- This is a senior individual contributor role with high visibility and cross-functional reach. You will not manage people - you will manage programs, processes, and accountability across an organization that is scaling faster than its existing playbooks
- A core focus of this role is the network backbone and long-haul fiber connectivity that makes each new site usable
- Data center capacity is only as valuable as the connectivity that reaches it, and fiber has the longest and least forgiving lead time of any dependency in the expansion pipeline - dark fiber and IRU negotiations, carrier and subsea capacity procurement, permitting and right-of-way, conduit and duct builds, landing station and cable landing point coordination, metro rings, and cross-connects at interconnection facilities
- You will own the sequencing of that connectivity workstream against site readiness, ensuring fiber, transport, and interconnect milestones land ahead of power and compute turn-up rather than behind it
- Own and continuously maintain the master interdependency tracker linking the international pipeline to the domestic development pipeline - surface resource conflicts, sequencing risks, and capacity constraints in real time to program leadership
- Drive cross-functional accountability across Legal, Finance, Engineering, and Operations: track commitments made in program reviews, follow up on open action items, elevate blockers proactively, and ensure teams are moving at the pace the program requires
- Own the end-to-end program plan for network backbone and fiber connectivity at each new market and site - from route planning and carrier/dark fiber selection through contracting, construction, splicing, acceptance testing, and lit service turn-up - and hold the critical path against data center RFS dates
- Manage carrier, dark fiber provider, subsea consortium, and construction partner deliverables against schedule, quality, and diversity requirements: route diversity and physical path separation, latency budgets, capacity commitments, SLAs, and IRU/lease terms. Partner with Legal, Finance, and Sourcing to move agreements through negotiation and execution on the program timeline
- Ensure all active opportunities and programs progress through required intake, review, and approval gates on schedule - flag deviations, at-risk milestones, and sequencing conflicts before they become delays
- Maintain a connectivity view of the portfolio: fiber route inventory, contracted vs. lit capacity, diversity posture, interconnection footprint, and per-site connectivity readiness - so leadership can see where the backbone constrains growth
- Engage substantively in technical discussions with network engineering and architecture teams - challenge assumptions on route design, capacity planning, and turn-up sequencing, and contribute to problem-solving rather than only reporting status
- Build and continuously improve the systems that make this function scalable: intake workflows, tracking templates, milestone frameworks, and reporting cadences that hold up as the program portfolio grows across domestic and international markets
- 5+ years in technical program management, program operations, or strategic analytics within data center, network infrastructure, telecommunications, or capital-intensive sectors
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams, influence without direct authority, and drive consensus in a fast-paced environment
- Exceptional communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills
- Solid understanding of hardware development lifecycles
- Comfortable managing external vendors and partners to schedule, quality, and contractual commitments - carriers, dark fiber providers, construction contractors, or equivalent
- Working knowledge of network backbone and fiber infrastructure - long-haul and metro fiber, dark fiber and IRU structures, DWDM/optical transport, interconnection and colocation cross-connects, route diversity, and the mechanics of a fiber build (permitting, ROW, construction, splicing, OTDR acceptance testing, turn-up)
- Proficiency in program management tools (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Sheet)
- Master's degree in Engineering or an MBA
- 10+ years of experience in technical program management within the hardware industry, with a strong focus on Networking hardware technologies
- Experience with networking switch designs for both Infiniband and high speed Ethernet
- Direct experience delivering fiber or network backbone programs: metro/long-haul builds, subsea cable systems or landing stations, carrier capacity procurement, or large-scale interconnection deployments
- Familiarity with hyperscale or cloud network architectures - DCI, backbone/WAN capacity planning, peering and transit strategy, and how connectivity requirements are derived from compute deployment plans
- Experience navigating international telecom permitting, licensing, and regulatory regimes, and coordinating with in-country carriers and construction partners
- Experience working with international manufacturing partners and supply chains
- Familiarity with industry standards and regulatory compliance for hardware products
Technical Program Manager (Global Expansion, Network infrastructure) in sunnyvale at Unknown Company
This position is listed as contract and onsite.