Interconnection Strategy Manager

The Role

We are seeking an experienced and motivated individual to take ownership of Lumen’s Internet peering/interconnection strategy within our Europe, Middle East, and Africa region.

This individual will work within the Product Management function and will be accountable for steering the regional interconnection strategy to meet Lumen’s needs. They will be responsible for both leading negotiations and maintaining relationships with our interconnection partners and strategic customers within the region to implement the strategy. This is a role that bridges the commercial and technical sides of the business. The successful candidate will be capable of interfacing with multiple areas of the business to support sales, product, commercial, network architecture, engineering and implementation teams.

The Main Responsibilities

The main responsibilities include:

Manage Internet peering/interconnection relationships and related contracts.

Negotiate with carriers, ISPs and network operators for interconnect capacity and other programs related to traffic exchange.

Communicate progress and strategy internally and collaborate with a wide variety of internal teams including product, business development, legal, network architecture, network planning, and executive leadership.

Coordinate all regional interconnection strategy and anticipate impacts at a global scale.

Effectively utilise network performance data and cost models to understand, optimise traffic flows, network performance and the cost of interconnecting networks.

Work closely with internal and external provisioning teams to ensure that peering connections are upgraded in a timely and effective manner.

Foster relationships with strategic Lumen customers by discussing our interconnection strategy with them. Identify areas for interconnection improvements through these conversations.

Represent Lumen with regulators and in public forums/conferences to promote fair interconnection between network operators that supports the continued growth of an open Internet.

What We Look For in a Candidate

What we look for in a candidate:

7+ years of experience in technical, product or commercial roles within the Internet/telecoms industry with specific experience of operating within the Internet interconnection ecosystem.

Strong understanding of the technical and commercial aspects underpinning a global network.

Extensive experience with supplier/customer negotiations and contract management.

Effective data-driven analysis and problem-solving skills (scripting/data science skills are a plus).

Knowledge of the IP transit and CDN markets.

International experience, fluency in English with additional languages beneficial.

Able to undertake moderate travel as required and represent Lumen at industry events.

Excellent communication skills, with both internal and external parties.