Techniques are presented herein to set power levels for multiple Raman pump wavelengths in a distributed Raman amplification configuration. A first receive power measurement is obtained at a second node with a controlled optical source at a first node turned on and with a plurality of Raman pump lasers at different wavelengths at the second node turned off. A second receive power measurement is obtained at the second node with the controlled optical source at the first node turned on and the plurality of Raman pump lasers turned on to respective reference power levels to inject optical Raman pump power at a corresponding plurality of wavelengths into the optical fiber span. Based on a target Raman gain and a target Raman gain tilt, respective ratios of a total power are obtained, each ratio to be used for a corresponding one of the plurality of Raman pump lasers.