Network Operations Center (NOC) Lead at Airtel

Job Purpose

• The successful role holder will be responsible for Controlling, Managing and Supporting day-to-day network operations to ensure that the glass ball of customer experience does not fall 24/7/365, while delivering Operational excellence and +1 Network Experience.

Key Accountabilities

Day-to-day management of all Network Operations & Maintenance of Strategic Partners (SPs) to deliver optimal availability and Perpetual quality (Customer)

• End-to end operational management of the entire base station system and Transmission domain.
• Network uptime and availability, build & drive improvement plans.
• MTTR drive and improvement.
• Lead and manage OpCo teams, providing guidance, training and coaching to ensure effective incident management and problem resolutions
• Periodic audit of all technology domains. Spares management to ensure availability of both critical and non-critical spares.
• Service Provider Service Level Agreement management for all OpCos.
• Preventive Maintenance Schedule /Review/Support
• Incidence management/Problem Management/Change Management recommendation follow up.
• Support the Operational Interface to both internal and external stakeholders especially Commercial, Customer Service Delivery.
• Ensure all OPCOs Requirements and deliverables of Operations and Maintenance are met.

NOC Assurance

• Network Performance Monitoring such as uptime to identify potential issues.
• Incident Management, Lead the team to resolve network incident and outages, ensure timely and effective restoration of services and drive mitigation plans.
• Problem Management, identify and resolve underlying problems that cause network incidents, implement corrective actions to prevent future occurrences.
• Assurance and compliance, ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, industry standards and internal policies, providing assurance on network performance.
• Communication, communicate effectively with stakeholders, including partners, peers, senior management on network performance, incidents and outages.
• Process improvements continuously review and improve NOC processes, procedures and tools to ensure efficient and effective Network operations.

Drive-to-end process documentation, implementation and compliance to processes, procedures and policies to ensure seamless operations across all SP (Process Management)

• Create and Ensure adherence to Governance Model.
• Define service level agreements for internal processes and partners, monitor achievement of defined objectives to ensure an effective and efficient interface to all touch points
• Ensure compliance with applicable policies, procedures and monitor availability of all relevant documentation, across relevant touch points to ensure synergy across all SPs services
• Institute service level agreement measurement methodology to ensure all SPs are accurately measured, rewarded and penalized accordingly

Regulatory Compliance

• Ensure that all activities of Operations and Maintenance in the Airtel OPCOs adhere to corresponding regulatory requirements in daily operations.

Partner Management & Governance (Active/Passive)

• Ensure all processes for effective management & governance of Partners.
• Identify processes that will continually improve efficiency of delivery of Key Performance Indicators

Validate & drive the annual operating plans OPEX (AOPs) for all the active and passive network systems

• Direct Annual Operating Plan compilation for Airtel all 14 OPCOs Networks
• Direct achievement of Annual Operating Plan targets and all group Operating Expenditure saving initiatives to ensure optimization of all network investments
• Ensure Key focus on recurring Operating Expenditure. Establish performance expectations and regularly review individual performance
• Recommend appropriate rewards and recognition.

Educational Qualifications & Functional / Technical Skills

• Bachelor of Electrical /Electronic Engineering or Telecoms Engineering (master’s degree in engineering a plus)
• Sound knowledge of Mobile Network O&M
• Analytical and Presentation skills
• Strategic negotiation skills

Relevant Experience (Type of experience and minimum number of years)

• 10-12 years of varied experience in operation and maintenance in the Telecom industry
• 5-8 years managerial experience in a GSM/mobile company
• With at least 3 years senior management experience in an area of network operations