Network Planning & Operations Director

A. PROFILE

Role Title: Network Planning & Operations Director
Reporting to: Chief Technology and Information Officer
Division: Network Planning & Operations
Department / Section: Technology & Information

B. CONTEXT

Purpose: The Network Planning & Operations Director is responsible for leading end-to-end mobile network planning, deployment, performance, and operations for the Mobile Network Operator. The role covers Radio Access Network (RAN), Transport Network, Field Operations, Network Operations Center (NOC), network quality, capacity management, and service assurance.

The Director ensures that the mobile network delivers high availability, strong customer experience, efficient capacity utilization, and cost-effective operations while supporting business growth, technology evolution, and regulatory requirements.

Context: Technology & Information is responsible for development and planning of the long/medium term technology network roadmap and architecture for both network and IT in line with corporate overall strategic requirements and technology strategy and to ensure that all network and it projects are aligned with the medium-term Network roadmap.

The Technology Unit within U9 is the backbone of the organization providing all technology services which enable U9 to deliver its services to its customers across all technology platforms, 24/7/365. The quality of the customer experience sits within this BU and therefore it plays a significant role in the delivery of revenue and satisfaction targets.

Radio Access Networks unit contributes to this through the effective management, operation and maintenance of all radio access networks ensuring U9 customers have full use of all services 24/7.

C. ROLE ACCOUNTABILITIES

Overview:

1. Network Strategy and Planning

• Develop and lead the overall network planning and operations strategy aligned with business objectives.
• Define short-term and long-term network evolution plans for 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, and future technologies.
• Lead annual network budgeting, CAPEX/OPEX planning, rollout prioritization, and investment justification.
• Drive spectrum utilization strategy, capacity planning, coverage improvement, and network modernization.
• Support business teams with technical feasibility for new products, enterprise solutions, FWA, IoT, and wholesale services.

2. Radio Access Network Planning and Optimization

• Lead RAN planning, design, rollout, and optimization activities.
• Ensure proper planning of coverage, capacity, quality, and customer experience across all radio technologies.
• Oversee site planning, frequency planning, parameter planning, interference management, and feature deployment.
• Drive RAN performance improvement for KPIs such as accessibility, retainability, mobility, throughput, latency, VoLTE quality, and customer complaints.
• Lead 4G/5G modernization, reframing, carrier expansion, small cell deployment, and network densification programs.

3. Transport Network Planning and Operations

• Lead planning and operations of the transport network, including microwave, fiber, IP/MPLS, DWDM, backhaul, backbone, and aggregation networks.
• Ensure sufficient transmission capacity, redundancy, resilience, and low-latency connectivity for mobile and enterprise services.
• Oversee transport network expansion, route diversity, capacity upgrades, and availability improvement.
• Manage transport performance, congestion, protection design, and SLA compliance.
• Coordinate with fiber providers, tower companies, vendors, and internal teams for transport delivery and operations.

4. Field Operations Management

• Lead nationwide field operations covering preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, site access, power systems, site quality, and vendor performance.
• Ensure high network availability through effective field maintenance strategy and strong operational discipline.
• Manage field teams, regional operations, subcontractors, managed service partners, tower companies, and power service providers.
• Drive reduction of repeat faults, long outages, energy cost, fuel dependency, and site-level operational risks.
• Ensure field operations comply with health, safety, security, and regulatory standards.

5. Network Operations Center Management

• Lead the NOC function for 24/7 network monitoring, alarm surveillance, incident management, escalation, and service restoration.
• Ensure effective monitoring of RAN, transport, core, power, environmental alarms, and customer-impacting incidents.
• Define and enforce incident management, change management, problem management, and major outage handling processes.
• Drive automation, alarm correlation, fault prediction, and operational efficiency improvements in the NOC.
• Ensure timely communication of network incidents to management, customer care, enterprise teams, and external stakeholders.

