Job TiItle : M&A Network & Operations Integration Lead
Location: Houston, TX (Highly Preferred) or nearby locations.
Job type: Contract
Open for C2C
Travel Requirements: The candidate must be willing to travel to the client site twice a month, as well as on an as-needed basis.
The M&A Network & Operations Integration Lead will spearhead the technical and operational integration of acquired companies into the primary organization's network ecosystem.
This critical leadership role spans day-to-day coordination and high-level architectural strategy, ensuring that infrastructure, back-end systems, and field operations merge seamlessly without degrading subscriber or network performance.
The ideal candidate possesses deep expertise across Network Operations Centers (NOC), OSS/BSS, configuration provisioning, fault monitoring, field systems, and complex network engineering integrations .
Key Responsibilities
1. Core Network Engineering Integration & Strategy
- Architectural Due Diligence: Assess acquired network infrastructure (access, backhaul, core, and interconnection), identify hardware end-of-life status, and draft risk registries and cost models prior to consolidation.
- Target-State Planning: Design and document current-state to target-state architecture across routing, switching, and CPE platforms.
- Infrastructure Rationalization: Drive the decision framework to keep, migrate, integrate, or decommission acquired network platforms and components.
2. OSS/BSS & Provisioning Alignment
- Workflow Migration: Map and migrate network inventory data, customer service orders, and subscriber data from legacy systems to central platforms.
- Automated Provisioning: Standardize and integrate automated provisioning workflows, including ONT activation, configuration, and service fulfilment.
- Business Systems Interoperability: Partner with IT and billing units to link Operational Support Systems (OSS) with Business Support Systems (BSS) for frictionless cash-to-service execution.
3. NOC Consolidation & Monitoring/Alarms
- Day 1 Telemetry: Establish intermediate monitoring over VPN, MPLS, or direct interconnect to ensure Day 1 visibility of acquired networks.
- Unified Monitoring: Fully absorb acquired components into the enterprise NOC platform within target timelines (e.g., 120 days post-close).
- Fault Management: Configure and standardize alarm pipelines, telemetry metrics, syslog tracking, and SNMP traps to route uniformly into central triage queues.
4. Field Operations Systems & Operational Runbooks
- Field Tool Integration: Merge workforce management software, truck roll triggers, and customer-premises equipment (CPE) swap processes.
- Process Harmonization: Consolidate isolated operational runbooks, escalation matrix rules, change management templates, and SLA tracking processes into unified enterprise frameworks.
- Logistics Alignment: Synchronize multi-warehouse spare-parts strategies, equipment staging workflows, and local technician staffing plans.
5. Governance & Cutover Execution
- Migration Playbooks: Author comprehensive Methods of Procedure (MOPs) and migration schedules with airtight rollback safety nets.
- Vendor Consolidation: Inventory overlapping software licensing, support contracts, and transport leases to capture post-merger synergy savings.
Required Skills & Qualifications
- Experience: 15+ years in Network Engineering, Telecom Operations, or Infrastructure Systems, with at least 3 years explicitly dedicated to M&A infrastructure integration or large-scale data center/carrier migrations .
- Systems Expertise: High-level mastery of OSS/BSS frameworks , network inventory databases, configuration provisioning platforms, and fault-monitoring software (e.g., SolarWinds, Grafana, Splunk, or manufacturer-specific EMS platforms).
- Network Domain Knowledge: Solid comprehension of IP routing protocols, transport backhaul, security infrastructure, subscriber access methods (such as GPON/XGS-PON, Fixed Wireless, or Metro Ethernet), and vendor platforms (e.g., Cisco, Nokia, Calix).
- Operations Savvy: Deep understanding of incident response life cycles, SLA governance, and field service dispatch software integrations.
- Leadership & Communication: Outstanding cross-functional orchestration capabilities to align engineering, IT, field operations, and corporate development stakeholders