Director, Network Planning

Company Description

Zayo provides mission-critical bandwidth to the world’s most impactful companies, fueling the innovations that are transforming our society. Zayo’s 141,000-mile network in North America and Europe includes extensive metro connectivity to thousands of buildings and data centers. Zayo’s communications infrastructure solutions include dark fiber, private data networks, wavelengths, Ethernet, and dedicated Internet access. Zayo serves wireless and wireline carriers, media, tech, content, finance, healthcare and other large enterprises.

Position Overview: 

As the Director of Network Planning, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction of our network infrastructure. This leadership position demands a seasoned professional with a strong background in market design and planning, roadmap management, budget approval, and network hardening. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in telecommunications, demonstrating the ability to drive innovation and network efficiency in a rapidly changing and cost competitive industry. Strong project management and organization skills are necessary to thrive in this role.  Ability to communicate effectively and articulate technical information is an absolute must. This individual will be proficient in routing and switching fundamentals, DWDM engineering and design best practices, as well have experience with a broad list of network hardware manufacturers to include, but not limited to; Ciena, Infinera, Nokia, Juniper, Cisco, Adva, etc.  

Responsibilities 

• Core Competencies 

• Provide leadership, vision and direct oversight for all planning groups with direct accountability 

• Drive development of multiple strategic projects including infrastructure build outs, capability enablement, market optimization, and data integrity. 

• Work closely with Architecture, Engineering, Optimization, NCC, and Product teams to identify top priority initiatives, assign subject matter experts, and maintain a roadmap and capital forecast. 

• Directly support the cross functional teams by providing leadership and prioritization, removing roadblocks, and implement process and system improvements to improve efficiency. 

• Develop and document program operation for each initiative.  Provide regular reporting on performance. 

• Provide regular readouts on initiative progress to management. 

• Determine reports necessary to perform assessments of the performance of the department 

• Manage vendors as needed to provide products and services needed to perform groups’ activities 

• Market Design and Planning: 

• Develop comprehensive market assessments to identify opportunities for network expansion and improvement of cost and network performance. 

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align network plans with business objectives and market demands. 

• Utilize industry intelligence to anticipate trends and technological advancements, ensuring the network remains at the forefront of innovation. 

• Roadmap Management: 

• Create and manage a strategic roadmap for the evolution of the fiber, wavelengths, and IP network infrastructure. 

• Coordinate with product