Description
Senior Manager - Business Development
Company: Gigapower LLC
Dept./Org.: Trans./Strategy
Location: Remote
Position Summary
The Senior Manager - Business Development finds, evaluates, and wins approval for where Gigapower builds fiber next, then keeps the approved build plan financially sound as conditions change. Reporting to a senior operations executive and leading a small team of planning, engineering, and financial analysts, this role sits between strategy, finance, engineering, and field operations. It turns market opportunity into board-ready investment cases, then manages scope, vendors, and municipal relationships so those cases hold up through design and construction. This is a remote role with travel to markets.
Key Responsibilities
• Lead the new-market pipeline, screening candidate cities, adjacent markets, and fill-in areas within the existing footprint, and run each market through staged milestone gates from early screening to low-level design approval.
• Build market cases on passings, density, construction mix (aerial vs. buried), competitive overbuild, and penetration assumptions, and recommend which markets advance or are rejected against return hurdles and capital-per-passing targets.
• Maintain the total passings walkdown that bridges completed builds to the company's construction goal.
• Prepare final investment decision (FID) packages and capital requests for new and expanded builds, and produce board-ready and executive operating-review content on growth portfolios.
• Own cost models, including labor and material rates, design costs, permits, make-ready, and franchise and right-of-way (ROW) fees.
• Align the build ramp with the annual operating plan and multi-year plan in partnership with Finance.
• Lead the re-scope and de-scope program for in-flight service areas affected by competition, cost, or engineering issues, and chair change-control reviews with field operations, engineering, and finance.
• Use competitive and broadband coverage data to decide where to hold, redesign, or redeploy capital, and evaluate alternative build options such as remote terminals in place of long backbone extensions and MDU or private-development opportunities.
• Lead early outreach to cities on franchise and ROW agreements, permitting processes, and fee structures, and gather construction-method rules (aerial, microtrenching, boring), restoration standards, and traffic-control requirements.
• Analyze municipal ordinances and fee models and reflect them in market economics, partnering with community and government-relations teams on market check-ins.
• Work with engineering to update design guidelines that lower material and construction cost per passing.
• Review and approve high-level designs and sizing outputs (feeder, distribution, unit counts) before they move to detailed design.
• Document the end-to-end fiber build process, identify points where automation and AI can speed decisions, and partner with data and AI engineering teams on tools for market evaluation, design review, and tracking.
• Lead and develop a team of planners, engineers, and analysts, setting weekly priorities and reviewing progress.
• Hire and onboard staff and contractors, and serve as the go-to contact for new team members across functions.
Qualifications
• 10+ years in telecommunications, broadband, or utility network planning, development, or construction, with at least 5 years leading teams or programs.
• Hands-on experience with fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network design, from high-level design through construction.
• Track record building capital investment cases, including cost per passing, IRR, and other return metrics.
• Experience with municipal franchise, ROW, and permitting processes.
• Experience managing engineering and construction vendors, including RFIs, pricing, and contract terms.
• Advanced Excel modeling skills.
• Demonstrated ability to use AI-assisted tools and technology to improve productivity, analysis, reporting, and decision-making.
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience evaluating MDU or private-development build opportunities.
• Experience with alternative FTTH build architectures, such as remote terminals in place of long backbone extensions.
• Experience partnering with data and AI teams on tools for market evaluation, design review, or tracking.
Key Competencies
Strategic Market Evaluation: Screens and prioritizes markets against return hurdles and capital-per-passing targets.
Financial & Investment Acumen: Builds cost models and board-ready investment cases that hold up through design and construction.
Capital Planning Discipline: Aligns the build ramp with operating and multi-year plans and redeploys capital as conditions change.
Municipal & Government Relations: Navigates franchise, ROW, permitting, and fee structures to shape market economics.
Cross-Functional & Vendor Leadership: Builds alignment across strategy, finance, engineering, field operations, and engineering and construction vendors.
Team Leadership & Development: Leads, hires, and develops planners, engineers, and analysts.
AI Adoption & Applied Productivity: Uses AI tools to speed market evaluation, design review, tracking, and decision-making.
Execution & Accountability: Keeps approved build plans on schedule, within budget, and financially sound as conditions change.
