Manager Network Planning Access and Solutions

Lumen is the trusted network for the AI‑powered world, connecting people, data, and applications through our expansive fiber network and connected ecosystem. We enable secure, high‑performance connectivity across cloud, edge, and AI workloads for enterprises, governments, and communities. At Lumen, you’ll work on infrastructure customers rely on today and build for what’s next, where performance, security, and resilience matter. This is a high accountability environment where bold ideas drive real innovation for our customers, partners, and industry. The work is challenging, expectations are clear, and trust is built into how we operate. If you’re ready to take ownership, deliver meaningful impact, and help shape the future of AI‑ready connectivity, join us today. The Role 
 The Manager of Strategic Network Access & Solutions leads the strategic vision of Lumen’s network evolution to meet the growing demand for AI and datacenter capacity.  This function is responsible for linking network assets and capabilities into an operational plan, executing against monetization and growth objectives while steering the company towards its strategic priorities.  This leader will collaborate with business units across Lumen to create new, innovative ways to show up in the market.  The role is responsible for various demand ingestion points and modeling into a complete national network plan with operational recommendations including network investment strategies and customer targeting.  This leader is highly engaged in visualizing and simplifying the complex principles of the network into straightforward business recommendations for senior leaders.  This role will also be an internal influence of AI excellence across the business, leveraging analytics and insights to maximize value and efficiency cross-departmentally.  This includes the growth and advancement of geospatial analytics and visualizations.    The Main Responsibilities 
 Publish and maintain multi-year network expansion and investment plan that aligns to strategic priorities.  Facilitate joint-customer planning, linking customer requirements and long term capacity needs to Lumen’s connectivity strategy. Mastery of AI compute landscape and how workloads traverse the network transport layer to support Hyperscaler, Neo Cloud, Large Enterprise and Datacenter Operator customer segments. Maintain Lumen’s market leadership in network connectivity to datacenters and hyperscalers, maintaining direct connections the market as it exponentially expands. Expand Lumen’s market share in datacenter market via customer targeting, network architecture enhancement and product enablement. Influence internal and external parties on optimal ways to organize, align, and show up in the market to monetize AI capabilities and solve customer needs and demand. Identify strategic market areas for investment, aligned to customer acquisition and sales go-to-market strategies. Guide data analytics teams to develop material business insights and conclusions using AI/LLM/ML modeling. Lead AI innovation across the Network Planning department by collaborating with business leaders to identify opportunities to accelerate planning activities with data driven modeling and recommendations.   Optimization of large customer deals by identifying investment synergies and cost reduction strategies to increase financial flexibility. Partner with business units to prescribe network strategies to Sales, Product, and go-to-market commercial offerings. Partner with peer planning departments to assist in simplifying the network story into easy to consume business milestones and decision points. Build and mentor a high-performing team that will influence and drive the strategic direction Lumen using a network and asset lean. Facilitate team growth and adoption of emerging technologies including new GIS & AI/ /ML techniques. What We Look For in a Candidate 
 Master’s degree in