Dir, Wireline Access & Fiber Systems (HFC, PON, Fiber)

GCI''s Dir, Wireline Access & Fiber Systems (HFC, PON, Fiber) will provide technical leadership, engineering governance, and strategic direction for GCI's wireline access and fiber systems portfolio, including DOCSIS HFC broadband platforms, PON/FTTx access platforms, and supporting fiber systems required to deliver scalable and reliable broadband services.

This role is responsible for translating business objectives into clear technical direction, establishing and enforcing engineering standards and architectural governance, and driving technical direction, scalability, lifecycle management, and engineering governance across the broadband access domain, while partnering with operations and delivery teams to improve reliability and operational performance.

This role is accountable for domain engineering strategy, standards, architecture, and design governance. Delivery, implementation, and run-state operations are executed in partnership with adjacent functions according to defined accountability, handoff, and escalation models.

The Director serves as the primary technical authority for wireline access and fiber systems standards, architecture, and design governance and partners cross-functionally to ensure broadband technologies, designs, and investments align with long-term business, operational, and customer experience objectives.

Scope includes, but is not limited to:

• DOCSIS HFC broadband platforms and chassis systems
• PON / EPON / FTTx access platforms
• Fiber access systems and associated access-domain infrastructure
• End-to-end access-domain solution integration in partnership with transport, IP, and core engineering teams

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

This leadership position requires the following non-delegable responsibilities:

• Own the mission, goals, technical direction, and governance outcomes of the team and assigned engineering domain.
• Provide strong leadership to span of control (direct and indirect reports); demonstrate effective leadership in all interactions companywide. This leadership includes generating enthusiasm and shared commitment; identifying and setting direction; teaching, growing, and empowering; owning outcomes; and leading by example. Specific leadership duties include:
• Establishing the vision and tone for the department, consistent with company culture and mission.
• Establishing clear, measurable, and achievable goals and performance expectations and following up appropriately.
• Hiring individuals who can accomplish those goals and meet those expectations; providing them the open communication, training, tools, and mentoring needed to be successful and develop professionally; establishing a development path commensurate with capabilities and potential.
• Providing clear and accurate feedback to individuals and teams on a timely and consistent basis. Identifying and addressing performance problems early and effectively before they damage GCI's interests and demoralize other employees.
• Effectively managing processes including annual performance reviews, compensation adjustments, promotions, demotions, transfers, and disciplinary actions up to and including termination in an unbiased and consistent manner.

DECISION RIGHTS

• Establish, approve, and maintain domain standards, technical policies, reference architectures, and engineering governance requirements.
• Define and oversee the Board of Design (BoD) framework, including design review criteria, documentation requirements, and evidence necessary to demonstrate design readiness.
• Approve technical designs and solutions prior to execution, ensuring alignment with architectural standards, strategic objectives, operational requirements, and regulatory obligations.
• Exercise authority to reject, defer, or require modification of proposed solutions that do not meet established standards or governance requirements, unless an approved exception has been granted through the formal governance process.
• Serve as the final technical authority for major architectural decisions, documenting key design choices, risks, assumptions, and trade-offs within the technical decision log.
• Govern technical exceptions and waivers, ensuring appropriate review, approval, mitigation planning, and retirement of deviations from approved standards.
• Provide technical guidance and decision-making support for complex initiatives, cross-functional programs, and strategic infrastructure investments.
• Approve designs for execution readiness; execution teams remain accountable for implementation in accordance with approved design and established change controls.
• Partner with Operations and Delivery leaders to resolve design, readiness, and performance issues identified during implementation or run-state operations.
• Own technical standards and design acceptance criteria; operational teams own run-state execution and incident response unless otherwise assigned.

SUCCESS METRICS

• Core performance measures aligned with the operating model include:
• Increased adoption and compliance with approved architectural standards and engineering best practices.
• Reduction in design-related rework, scope changes, and technical debt introduced during project execution.
• Stable and well-defined project scope at execution entry, resulting in improved delivery outcomes.
• Predictable project execution across the portfolio, including adherence to schedule, budget, quality, and operational objectives.
• Improved governance effectiveness through timely design reviews, architectural decisions, and risk mitigation activities.

Additional domain-specific performance measures may include:

• Reliability and Service Performance

• Engineering designs and standards support achievement of network availability and service reliability targets.

• Partner with operations and delivery teams to improve detection, restoration, and design-related remediation outcomes.