6. Network Performance and Service Assurance

• Own end-to-end network performance, availability, quality of service, and customer experience indicators.
• Monitor and improve key KPIs including availability, call success rate, drop rate, throughput, latency, congestion, packet loss, and complaint resolution.
• Lead regular network performance reviews with internal teams, vendors, and managed service partners.
• Drive root cause analysis and permanent corrective actions for major incidents and chronic issues.
• Ensure network performance supports commercial targets, customer growth, and service quality commitments.

7. Rollout, Project Delivery, and Technology Evolution

• Lead network rollout and modernization programs across RAN, transport, and supporting infrastructure.
• Ensure projects are delivered on time, within budget, and according to required quality standards.
• Support introduction of new technologies such as 5G, VoLTE, VoNR, Open RAN, network automation, AI-based operations, and energy optimization.
• Work closely with procurement, finance, legal, regulatory, commercial, and vendor teams for project execution.
• Ensure proper acceptance, documentation, handover, and operational readiness for new network deployments.

8. Vendor and Partner Management

• Manage strategic relationships with network vendors, managed service providers, tower companies, fiber providers, and subcontractors.
• Define vendor KPIs, SLAs, penalty mechanisms, governance models, and performance review frameworks.
• Lead technical evaluation, RFP support, contract negotiation input, and vendor selection processes.
• Ensure vendor deliverables meet technical, operational, financial, and quality requirements.
• Drive cost optimization while maintaining service reliability and operational excellence.

9. Budget, Cost, and Operational Efficiency

• Own network CAPEX and OPEX planning for RAN, transport, field operations, and NOC.
• Identify cost-saving opportunities in power, maintenance, transmission, spares, managed services, and vendor contracts.
• Balance cost efficiency with network quality, resilience, and customer experience.
• Drive automation, process improvement, energy efficiency, and resource optimization.
• Provide regular reporting on budget utilization, cost trends, risks, and savings initiatives.

10. People Leadership and Governance

• Lead, mentor, and develop senior managers and technical teams across network planning and operations.
• Build a high-performance culture focused on accountability, operational excellence, safety, and customer experience.
• Define clear organization structure, roles, KPIs, and governance routines.
• Promote collaboration between planning, operations, commercial, customer care, IT, finance, and regulatory teams.
• Ensure knowledge development, succession planning, and capability building within the network organization.

D. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

• Network availability and uptime
• RAN accessibility, retainability, mobility, and throughput KPIs
• Transport availability, congestion, and capacity utilization
• Mean Time to Repair and incident restoration time
• Number and duration of major outages
• Customer complaint rate related to network quality
• CAPEX and OPEX efficiency
• Rollout and modernization delivery performance
• Vendor SLA achievement
• NOC alarm handling and escalation performance
• Field maintenance compliance and repeat fault reduction
• Power availability and energy cost optimization

E. WORKING RELATIONSHIPS & DECISION MAKING

Interacts with:
Internal: CXOs, Legal & Regulatory, Sourcing, Finance, CE, Commercial and Logistics
External: Local Sub-con, OEM RAN and TX vendors, Managed Service Partners and Other Local Operators

Decision Making

• Full authority over all work carried out within the department
• Full cost center authority
• Input into major (technology wide) decisions on a day-to-day basis
• Resource allocation decisions within the department
• Operational decisions to improve methods and procedures.
• Technical authority to accept radio access network changes
• Technical authority to approve planned network outage time More strategic decisions or those with significant cross functional/budget or customer impact will be taken in conjunction with others across U9 and within the technology BU

F. EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum Experience & Essential Knowledge

• 15 years of relevant experience in engineering,
• At least 7–10 years in senior leadership roles within a Mobile Network Operator or major telecom vendor.
• Strong experience in managing large-scale RAN, transport, field operations, and NOC functions.
• Proven experience in 4G and 5G network planning, rollout, optimization, and operations.
• Experience managing CAPEX/OPEX budgets, vendors, managed service contracts, and large technical teams.

Minimum Entry Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Telecommunications Engineering, Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field. 
• Master's degree (MBA or M.Eng.) is preferred, especially with a focus on Telecommunications Management, Strategic Planning, or Operations.