Company Description

Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO) provides communications infrastructure solutions, including fiber and bandwidth connectivity, colocation and cloud infrastructure to the world’s leading businesses. Customers include wireless and wireline carriers, media and content companies, cloud providers, finance and professional services and other large enterprises. Zayo provides customers with flexible solutions and self-service through Tranzact, an innovative online platform for managing and purchasing bandwidth.

Position Description

The Director, Optical Architecture position is responsible to lead all aspects of DWDM architecture and engineering for Zayo’s global DWDM network. Role is in charge of DWDM hardware and software evaluation, testing, configuration, and service definition. The position manages Wavelength Architecture, Network Planning and Network Security teams. Policy definition and support strategy for ‘go forward’ and ‘end of life’ optical transport platforms resides with this function, as well as 24x7x365 NCC Tier 5 escalation and customer service resolution. Equipment vendor negotiations and relationship management for technical, commercial and operations are also required.

Responsibilities

• Develop optical transport technology roadmap, define target hardware and software release features, and lead hardware and software adoption across a multi-functional organization. Develop lowest cost per bit strategies and transform legacy networks to monetize investment in embedded base infrastructure while increasing overall system capacity. Analysis of multi-vendor interoperability and evaluation of standards-based versus proprietary solutions is required. Measure, compare and quantify capital and expense for hardware and software selection.
• Serve as Architecture point of contact and escalation; provide and conduct technical training sessions to support various stakeholders on the adoption of new hardware and software. Work with equipment vendors and internal technical leadership (i.e. Architecture, Tier III, NCC, etc.) to confirm support for proposed solutions. Create technical and commercial executive presentations for internal, customer and industry audiences as needed.
• Develop, document and update spectral capacity planning strategy for flex grid line systems utilizing multiple modulation formats between each A-Z combination.
• Lead layer 1 network software upgrades by interfacing with equipment vendors, Architecture and Tier III teams to drive roadmap and dependency requirements to support new HW/SW feature/functionality.
• Perform link engineering analysis for long haul and metro DWDM transport, including operational support model, and interoperation testing requirements for alien wavelengths.
• Define testing and acceptance procedures for all internal optical fiber characterization and layer 1 transport services. Assist Product Development in service definition creation, including SLA, cost, engineering and legal requirements.
• Lead multi-functional adoption of new optical transport technologies, including optical fiber, cabling, splicing, termination, DWDM transport systems, and industry open networking initiatives. Define hardware ISP & OSP environmental specifications, logical HW templates, and MIB development.
• Develop, implement and manage hardware and software lab environment. Create, manage and execute test plans. Define telemetry standards for chassis interconnection, DCN and OSC transport supporting critical infrastructure.
• Develop and implement hardware and software network security strategy, including SOW definition, new software development and execution. Define requirements, oversee development and manage implementation of IT/NMS/SDN tools/environments to support ongoing network management, security, and automation initiatives. Evaluate and manage internal and external network access methodologies to ensure network security policies are enforced.
• Primary point of contact for global critical spares strategy and 24x7x365 management and escalation. Work with stakeholders to develop and update asset records, define replacement HW strategies and procure 3rd party HW.
• Create engineering documentation standards and pre/post sale network/customer documentation as needed. Update and maintain legacy network documentation including physical, logical and latency sources of record.
• Lead optical transport due diligence pre-acquisition and post-acquisition integration for acquired companies.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Expert knowledge of telecommunications standards, service protocol structure and testing (i.e. Ethernet/OTN/SONET/SDH/SAN/Video).
• Expert knowledge of DWDM network architectures (i.e. FOADM/ROADM/PON/fixed and flex grid), link engineering and signal flow.
• Expert knowledge of optical fiber technical specifications, testing, and link engineering fundamentals.
• Expert proficiency on a minimum of (5) optical transport platforms (i.e. Ciena, Infinera, Nokia, Cisco, ADVA, Fujitsu, etc.).
• Understanding of telemetry (DCN) network design, IP subnetting and routing protocols (i.e. OSPF).
• Experience in software development and scripting (Python script development experience preferred).
• MS Office application capabilities required (i.e. Excel/Visio/Word) and IT Infrastructure management/administration skills preferred.
• Written and verbal communication/negotiating skills required toward technical/non-technical audiences.

Qualifications (Education and/or Experience):

• Masters degree in Telecommunications, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or 15+ years relevant DWDM Architecture experience.
• Minimum 15 years of experience designing OSP & ISP optical fiber systems, DWDM optical transport systems and development of data center, carrier hotel, and enterprise environments.
• Minimum 10 years of experience managing technical personnel.

Rewards

• Competitive compensation
• Excellent benefits including health, dental, vision, 401 (k), disability and life insurance
• Fitness membership discounts
• Generous paid time off policy including paid parental leave

Zayo is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Zayo does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.