General Manager – Optical Design Engineering (ODE)

Design Engineering Software (DES) is a global, multi‑business‑unit software organization within Keysight, delivering advanced engineering software platforms that enable customers to design, simulate, and validate the world’s most complex electronic, mechanical and optical systems. One of these business units, Optical Design Engineering (ODE), focuses on industry‑leading optical and photonics design and simulation software. 

Keysight is seeking a proven software‑oriented General Manager to lead the ODE Business Unit, with full P&L ownership and end‑to‑end responsibility for strategy, growth, and execution. This role represents a significant general management opportunity for a senior leader with a strong software engineering background to scale a global engineering software business, modernize development practices, accelerate recurring revenue, and drive profitable growth within a broader, highly differentiated multi‑physics software portfolio. 

ODE delivers industry‑leading optical and photonics software that extends DES’s multi‑physics platform into optics and photonics. The business enables software‑first, system‑level virtual prototyping across electronics, mechanics, and optics—empowering customers to innovate new products faster, reduce physical prototypes, and manage increasing system complexity through scalable simulation workflows. 

As part of Keysight’s ongoing DES transformation, this role is central to advancing modern software engineering excellence, including agile development, continuous delivery, and the effective use of AI‑enabled productivity tools across the value chain. The General Manager holds full accountability for business performance, software technology direction, and people leadership, while contributing to DES‑wide innovation, platform integration, and long‑term value creation. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Lead a global software engineering–led organization with core development and leadership hubs in the United States, Germany, and Japan, supported by regional commercial coverage across the globe. 

• Report directly to the Senior Vice President of DES and operate as a member of the DES senior leadership team, contributing to enterprise‑level software strategy, portfolio evolution, and transformation execution. 

• Own the end‑to‑end ODE business with full P&L responsibility, including: 

• Software product and platform strategy aligned with DES architectural priorities 

• Software engineering execution, agile roadmap delivery, and release predictability 

• Go‑to‑market alignment, pipeline expansion, and recurring revenue growth 

• Operational efficiency, cost discipline, and scalable software execution 

• Drive the evolution of ODE’s development model by strengthening agile and DevOps practices, improving cross‑functional collaboration between engineering, product management, and go‑to‑market teams, and increasing speed, quality, and customer impact. 

• Champion the adoption of AI‑enabled productivity tools across engineering, product management, and operations to improve developer efficiency, code quality, testing, documentation, analytics, and decision‑making. 

• Lead the continued transformation toward recurring software revenue through subscription, hybrid, and enterprise deployment models, improving customer onboarding, adoption, retention, and lifetime value. 

• Act as a strategic software business leader, anticipating and shaping industry evolution across: 

• Optical and photonics simulation software platforms 

• Modern software licensing and deployment models (on‑premise, subscription, hybrid enterprise) 

• High‑performance computing, GPU acceleration, cloud‑native architectures, and scalable SaaS models 

• AI‑enabled design, simulation, and automation workflows 

• Identify and develop new growth opportunities by combining software technologies across DES business units, leveraging Keysight’s scale to address high‑value customer workflows and emerging market needs. 

• Drive portfolio focus and differentiation by prioritizing high‑impact software use cases, target markets, and competitive positioning within a rapidly evolving simulation and engineering software ecosystem. 

• Ensure strong alignment with DES and Keysight strategies, integrating ODE priorities with broader software, hardware, and solutions portfolios to maximize customer value and operational leverage. 

• Build and sustain a high‑performing, inclusive leadership culture, developing software engineering talent, succession, and engagement across geographies while leading effectively through change.