NOC Team Leader

Position

The NOC Team Leader has a direct responsibility for overall NOC performance, the individual performance and development of NOC personnel, and to demonstrably improve NOC performance over time via the continual development of NOC systems, processes and procedures.

Location

The NOC Team Leader is a full-time role based in Auckland, New Zealand or Sydney, Australia, reporting to the Operations Manager.

Overview

Under the supervision of the Operations Director, the Employee’s role is to manage all aspects of NOC operations to ensure the uninterrupted monitoring and operation of the Hawaiki Network primarily, but also other BW Digital networks including Nongsa-Changi Cable, CitraConnect, NDP1 datacentre, and others into the future, with a focus on ensuring that Hawaiki customer needs (SLAs) are satisfied at all times.

Key Responsibilities

Regional Leadership & Governance

• Define the Hawaiki shift-work plan (NOC Roster), manage the NOC team to ensure NOC’s 24/7 operation, manage team leave and submit monthly wage summaries to Payroll.
• Within the NOC Roster define on-call responsibilities to support NOC activities after-hours across all networks/sites and participate within this roster as necessary.
• Define, deploy and maintain, with the assistance of the NOC team, NOC systems, processes, procedures, documentation (e.g. work instructions), knowledge base and records.
• Define appropriate NOC performance metrics to measure, monitor, review and report on NOC performance metrics, to benchmark NOC performance and ensure compliance with customer SLAs.
• Drive the continual development of team competencies, systems, processes, procedures and methods of communication within the NOC to improve performance over time.
• Act as a 1st point of escalation within the NOC for customer and technical queries to address system faults and issues and follow up compensation from backhaul providers as appropriate.
• Identify and deliver projects that support continued performance improvement across all areas of NOC accountability.
• Develop a capable deputy team leader to guarantee continuity of NOC leadership in the event of the NOC Team Leader being absent.
• Interface with the Head of Provisioning & Service Delivery to ensure NOC capability to support Service Delivery activities, and to support the activities of the Indonesian NOC / Connectivity team based under him in Batam, Indonesia.
• Participate within the NOC Roster as deemed necessary to support NOC operations, and within an On-call Roster to support after hours activities/emergencies as may be reasonably required.
• Liaise and work with Network Engineering, CLS and other teams as required to support business objectives and also to engage technical/engineering support for NOC initiatives.
• Participate as required in regular technical reviews with vendor Global Technical Support teams, external partners or customers.
• Liaise and work with the IT (Demand Management) team to identify, develop and implement NOC system enhancements in-line with clearly defined NOC needs and requirements.
• Provide regular, direct feedback and individual performance assessments, both formal and informal, to all NOC personnel and solicit information about team morale, personal wellbeing and motivation.
• Train, or provide for the training of, NOC personnel in all aspects of NOC operations; particularly transmission equipment and monitoring system competencies (to effectively diagnosis and response to system alarms and incidents), customer communications protocols and incident management procedures.
• Represent the NOC in risk mitigation exercises as may be required from time to time (e.g. Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery, marine maintenance activities, etc) and assume responsibility for following up resulting actions within the NOC.
• Within this role assist with and support other approved activities of the BWD business as may be considered necessary from time to time.
• To perform the tasks described above the Employee will undergo training as required (and be assessed as competent), keep current with the latest technologies and maintain contact with key interfaces both within and external to BW Digital; e.g. Engineering, IT (Demand Management), SubCom GTSC, Ciena GTS, key maintenance contractors, potential suppliers, etc.

Qualifications & Experiences

Mandatory

• Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering or Network Engineering.
• 8-12 years’ experience in telecommunications or network operations, including:
  • 3-5 years in a NOC or Network Operations environment
  • 2-3 years in a team leader or supervisory role
• Demonstrated experience supporting sub-sea cable systems and/or long-haul optical transmission networks, including DWDM and optical transport platforms
• Experience operating a 24×7 NOC, including:
  • Shift management and rostering
  • Incident, escalation, and problem management
  • SLA, KPI, and service availability reporting
  • Leadership & Stakeholder Experience
  • Proven people leadership experience managing teams of 5–10 engineers.
  • Experience leading major network incidents, including Technical coordination and Customer communications

• Strong understanding of sub-sea cable architecture and restoration strategies, network monitoring, alarm correlation, performance management tools, and ITSM platforms
• Experience developing and maintaining:
• SOPs, MOPs, and operational runbooks
• Incident reports and root cause analyses (RCA)
• Understanding of Health & Safety responsibilities in a workplace environment.
• Ability to work effectively with:
• International cable consortia, landing parties and regional transmission partners
• Global carriers and hyperscale datacentres
• Equipment vendors and marine maintenance providers

Preferable to have

• Postgraduate qualification (Graduate Diploma or Master’s) in Telecommunications, Networking, Systems Engineering, or Engineering Management.
• Industry-certified in:
  • ITIL Foundation (or higher)
  • Cisco CCNA/CCNP, Juniper JNCIA/JNCIP, or equivalent
  • Optical / DWDM vendor certifications (e.g. Ciena, Nokia, Infinera, Huawei)
  • PMP or PRINCE2