Senior Planning Engineer

Lumen is seeking a Senior Planning Engineer to join the Access Management Organization (AMO). This role is pivotal in managing our infrastructure for offnet NNI networks, ensuring optimal capacity utilization, and driving improvements through predictive analytics.

The Senior Planning Engineer will monitor and evaluate capacity utilization across data networks, identify potential capacity issues, and submit capacity triggers to ensure network efficiency and availability. They will develop capacity triggers through forecasting and trending analysis, enabling proactive management of network resources. Conducting root cause analysis for high-growth and non-compliant markets, they will identify and address underlying causes of capacity issues. Utilizing predictive analytics, they will drive programmatic improvements and develop plans for augmenting capacity relief and enhancing network availability. Ensuring the accuracy and integrity of quote-to-order data, they will support timely enablement of revenue. They will be responsible for resolving identified data integrity issues. The role also involves overseeing the installation of new facilities, ensuring timely and cost-effective completion, and monitoring network expenses.

The Senior Planning Engineer will collaborate with various teams, including access assurance, jeopardy resolution, manual quoting, network grooms, carrier relations, network planning, service delivery, and network implementation, to ensure timely activation of new facilities, onboarding of new vendors, and continuous process improvement.

This is a fully remote position open to candidates based anywhere in the U.S.

• Triggers capacity augments in assigned area of responsibility for Lumen's offnet NNI network.
• Oversees capacity installations throughout the lifecycle of each augment project.
• Ensures accurate representation of facilities in multiple quoting and inventory systems, resolves any identified data integrity issues.
• Resolves issues that impact the network infrastructure with our offnet vendor partners.
• Negotiates pricing on an individual case basis with offnet vendor partners for NNIs.
• Supports new vendor onboarding in a cross-functional environment.
• Analyzes complex designs in the offnet network environment, including planning, designing, and evaluating the feasibility of interconnections with offnet vendors.
• Develops and conveys new or improved processes for the team.
• Conducts root cause analysis for high-growth and non-compliant markets to identify underlying causes of capacity issues and develop effective strategies to prevent and address them.
• Utilizes predictive analytics to drive programmatic improvements and develop plans for augmenting capacity
• Must be capable of handling moderately complex engineering assignments.
• May act as a technical project leader or provide work leadership for other employees.
• Able to successfully deliver on KPIs and perform in an environment with limited oversight.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent education and relevant experience.
• 6+ years of related experience, or 4+ years of related experience with a Master's Degree.
• Strong Microsoft Excel skills for data analysis and reporting.
• Expertise in problem-solving, with strong analytical and critical thinking abilities.
• Superior organizational and time management skills, adept at managing multiple priorities and meeting deadlines
• Strong communication skills, especially via email, to effectively collaborate with team members and stakeholders.
• Proven ability to meet established SLAs and KPIs, demonstrating a commitment to performance and accountability.
• Ability to quickly learn and understand new and complex concepts, and effectively apply that knowledge to improve processes and solve problems.
• Lumen inventory system knowledge (e.g., EON, Pro, ASRI, v10/Hubcap, CORE/TIRKS/LIMS).

• Previous technical telecommunications experience, including planning/engineering, provisioning, and/or vendor management experience of Layer 2 and Layer 3 Data/IP networks.
• Experience in capacity management, including planning, provisioning, and vendor management, with a focus on optimizing network resources and ensuring efficient operations.
• Knowledge of network expense (offnet vendor billing) and offnet access design.
• Familiarity with cloud networking and services (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc.)
• Proficiency in SQL and/or PowerBI for data analysis and reporting.
• Working knowledge of Visio for process mapping and diagramming.
• Demonstrated success in leveraging continuous process improvement methodologies (e.g., Six Sigma, Agile, Kaizen, Lean, etc.) with a proven track record of implementing successful initiatives to enhance operational efficiency and productivity.
• Previous project management experience.

The starting salary for this role differs based on the employee's primary work location. Employees typically do not start at the top of the range, though compensation depends on each individual's qualifications.

Location Based Pay Ranges

$80,510 - $107,340 in these states: AR, ID, KY, LA, ME, MS, NE, SC, and SD.
$84,740 - $112,980 in these states: AZ, AL, FL, GA, IN, IA, KS, MO, MT, NM, ND, OH, OK, PA, TN, UT, VT, WV, WI, and WY.
$88,980 - $118,630 in these states: CO, HI, MI, MN, NV, NH, NC, OR, and RI.
$93,210 - $124,280 in these states: AK, CA, CT, DE, DC, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, TX, VA, and WA.

As with the pay range variety that's based on the region of a country, specific offers are determined by various factors such as experience, education, skills, certifications and other business needs.

Based on your job application information you may be given the opportunity to complete a video interview immediately after applying. This will include a set of questions for you to record a response to in addition to Game Challenges. Completion of this video interview is a requirement in order to be considered for our open position. Now not a good time? No worries, we will also send you an email with a link to complete the video interview. We strongly recommend that you complete this within 5 days of your application date.