Head of Telecom Engineering

Actalent; United States; On-site; USD 250,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

Actalent seeks a strategic Head of Telecom Engineering to lead the global practice, shaping strategy and capability development for OSP, FTTx, fiber design, permitting, and utility coordination.

The role drives governance, scalable delivery, and portfolio growth, guiding multi-program teams and ensuring client-focused engineering excellence across regions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required or higher in engineering/telecom/construction management or related field.
• 15+ years of telecom engineering experience with leadership of multi-program teams.
• Experience scaling OSP/FTTx engineering capabilities and leading distributed delivery teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the telecom engineering practice strategy in alignment with growth priorities.
• Build a multi-year capability roadmap across OSP, FTTx, fiber design, permitting, make-ready, joint use, and utility coordination.
• Translate market demand and customer needs into differentiated, repeatable engineering service offerings.
• Establish an operating model that integrates sales, solutioning, delivery, quality, workforce planning, and financial management.
• Provide executive oversight for strategic programs, critical delivery risks, and customer escalations.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Program management

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering, telecommunications, construction management, or related discipline

Job description

The Head of Telecom Engineering will lead the Telecom Engineering business globally with accountability for strategy, capability development, scalable delivery, technical governance, and portfolio revenue growth across OSP, FTTx, fiber, permitting, utility coordination, and related network-engineering services.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

• Define and execute the telecom engineering practice strategy in alignment with the organization’s growth priorities.
• Build a multi-year capability roadmap across OSP, FTTx, fiber design, permitting, make-ready, joint use, and utility coordination.
• Translate market demand and customer needs into differentiated, repeatable engineering service offerings.
• Establish an operating model that integrates sales, solutioning, delivery, quality, workforce planning, and financial management.
• Experience managing revenue of $50 million or greater per year.
• Proven success building, scaling, and leading a consulting practice.

Technical Governance & Innovation

• Set engineering standards, design methodologies, review gates, quality controls, and technical governance across programs.
• Sponsor automation, digital engineering, analytics, and workflow standardization initiatives that improve productivity and traceability.
• Maintain awareness of evolving broadband, fiber deployment, utility coordination, and regulatory requirements.
• Create communities of practice and reusable knowledge assets to strengthen consistency across accounts.
• Provide executive oversight for strategic programs, critical delivery risks, and customer escalations.
• Partner with sales and solutioning leaders on pursuits, proposals, presentations, estimates, and transition-to-delivery planning.
• Lead annual planning, capacity strategy, leadership succession, competency development, and organizational readiness.
• Promote a culture of client focus, accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and engineering integrity.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, telecommunications, construction management, or a related discipline; advanced degree is preferred.
• 15+ years of telecom engineering experience, including substantial leadership of multi-program engineering organizations.
• Demonstrated experience scaling OSP/FTTx engineering capabilities and leading distributed delivery teams.
• Strong commercial, financial, customer-facing, and organizational-change experience.