• Ensure capacity strategies, forecasts, and engineering readiness support timely augmentation before service-impacting constraints occur.

• Capacity and Readiness

• Capacity utilization is maintained within established thresholds.

• Capacity augmentation and expansion activities executed before service-impacting constraints occur.

• Forecast accuracy and alignment between capacity planning and business growth objectives.

• Lifecycle and Technology Modernization

• Successful completion of end-of-life (EOL) and end-of-support (EOS) technology migrations.

• Retirement of legacy platforms and technical debt without customer service disruption.

• Increased adoption of strategic technology roadmaps and modernization initiatives.

• Governance and Standards Compliance

• Reduction in standards exceptions and architectural deviations.

• Timely resolution and retirement of approved exceptions.

• Compliance with architectural review, documentation, and design governance requirements.

• Operational Excellence

• Improved consistency and quality of engineering deliverables.

• Enhanced cross-functional collaboration between Architecture, Engineering, Operations, and Project Delivery teams.

• Positive stakeholder feedback regarding technical governance effectiveness and decision-making support.

Strategy, Roadmap, & Lifecycle Direction

• Develop and maintain a multi-year engineering roadmap for wireline access and fiber systems aligned with business strategy, capital planning, and operational priorities.
• Drive lifecycle management strategy, including platform introduction, modernization, scalability planning, and retirement activities across HFC, PON/FTTx, and supporting fiber technologies.
• Evaluate emerging broadband access technologies, vendor capabilities, and industry trends to inform strategic direction and investment decisions.
• Provide technical leadership in support of broadband expansion, modernization, and transformation initiatives.
• Inform capital planning and investment prioritization for the access and fiber domain.
• Evaluate technical tradeoffs, lifecycle cost, scalability, and risk to support portfolio decisions.
• Provide domain leadership in support of business case development, modernization sequencing, and investment timing.

Architecture, Standards, & Engineering Governance

• Own and maintain domain standards, reference architectures, and the Basis of Design (BoD) framework for the wireline access and fiber systems portfolio.
• Establish governance processes that ensure engineering consistency, technical quality, standards adoption, and long-term operational sustainability.
• Review and approve engineering designs entering execution; identify and resolve non-compliant or high-risk solutions through governed exception processes.
• Maintain technical decision documentation related to architectural standards, engineering tradeoffs, and major platform decisions.

Engineering Performance, Reliability, & Capacity Management

• Lead engineering oversight, standards, and readiness activities that enable broadband platform reliability, resiliency, scalability, and performance objectives. Define and monitor engineering KPIs and operational performance metrics across wireline access and fiber systems.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on service reliability, network optimization, capacity planning, and customer-impacting incident reduction.
• Ensure engineering practices comply with applicable regulatory, security, operational, and industry standards.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Organizational Alignment

• Partner with Product, Operations, Engineering, QA, PMO, and Delivery teams to ensure broadband solutions are aligned with enterprise strategy and operational objectives.
• Translate complex technical concepts into actionable business recommendations for executive and non-technical stakeholders.
• Support prioritization, execution readiness, and portfolio alignment across broadband access initiatives.
• Facilitate collaboration across architecture, engineering, delivery, and operations teams to ensure clear handoffs, execution readiness, and closed-loop feedback from implementation and run-state operations.

Vendor and Technology Partner Management

• Influence vendor roadmap alignment with enterprise access strategy and lifecycle priorities.
• Support make/buy assessments, platform selection, and technical-commercial trade-off discussions.
• Evaluate vendors against technical fit, scalability, supportability, and long-term operational impact.

COMPETENCIES:

• ACCOUNTABILITY- Takes ownership for actions, decisions, and results; openly accepts feedback and demonstrates a willingness to improve.

• BASIC PRINCIPLES - Interacts with people in a way that builds mutual trust, confidence, and respect; adheres to GCI's Code of Conduct for Employees - the Basic Principles.

• COLLABORATION - Works effectively with others to accomplish common goals and objectives; maintains positive relationships even under difficult circumstances.

• Collaborates effectively with internal and external stakeholders to achieve positive outcomes.

• COMMUNICATION- Conveys thoughts and expresses ideas appropriately and professionally.

• Ability to articulate technical information in presentation/training format in front of internal and external customers including executive leadership team.

• COMPLIANCE - Follows internal controls; protects confidential information; abides by GCI's Code of Business Conduct & Ethics.

