Director, Network Development & Operations

Xplore Inc. is Canada’s fibre, 5G and satellite broadband company for rural living. Xplore is committed to the relentless pursuit of an improved broadband experience for all Canadians. Xplore is building a world-class fibre optic and 5G wireless network to enable innovative broadband services for better every day rural living, for today and future generations.

The Director, Network Development & Operations is the senior leader responsible for turning Xplore’s network architecture into an automated, scalable production network, delivering Core & Transport Network Services at a Tier-1 Telco Gold Standard and ensuring uncompromising reliability, security, and performance from the core to the customer. The role leads the teams accountable for detailed IP engineering, DWDM engineering automation, caching implementation, CI/CD, configuration management, telemetry, and operational tooling.

The Director sets the vision and operating model for network-as-code, ensuring that all IP/MPLS, DWDM, and caching configurations are deployed safely, consistently, and at scale. Under this leadership, the organization builds the automation frameworks, observability pipelines, and operational guardrails that enable high-velocity, low-risk changes across the backbone, reduce manual toil, and strengthen 24×7 operational readiness.

Working in close partnership with Network Architecture & Technology Strategy, the Director ensures that architectural intent is executed through modern DevOps practices, and brings operational insight back into standards, roadmaps, and long-term network evolution. The Director connects network development and operations directly to business outcomes and KPIs — including reliability, speed of change, customer experience, and cost efficiency — and serves as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on operational performance and automation maturity.

Key Responsibilities Include:

Detailed IP, DWDM & Caching Engineering

• Own detailed IP engineering across BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS, segment routing, and routing policy.
• Own DWDM configuration automation, including line-system configuration templates, channel provisioning, amplifier and span parameter automation, optical telemetry integration, and operational tooling for DWDM health and performance.
• Own caching platform implementation, including cache node configuration, routing and traffic-steering policies, cache peering and placement logic (as defined by Architecture), and performance tuning and hit-ratio optimization.
• Translate architectural standards into deployable configuration templates and network-as-code artifacts.

Network Automation & CI/CD Pipelines

• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines for IP/MPLS/DWDM and caching configuration deployment.
• Implement automated testing, validation, and rollback capabilities.
• Drive adoption of network-as-code across the Core & Transport domain, ensuring all changes are executed through automated, repeatable workflows.

Telemetry, Observability & Operational Tooling

• Own telemetry pipelines, dashboards, and observability tooling for Core & Transport.
• Ensure real-time visibility into routing behavior, caching performance and hit ratios, DWDM optical health (OSNR, span performance, and alarms), and capacity and traffic patterns.
• Partner with Service Assurance & Observability to integrate signals, alerts, anomaly detection, and automated diagnostics.

Reliability Engineering & Operational Excellence

• Implement guardrails, automated checks, and configuration validation to reduce operational risk.
• Lead post-incident automation improvements to prevent recurrence.

Partnership with Architecture & Execution of Architectural Intent

• Implement the logical connectivity, caching strategy, DWDM design parameters, standards, and principles defined by Network Architecture & Technology Strategy.
• Provide feedback loops to Architecture on operational feasibility, automation impacts, and configuration constraints.
• Ensure all deployments align with long-range architectural direction and resiliency goals.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Network Architecture & Technology Strategy; Carrier Services; Fiber, Fixed Wireless, and Enterprise teams; and NOC, SRE, and Service Assurance.

Financial & Investment Performance

• Own the financial and investment performance of the Network Development & Operations portfolio, including capital and operating budgets, business cases, and return-on-investment tracking.
• Drive measurable unit cost improvements (e.g., cost per bit, cost per port, cost per subscriber) through automation, standardization, and platform consolidation.
• Reduce lifecycle risk by proactively managing hardware and software end-of-life and end-of-support exposure, technical debt, and refresh roadmaps across IP, DWDM, and caching platforms.
• Partner with Finance, Architecture, and Procurement to prioritize investments, optimize vendor spend, and align spending with business outcomes.
• Report on financial, unit cost, and lifecycle-risk KPIs to senior leadership.

The ideal candidate will possess:

• 15+ years of experience in IP engineering, DWDM engineering automation, caching platforms, or DevOps for large-scale network infrastructure.

Technical Expertise

• Strong expertise in routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, IS-IS), MPLS/segment routing, and routing policy.
• Hands-on experience with DWDM systems, optical telemetry, and line-system configuration.
• Experience with caching platforms (CDN nodes, edge caches, content caches).
• Experience with automation tools (Ansible, Python, CI/CD frameworks).
• Experience with telemetry, observability, and network monitoring systems.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Demonstrated ability to lead technical engineering teams and work across Architecture, SRE, Service Assurance, and cross-functional network teams.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate architectural intent into executable engineering workflows.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree required in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field, or equivalent experience.
• Master’s degree considered an asset, but not required.
• Relevant industry certifications (e.g., CCNP/CCIE, DWDM/optical certifications, cloud or DevOps certifications, Agile/Scrum certifications, SRE certifications, PMP, ITIL) are considered an asset.

Condition of Employment:

As a condition of employment and in order to comply with industry related data security standards, this position is subject to the successful completion of a Criminal Background Check. Details will be supplied to applicants as they move through the selection process.

Xplore is committed to creating an accessible environment and will accommodate disabilities during the selection process. Please let your recruiter know during the selection process of any accommodation needs.