Network Develoment Manager

Meta's Network Investments team is responsible for the strategic planning, commercial development, and delivery of one of the world's largest and fastest-growing fiber optic backbone networks. We partner with telecommunications providers and infrastructure vendors to design, source, and deploy critical network capacity that powers Meta's family of applications and AI infrastructure. We are seeking an experienced Network Development Manager (NDM) to own the commercial development and delivery of fiber network capacity across the North American production environment. In this role you will independently lead provider engagements and complex fiber route development, lead commercial negotiations end to end, and own delivery outcomes for a portfolio of routes/providers — setting strategy with cross-functional partners and mentoring less-experienced NDMs to ensure Meta's network capacity stays ahead of demand growth.

Responsibilities

• Own strategic relationships with a portfolio of telecommunications providers, including performance management, escalation ownership, and provider strategy
• Lead identification and evaluation of new fiber routes and capacity solutions; define requirements with Network Planning and engineering and make build-vs-buy / route selection recommendations
• Lead commercial negotiations for fiber IRU agreements, dark fiber leases, and related infrastructure contracts, owning negotiation strategy, business case, and approval narrative through execution
• Drive alignment across Network Implementation Engineering (NIE), Network Planning, Finance, Legal, Sourcing, and Data Center teams; resolve cross-team conflicts and own clean handoffs from development through implementation
• Own delivery accountability against contractual milestones and SLAs for the assigned portfolio; proactively drive risk mitigation with providers and internal partners
• Define reporting and tracking standards that give leadership visibility into delivery status and provider performance; ensure network data integrity in internal tools
• Lead process and tooling improvements across the team, author best practices and SOPs, and mentor/onboard less-experienced NDMs
• Influence multi-year regional capacity strategy in partnership with Planning and Finance

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience
• 5+ years of experience in network development, telecommunications, fiber optic infrastructure, or a related field (commercial, technical, or project management)
• Experience owning vendor/provider relationships and commercial outcomes in a telecommunications or infrastructure context
• Demonstrated experience leading commercial negotiations (IRU, dark fiber lease, MSA/SLA) from strategy through execution
• Knowledge of fiber optic network concepts including route design, IRU/lease structures, and the full delivery lifecycle
• Experience leading cross-functional programs and driving alignment among engineering, finance, legal, and sourcing stakeholders
• Experience communicating status, risk, and recommendations to senior/leadership audiences
• Experience with data analysis, spreadsheets, and building business cases
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Telecommunications, or related field (or equivalent practical experience)

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated ongoing AI skill development (e.g., prompt/context engineering, agent orchestration) and staying current with emerging AI technologies
• Experience adhering to and implementing responsible, ethical AI practices (e.g., risk assessment, bias mitigation, quality and accuracy reviews)
• Experience at a hyperscale technology company, major telecommunications carrier, or infrastructure provider
• Knowledge of network planning and capacity forecasting fundamentals
• Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimize/redesign workflows and drive measurable impact (e.g., efficiency gains, quality improvements)
• Experience with contract management including IRU agreements, MSAs, and SLAs
• Experience with data analysis tools, dashboards, or automation
• Experience with backbone/long-haul fiber networks and metro fiber infrastructure
• Experience mentoring or coaching less-experienced team members