Senior Manager Custom Networks Transformation

Lumen; Providence (RI); On-site; USD 138,844 - 185,124; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Education stipend

Job summary

Lumen is seeking a Senior Manager, Transformation Lead for Custom Networks to drive strategic planning, governance, and execution across a portfolio of initiatives. You will collaborate with line leaders to establish operating cadences, align roadmaps, and deliver measurable value for customers and the business.

The role emphasizes accountability, cross-functional coordination, and the delivery of AI-ready connectivity initiatives, with a focus on improving operational performance and customer

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years relevant experience in program/project management, business operations, transformation, governance, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated ability to drive cross-functional execution through governance, operating cadence, action tracking, and stakeholder coordination.
• Strong communication, organization, problem-solving, and influence skills with the ability to engage senior leaders and cross-functional partners.
• Experience developing clear executive-ready materials, status updates, action logs, and performance reporting.

Responsibilities

• Support cross-functional teams through the full lifecycle of transformation initiatives, from idea intake and gating through execution, tracking, and value capture.
• Maintain and refine the Custom Networks transformation roadmap in partnership with leadership, ensuring alignment to operating priorities, goals, metrics, and customer delivery outcomes.
• Help ensure initiatives integrate into the broader operating roadmap and are clearly coordinated with deployment, engineering, permitting, project controls, and partner management functions.
• Coordinate the weekly transformation cadence, including leadership reviews, workstream sessions, and escalation paths; ensure the right participants attend and actions are tracked to closure.
• Serve as a central coordinator for priorities across multiple workstreams, maintaining visibility into what is active, what is next, what is blocked, and where leadership decisions are needed.
• Apply governance practices that strengthen accountability, transparency, and consistent reporting across the organization.
• Operate performance tracking mechanisms, including KPIs, milestone plans, cost/schedule health, risks/issues, and reporting routines to monitor initiative effectiveness and delivery health.
• Manage gating workflows with stakeholder inputs and approvals to ensure readiness, impacts, dependencies, and decisions are understood before initiatives move forward.
• Partner with Finance and other stakeholders to support benefits tracking and ensure operational improvements are connected to measurable outcomes such as cost reduction, productivity, cycle time, and customer experience.

Skills

Project management

Cross-functional leadership

Communication

Problem-solving

Executive coordination

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Lumen is the trusted network for the AI‑powered world, connecting people, data, and applications through our expansive fiber network and connected ecosystem. We enable secure, high‑performance connectivity across cloud, edge, and AI workloads for enterprises, governments, and communities.

At Lumen, you’ll work on infrastructure customers rely on today and build for what’s next, where performance, security, and resilience matter.

This is a high accountability environment where bold ideas drive real innovation for our customers, partners, and industry. The work is challenging, expectations are clear, and trust is built into how we operate. If you’re ready to take ownership, deliver meaningful impact, and help shape the future of AI‑ready connectivity, join us today.

The Role

The Senior Manager, Transformation Lead for Custom Networks is responsible for supporting strategic planning, governance, and execution across a portfolio of initiatives that improve operational performance, customer experience, and financial outcomes. This role partners with line leaders and initiative owners to establish a disciplined operating cadence, drive cross‑functional alignment, and ensure initiatives are integrated into the broader operating roadmap while delivering measurable value.

The Main Responsibilities

Strategic Planning & Roadmap Integration

• Support cross‑functional teams through the full lifecycle of transformation initiatives, from idea intake and gating through execution, tracking, and value capture.

• Maintain and refine the Custom Networks transformation roadmap in partnership with leadership, ensuring alignment to operating priorities, goals, metrics, and customer delivery outcomes.

• Help ensure initiatives integrate into the broader operating roadmap and are clearly coordinated with deployment, engineering, permitting, project controls, and partner management functions.

Operating Cadence, Governance, and Execution Leverage

• Coordinate the weekly transformation cadence, including leadership reviews, workstream sessions, and escalation paths; ensure the right participants attend and actions are tracked to closure.

• Serve as a central coordinator for priorities across multiple workstreams, maintaining visibility into what is active, what is next, what is blocked, and where leadership decisions are needed.

• Apply governance practices that strengthen accountability, transparency, and consistent reporting across the organization.

Tracking, Reporting, and Value Capture

• Operate performance tracking mechanisms, including KPIs, milestone plans, cost/schedule health, risks/issues, and reporting routines to monitor initiative effectiveness and delivery health.

• Manage gating workflows with stakeholder inputs and approvals to ensure readiness, impacts, dependencies, and decisions are understood before initiatives move forward.

• Partner with Finance and other stakeholders to support benefits tracking and ensure operational improvements are connected to measurable outcomes such as cost reduction, productivity, cycle time, and customer experience.

Technology Enablement & Automation (where applicable)

• Identify opportunities to leverage automation and technology solutions, including process automation and AI‑enabled approaches, to reduce operational friction and improve customer and employee experience.

• Partner with IT, tool owners, and product teams to document requirements, support solution adoption, and enable scalable process improvements.

Stakeholder Leadership & Change Enablement

• Build and maintain strong relationships with internal stakeholders and cross‑functional leaders; foster collaboration and remove barriers to execution.

• Act as a trusted partner to initiative owners and sponsors by strengthening plans, clarifying actions, identifying risks, and helping move work forward through effective governance.

• Support a structured approach to organizational change and adoption, reinforcing disciplined execution, transparency, and continuous improvement.

Risk Assessment & Mitigation

• Identify delivery, financial, process, tooling, and adoption risks; coordinate mitigation plans and elevate issues with clear options and recommended next steps.

What We Look For in a Candidate

Required

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.

• 8+ years relevant experience in program/project management, business operations, transformation, governance, or related disciplines.

• Demonstrated ability to drive cross‑functional execution through governance, operating cadence, action tracking, and stakeholder coordination.

• Strong communication, organization, problem‑solving, and influence skills with the ability to engage senior leaders and cross‑functional partners.

• Experience developing clear executive‑ready materials, status updates, action logs, and performance reporting.

Preferred

• Agile/Lean‑Agile, scaled delivery, and change management experience.

• Experience with automation, process improvement, and/or technology‑enabled transformation.

• Familiarity with enterprise tool implementation impacts and cross‑org integration

Compensation

This information reflects the anticipated base salary range for this position based on current national data. Minimums and maximums may vary based on location. Individual pay is based on skills, experience and other relevant factors.

$132,232 - $176,310 in these states: AL AR AZ FL GA IA ID IN KS KY LA ME MO MS MT ND NE NM OH OK PA SC SD TN UT VT WI WV WY

$138,844 - $185,124 in these states: CO HI MI MN NC NH NV OR RI

$145,456 - $193,940 in these states: AK CA CT DC DE IL MA MD NJ NY TX VA WA

Lumen offers a comprehensive package featuring a broad range of Health, Life, Voluntary Lifestyle benefits and other perks that enhance your physical, mental, emotional and financial wellbeing. We're able to answer any additional questions you may have about our bonus structure (short‑term incentives, long‑term incentives and/or sales compensation) as you move through the selection process.

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Equal Employment Opportunities

We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all persons regardless of race, color, ancestry, citizenship, national origin, religion, veteran status, disability, genetic characteristic or information, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, family status, pregnancy, or other legally protected status (collectively, “protected statuses”). We do not tolerate unlawful discrimination in any employment decisions, including recruiting, hiring, compensation, promotion, benefits, discipline, termination, job assignments or training.