Senior OSP Program Manager - Long Haul Deployment

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.

The Senior Program Manager, Long Haul OSP Deployment is responsible for the strategic leadership and successful delivery of Zayo's long haul fiber deployment portfolio through direct oversight of turnkey engineering and construction partners, cross-functional leadership, and governance of multiple concurrent, large-scale infrastructure programs. This role provides both strategic direction and operational execution across complex, multi-million-dollar network expansion initiatives.

The Senior Program Manager owns program governance, capital planning, contractor strategy, executive stakeholder alignment, risk management, and portfolio performance while ensuring projects are delivered safely, on schedule, within budget, and in accordance with Zayo quality standards.

Serving as the primary operational and contractual interface between Zayo, engineering and construction partners, customers, and executive leadership, this position drives organizational alignment across Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Legal, Regulatory, GIS, and Network Planning to deliver critical network infrastructure at scale.

This role also leads continuous improvement initiatives, establishes deployment best practices, mentors program managers, and influences long-term deployment strategy across the Long Haul organization.

The Senior Program Manager reports to the Director, Long Haul OSP Deployment.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Program Leadership

Own a portfolio of large-scale long haul deployment programs supporting strategic network expansion initiatives.

Develop portfolio delivery strategies aligned with company growth objectives and capital investment priorities.

Lead cross-functional planning from business case development through engineering, permitting, construction, testing, customer acceptance, and operational turnover.

Establish program governance, delivery standards, performance metrics, and executive reporting across multiple concurrent initiatives.

Balance competing priorities, resources, and funding across multiple programs to optimize delivery performance.

Identify portfolio-level risks and dependencies and proactively implement mitigation and recovery strategies.

Provide recommendations to senior leadership regarding delivery strategy, capital allocation, contractor utilization, and execution priorities.

Executive Stakeholder Leadership

Serve as the executive operational lead for assigned deployment programs.

Build trusted relationships with executive leadership, customers, regulatory agencies, and strategic construction partners.

Lead executive steering committees, program reviews, and customer governance meetings.

Influence cross-functional decision making across Engineering, Finance, Supply Chain, Operations, Legal, Regulatory Affairs, and Network Planning.

Drive alignment between business objectives and deployment execution across multiple organizations.

Contractor Strategy & Vendor Performance

Develop long-term strategic relationships with turnkey engineering and construction partners.

Lead commercial negotiations for engineering and construction agreements, amendments, and complex change orders.

Establish contractor performance scorecards, KPIs, governance processes, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Evaluate contractor capacity, financial performance, safety metrics, production trends, and quality performance.

Drive executive-level performance reviews and corrective action plans when contractor performance falls below expectations.

Partner with Procurement and Legal to optimize sourcing strategies and improve contractor performance across the deployment portfolio.

Portfolio Financial Management

Own portfolio-level capital planning, forecasting, and financial performance.

Manage multi-million-dollar capital budgets across numerous concurrent deployment programs.

Lead financial forecasting, variance analysis, accrual management, and executive reporting.

Evaluate commercial impacts of scope changes, schedule adjustments, and risk events.

Partner with Finance to improve forecasting accuracy and optimize capital deployment.

Identify opportunities for cost savings, operational efficiencies, and improved return on investment.

Engineering, Regulatory & Deployment Governance

Provide strategic oversight of engineering, permitting, regulatory compliance, and construction execution.

Partner with Engineering leadership to improve constructability, deployment standards, and network design efficiency.

Oversee compliance with federal, state, and local regulatory requirements including NTIA, NEPA, Section 106, Tribal coordination, Davis-Bacon, BABA, and environmental obligations.

Ensure governance processes support quality, safety, regulatory compliance, and customer commitments across all assigned programs.

Operational Excellence & Process Improvement

Lead initiatives to improve deployment processes, governance, reporting, and execution methodologies.

Develop standardized program management tools, dashboards, KPIs, and best practices.

Identify systemic risks and implement scalable operational improvements.

Leverage program data and performance metrics to improve forecasting accuracy, contractor productivity, and deployment efficiency.

Drive lessons learned across the organization to continuously improve delivery performance.

Leadership & Talent Development

Mentor and develop Program Managers, Project Managers, and deployment personnel.

Provide guidance on complex delivery challenges, contractor management, financial controls, and executive communication.

Lead cross-functional teams through influence rather than direct authority.

Support organizational planning, succession development, and capability building within the Long Haul Deployment organization.

Qualifications

Experience

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Telecommunications, Business, or related field preferred.

Equivalent industry experience may be substituted for formal education.

At least ten (10) years of telecommunications, fiber deployment, infrastructure, or OSP program management experience.

At least eight (8) years leading complex outside plant construction programs and contractor organizations.

Demonstrated success leading portfolios of multimillion-dollar infrastructure deployments.

Experience managing EPC, engineering, and construction contracts.

Experience managing federally funded broadband programs and associated regulatory compliance.

Experience leading cross-functional organizations through complex delivery challenges.

Experience presenting to executive leadership and customer stakeholders.