Technical Program Manager- Network Migrations

The Network Migrations Senior TPM is responsible for driving hundreds of concurrent migration, retrofit, and decommissioning activities across the company’s global network infrastructure. This includes platform swaps, link speed upgrades, architecture retrofits, optical conversions, and equipment forklifts — all executed on live production networks carrying real traffic.

Unlike greenfield deployments (where you're building net-new), migrations require a distinct skillset: cutover planning under zero-downtime constraints, dependency sequencing across interdependent network layers, rollback readiness, and the ability to coordinate engineering, operations, and vendor teams on tight execution windows where one wrong step creates a production outage.

This is a program leadership role first. Your impact comes from your ability to influence stakeholders, drive alignment across competing priorities, and deliver outcomes at scale — all while managing the elevated risk profile inherent to modifying live production infrastructure. You'll need enough technical fluency to understand migration dependencies and unblock issues. We're looking for a senior program leader with executive presence and credibility — someone with a track record of driving complex infrastructure programs to completion in fast-paced, high-ambiguity environments.

Key Responsibilities

Migration Portfolio Ownership

• Own end-to-end execution of a large migration portfolio spanning data center, backbone, and edge network domains — hundreds of activities per half

• Manage the full migration lifecycle: scoping → dependency mapping → sequencing → hardware readiness → cutover execution → validation → decommission → close-out

• Maintain a single source of truth for portfolio health: site-by-site status, schedule confidence, material readiness, and risk posture

• Drive migration programs to completion on committed timelines while maintaining network availability throughout transitions

Cutover Planning & Execution

• Design cutover plans for live network infrastructure with zero tolerance for unplanned downtime

• Define go/no-go criteria, rollback triggers, and validation checkpoints for each migration window

• Sequence migrations in risk-ordered waves — lower-risk sites first, building confidence before high-complexity cutovers

• Coordinate execution windows across engineering (who designs the target state), operations (who executes), and vendor teams on compressed timelines

Dependency & Risk Management

• Map complex cross-layer dependencies — migrations often require prerequisite work before the primary activity can proceed

• Identify upstream blockers early: material shortages, design approvals, infrastructure prerequisites, and vendor deliverables

• Maintain dependency matrices that connect activities across domains — backbone migrations may depend on optical planarization, which depends on cage moves

• Proactively surface risks and mitigation plans; adjust schedules and sequences to absorb delays without cascading impact

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Drive alignment across Network Engineering (backbone, fabric, edge, optical), Network Operations, Construction, Overlay Services, and external vendors

• Serve as the bridge between upstream engineering (who defines what gets migrated and the target architecture) and downstream execution (who physically does the work)

• Coordinate with hardware supply teams on material forecasting, procurement, and delivery timing for replacement platforms

• Run weekly program cadences, site-level execution calls, and cross-domain coordination forums

Executive Communication & Reporting

• Produce clear, actionable portfolio status reporting for senior leadership — schedule progress, risk posture, material status, and decisions needed

• Synthesize hundreds of activities into executive-ready narratives: what's on track, what's at risk, what needs leadership attention

• Present migration health to leadership forums with confidence and clarity

• Communicate schedule changes, trade-offs, and scope adjustments to stakeholders with appropriate context

Continuous Improvement

• Drive process automation and tooling adoption — transform manual tracking and reporting into scalable, repeatable systems that improve migration velocity and cross-functional transparency

• Conduct retrospectives to capture lessons learned and improve execution playbooks

• Identify opportunities to standardize migration patterns that can be repeated across sites at scale

Migration Scope: Network Domains

The migration portfolio spans three network domains. You don't need deep expertise in all three, but you need to understand how they interact and depend on each other:

• Data Center Network: Platform swaps (spine and fabric switches to next-gen hardware), link speed upgrades, architecture retrofits, rack uplink restriping, facility network switch replacements (end-of-life to next-gen platforms), and management network headend builds.

• Backbone Network:  Architecture migrations (topology standardization across sites), backbone router forklifts to next-gen platforms, optical planarization, transponder conversions (legacy to modern platforms), terminal equipment migrations, and optical cage moves that enable downstream work.

• Edge Network:  Aggregation layer consolidation (merging switch roles), hardware forklifts retiring end-of-life equipment for next-gen platforms, next-generation backbone deployments at POPs, and IP cage migrations across multiple sites.

Required Skills & Qualifications

Program Leadership

• Proven track record managing large, complex migration programs on live production infrastructure — you've moved or replaced systems where failure = outage, and delivered successfully

• Cutover planning expertise — you think in sequences, rollback points, validation gates, and blast radius; you know when to proceed and when to abort

• Portfolio management at scale — experience managing concurrent activities across multiple sites/regions, maintaining visibility and control 

• Strong dependency management — ability to map complex cross-domain relationships and sequence work to avoid cascading failures

• Executive presence and communication — ability to distill hundreds of activities into clear, compelling status, risk, and decision narratives for senior leadership; confident and credible in high-stakes conversations

• Cross-functional influence without authority — coordination across engineering, operations, vendors, and construction teams

• Evidence-driven and metrics-oriented — you establish KPIs, build automated reporting, and use data to drive portfolio decisions rather than relying on status theater

• Risk calibration — you know what to own vs. what to escalate, and you act fast on both

Technical Baseline

• Foundational understanding of data center and backbone network architecture — enough to understand why migrations have dependencies and how network layers interact

• Familiarity with network migration patterns: platform swaps, hardware forklifts, link speed upgrades, optical conversions, traffic re-routing

• Understanding of migration risk: what can go wrong when you touch live production infrastructure, and what validation confirms success

• Experience with project management and portfolio tracking tools

Industry Experience

• 10+ years of program management in network infrastructure, cloud infrastructure, data center, or hyperscale environments

• Direct experience with network migrations, platform replacements, or large-scale infrastructure modernization on live production systems

• Experience in hyperscale, carrier, or large enterprise environments with high-availability requirements strongly preferred

Education & Certifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Business, or related field (or equivalent experience)

• PMP, PgMP, or equivalent project management certification preferred

• Network certifications a plus, but not required

Additional Requirements

• Must be US-based

• Ability to travel up to 15% for site visits and migration support

• Flexibility to support migration windows across time zones (some cutovers happen during maintenance windows off-hours)