Director, Outside Plant and Engineering

Job Summary

The Director of Outside Plant & Engineering leads teams responsible for designing and building scalable, cost-effective fiber networks, ensuring all designs meet technical and regulatory standards. This role oversees the entire engineering design process, manages internal teams and external partners, and drives innovation and operational excellence.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide the end-to-end program direction to organize, develop, and execute a program build across multiple functional teams.
• Develop and execute the fiber engineering design strategy in alignment with business expansion and network deployment goals.
• Support market analysis diligence required for expansion initiatives.
• Oversee end-to-end design processes, including route planning, permitting, and compliance with federal, state, and local regulations.
• Ensure designs are optimized for scalability, cost efficiency, constructability, and long-term maintainability.
• Establish and enforce engineering design standards, documentation practices, and quality control measures, and oversee adherence to industry best practices and evolving standards in fiber network engineering.
• Maintain accurate OSP records to support Ziply Fiber’s mission of expanding state-of-the-art fiber networks.
• Lead and mentor a team of engineering managers, designers, and support staff to deliver high-quality network designs on schedule.
• Manage relationships with external engineering vendors, contractors, and consultants, ensuring alignment with company standards and project timelines.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement within the engineering organization.
• Partner with construction, operations, product, and finance teams to align engineering design with deployment readiness and business objectives.
• Drive innovation in design methodologies, leveraging automation, GIS platforms, and advanced engineering tools, and implement best-in-class workflows to improve speed, accuracy, and efficiency of design deliverables.
• Establish and manage process indicators and performance metrics to optimize workflows.
• Stay ahead of industry trends, technologies, and regulatory developments to maintain competitive advantage.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Telecommunications, or related field.
• Minimum ten (10) years of progressive experience in fiber network engineering.
• Minimum of five (5) years in a leadership/people management capacity, with demonstrated experience mentoring, developing, and managing engineering teams.
• Proven expertise in large-scale fiber design, route and build planning, permitting, and construction-ready deliverables.
• Strong understanding of GIS applications, CAD tools, asset management systems, and engineering workflows.
• Experience managing internal teams and third-party engineering vendors.
• Developed leadership skills, with the ability to mentor and lead others.
• Knowledge of permitting processes, regulatory requirements, and compliance for fiber deployments.
• Ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and communicate effectively with executive leadership.
• Experience using fiber optic network documentation tools.
• Understanding of network Engineering and inventory tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Engineering, Telecommunications, or related field.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license.
• Experience managing capital budgets.

Physical Requirements

• Maintain physical condition necessary for bending, stooping, sitting, walking, or standing for prolonged periods of time.
• Occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.

Work Environment

• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• Essential and marginal functions may require maintaining physical condition necessary for bending, stooping, sitting, walking, or standing for prolonged periods of time; most of time is spent sitting in a comfortable position with frequent opportunity to move about.
• The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.
• Work is performed in an office setting with exposure to computer screens and requires extensive use of a computer, keyboard, mouse, and multi-line telephone system.
• The work is primarily a modern office setting.

Additional Information

• Work Authorization: Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the US for any employer.
• Sponsorship is not available for this position.
• Diverse Workforce / EEO: Ziply Fiber is an equal opportunity employer.
• Ziply Fiber will consider all qualified candidates regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran status, and the presence of a non-job-related handicap or disability or any other legally protected status.
• Ziply Fiber requires a pre-employment background check as conditions of employment.
• Ziply Fiber may require a pre-employment drug screening.
• Ziply Fiber is a drug free workplace.