John McKinnon
Vice President of Software Engineering
John McKinnon currently serves as Vice President of Software Engineering for the Navigator Network Control Suite at Ciena. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the design, development, verification, and support of the complete portfolio of Ciena’s multi-layer network control software solutions, AI-driven intelligent applications, and network design tools. Under John’s leadership, Navigator has continued to evolve and gain strong market momentum, reflecting its growing importance to customers and its recent success in enabling advanced network control, automation, and operational efficiency.
John has held various senior software design, product management, and business development positions in his 40 years tenure at Standard Telecommunications plc, Bell-Northern Research, Nortel Networks, and now Ciena. This included software leadership roles in Transmission Networks, Optical Networks, Data Networks, and eBusiness product groups covering all aspects of element, network, service management tools, and applications.
John holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from University College London, UK and is a Chartered Engineer with the IEE.