDH and Legacy PDH networks across Ciena and Nortel platforms. Handled major incidents, SLA/KPI-driven fault prioritisation, fibre break coordination using OTDR, and planned outage management.

OTN DWDM SDH / PDH Ciena 5100 / 5400 / 6500 Nortel Jeopardy Management OTDR
Oct 2015 – Nov 2019
BT

Transmission Engineer — Model Build & Test Team

Maintained and configured transmission models across Huawei, Ciena and Marconi platforms. Performed full rack-to-commissioning installations, provisioned services, delivered training to apprentices, and maintained the 20C DCN network for transmission equipment.

Huawei 1600/6100 Ciena Waveservers BluePlanet/MCP Rack Installation Commissioning Training
02

Core Skills

🔵
Optical & DWDM
Design, deployment and troubleshooting of DWDM networks. Experienced with Ciena 6500, 4200, Multiwave, Waveserver AI/5/E, and Nortel 5200.
🔗
OTN / SDH / PDH
Multi-layer transport expertise including OTN, SDH and legacy PDH technologies across Ciena, Nortel, Marconi and Huawei platforms.
🛠️
NMS & EMS Tools
Proficient with OneControl, SiteManager, Navigator NCS, BluePlanet/MCP, U2000, Nortel Preside, EMOS, and GIS Fibre Network Management.
📡
Network Design
End-to-end greenfield transmission network design, including architecture review, power/space evaluation, BOMs, and vendor coordination.
🚨
Fault Management
Major incident handling, SLA/KPI-driven prioritisation, OTDR fault location, fibre break coordination, and end-to-end service restoration.
📋
Documentation & MOPs
Production of MOPs, SIAs, LLVs, circuit information records, and full test documentation to professional standards.
03

Education & Certifications

Optical Communications Associate Certification
Ciena
Foundation Degree of Science — Communication Technologies: Network Engineering
University of Suffolk · 2016 – 2018
BTEC Level 4 Diploma — Professional Competence for IT & Telecoms
BT Apprenticeship · 2015 – 2019
BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma — Electrical/Electronic Engineering
Suffolk New College · 2013 – 2015
Higher Level Apprenticeship — IT, Software, Web & Telecoms
BT
City & Guilds Level 3 — In-Service Inspection & Testing of Electrical Equipment (PAT)
City & Guilds
Course on SDN/NFV for Network Operators
Professional Development
Introduction to Electricity & Electricity Install Certificate
Professional Development
04

Get in Touch

Let's connect

Open to new opportunities and conversations in the telecoms and optical networking space.