Head of Network Operations

Company description:

About Digicel

Enabling customers to live, work, play and flourish in a connected world, Digicel’s world class LTE and fibre networks deliver state-of-the-art mobile, home and business solutions.

Serving 10 million consumer and business customers in 25 markets in the Caribbean and Central America, its investments of over US$5 billion and a commitment to its communities through its Digicel Foundations in Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago have contributed to positive outcomes for over 2 million people to date. 

With the Better-Connected ethos at the heart of everything, its 5,000 employees worldwide work together to make that a powerful reality for customers, communities and countries day in, day out.

Digicel also delivers news, sports broadcasting, digital media and financial services in several of its markets.

Visit www.digicelgroup.com for more.  

Job description:

Job Title: Head of Network Operations   

Primary objective of the job:

The Head of Network Operations is responsible for the operation, administration and maintenance of telecommunications network infrastructure used within the core, transport and access networks. The role is central to the management of the networks to ensure that all availability targets are achieved. The Head of Network Operations is also responsible for network development projects rollout, CAPEX and OPEX budget forecasting and managing the finances associated with operations and projects. 

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

•    Focus on strategic planning and development of goals to continuously align the technical department towards achieving and exceeding availability targets for the network.

•    Develop budgets for operations and projects undertaken by the Network Operations team.

•    Manage the development of business cases for operational and network development purposes.

•    Track and manage expenditure on OPEX and CAPEX budget lines.

•    Tracking and management of network development project resources. 

•    Ability to manage change effectively throughout the team to support company goals and initiatives.

•    Development of tactics towards the achievement of strategic initiatives and objectives.

•    Set objectives for direct reports and lead in the achievement of these objectives.

•    Ensure that there is effective communication and well-documented standard operating procedures in place to deal with network outages or service disruptions, keeping all key stakeholders well informed during and after outages.

•    Develop and execute plans to address any personnel issues, escalating to senior management where necessary.

•    Hold weekly team meetings and one-on-one interim reviews to provide and capture feedback. 

•    Develop Disaster Recovery Plans for the business and implement as necessary.

•    Assist with developing as well as review of Hurricane Plans for all affected markets in the business.

•    Manage technical resources under outage conditions to resolve the issues to restore normal operations within the required time frames.

•    Manage network changes to ensure that all stakeholders are properly prepared for changes and to ensure that simultaneous changes do not interfere with each other during maintenance windows.

•    KPI Reporting: Provide specific reports and trends to troubleshoot and fix any customer affecting issues.

•    Preventive maintenance – Establish a framework for the execution, tracking and reporting of preventive maintenance routines (remote and onsite) across all Core, RAN and IP/Transport network elements and all cell site and data centre power, cooling and infrastructural facilities to ensure that routines are consistently executed. 

•    Incident Management – Execute, enforce and optimize as required the company incident management process to ensure prompt recovery of service interruptions and communication to all stakeholders as the incident progresses. Ensure consistency of response across incidents.

•    Network Development – Manage the coordination of local and centralized resources in the planning and execution of network development activities.

Academic Qualifications and Experience Required:

•    Bachelor’s degree AND related certification OR equivalent combination of education and experience.
•    4-6 years’ experience performing similar role/duties.
•    Experience within the mobile telecommunications sector would be considered a valuable asset.
•    An acceptable combination of academic qualifications and work experience may be considered in lieu of minimum requirements.
•    A minimum of 5 years’ experience with managing telecommunications projects.
•    Practical experience with network routing protocols and troubleshooting methodologies.
•    Experience in the application of artificial intelligence concepts and tools to improve process efficiency will be an asset for this role.
•    Membership with a professional engineering institution or PMP certification will be an asset.

Functional Skills:

•    Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations.  
•    Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.  
•    Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, and the general public.
•    Ability to solve practical problems and deal with multi-variate situations where only limited standardization exists.  
•    Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.
•    Be ambitious, driven and passionate about all things related to digital apps and music, with an excellent comprehension of how the industry works and the key world players
•    Have polished presentation, communication, and analytical skills 
•    Have an adaptive style in being able to communicate technical ideas and concepts in simple terms
•    Have strong organizational skills, being able to manage multiple projects at once.