• CUSTOMER FOCUS - Demonstrates commitment to service excellence; gives high priority to customer satisfaction.

• RELIABILITY - Consistently follows through on assigned tasks as expected; demonstrates timely attendance at meetings, training, and other work obligations.

• Ability to handle multiple assignments and meet deadlines.

• Ability to adapt to a rapid pace of change and expectations.

• RESULTS - Uses a combination of job knowledge, initiative, sound decision making, innovation, adaptability, and problem solving.

• SAFETY & SECURITY - Supports a safe work environment by following all workplace safety rules and guidelines; complies with applicable Security policies and procedures.

• CHANGE MANAGEMENT: champions and supports department and company change.

• Ability to adapt to and lead through change, guiding the team through evolving technologies, business processes, and organizational priorities.

• Encourages flexibility and openness to new approaches, methods, and technologies.

• Champions Lean/Agile methodologies to improve team efficiency, effectiveness, and workflow.

• DECISION MAKING: uses sound, logical judgment based on data, research, and experience to choose an appropriate course of action.

• Ability to think strategically, align team efforts with organizational goals, and execute plans that deliver long-term value.

• Ability to balance technical innovation with practical business needs and resource constraints.

• PLANNING & IMPLEMENTATION: analyzes workload and establishes appropriate priorities; sets measurable and achievable goals and objectives for the team.

• MENTORING & DEVELOPMENT: utilizes interpersonal skills to guide, direct, and influence others to achieve results.

• Demonstrates strong leadership skills in managing, developing, and retaining a team of technical professionals.

• Focuses on coaching and mentoring team members to grow their technical and professional capabilities.

• Promotes a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, and collaboration.

• PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: sets clear performance expectations for team.

• Holds the team accountable to deliver high-quality outcomes on time and within budget.

• TECHNICAL PROFICIENCY - Proficient computer skills and MS Office knowledge (e.g., Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel) to complete job duties effectively, such as using the company intranet and to accurately retrieve and input information into databases or equivalents.

Minimum Qualifications:

Required: *A combination of relevant work experience and/or education sufficient to perform the duties of the job may substitute to meet the total years required on a year-for-year basis

• High School diploma or equivalent.
• Bachelors of Science Degree in Engineering, Computer Information Systems or Telecommunications or relevant field. *
• Minimum twelve (12) years of progressively responsible experience in broadband access, wireline, fiber, or telecommunications engineering environments.*
• Minimum five (5) years of leadership experience managing technical or engineering teams.
• Demonstrated experience with broadband access technologies inclusive of DOCSIS, HFC, PON, EPON, and FTTx environments.
• Experience leading engineering governance, architecture standards, and lifecycle management initiatives.

Preferred:

• Master's degree or advanced technical/business degree.
• Relevant industry certifications related to broadband, fiber, networking, security, or program management.
• Experience within large-scale telecommunications or broadband service provider environments.

DRIVING REQUIREMENTS:

• This position may require access to reliable transportation for occasional travel between retail store locations, offices, worksites, or other locations as needed.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS and WORKING CONDITIONS:

• Work is primarily sedentary, requiring daily routine computer usage.
• Ability to work shifts as assigned, work in standard office/home office setting, and operate standard office equipment.
• Ability to accurately communicate information and ideas to others effectively.
• Physical agility and effort sufficiently to perform job duties safely and effectively.
• Ability to make valid judgments and decisions.
• Available to work additional time on weekends, holidays, before or after normal work hours when necessary.
• Must work well in a team environment and be able to work with a diverse group of people and customers.
• Virtual workers must comply with remote work policies and agreements.

The company and its subsidiaries operate in a 24/7 environment providing critical services to Alaskans and may need to respond to public health and safety matters or other business emergencies. Due to business needs, employees may be contacted outside of the core business hours to respond to the immediate emergency. As such, you will be requested to provide emergency after-hour contact numbers, to include your home and cell phone numbers if you have those services. Culture, Engagement, and Connection: At GCI, we foster an environment where the unique perspectives of our employees, customers, and fellow Alaskans are celebrated. We add value to our community by nurturing and empowering each member of our workforce, ensuring equal opportunities for every Trailblazer. EEO: GCI is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, veteran status, or any other status or classification protected under applicable state or federal law. DISCLAIMER: The above information on this description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job. All employees of GCI work in support of the GCI Mission Statement and Declaration of Principles which are located on the GCI Career page and Employee portal.