Principal Product Strategist

Role Description

As the Principal Product Strategist, this role defines and advances Lumen’s wholesale infrastructure portfolio across waves, dark fiber, dim fiber, managed optical fiber systems, and infrastructure on-demand constructs. This leader must bring a strong market vision for the future of wholesale optical and fiber infrastructure, serve as a trusted advisor to strategic customers, and translate customer demand, market signals, and competitive insights into differentiated product strategy, roadmap direction, and commercial outcomes.

Main Responsibilities

• Act as the wholesale infrastructure product visionary for strategic optical and fiber-based services, shaping portfolio direction across waves, dark fiber, dim fiber, managed optical fiber systems, and terabit-on-demand offers.
• Lead customer-facing engagement with Lumen’s most valued and strategic wholesale customers to understand network strategies, capacity requirements, commercial preferences, and long-term infrastructure needs.
• Consult with customers and sales teams to develop solution constructs using existing product lines, including hybrid and lifecycle-based solutions that combine lit, dim, dark, and managed infrastructure options.
• Identify market trends, customer preferences, competitive moves, and emerging infrastructure consumption models; convert those insights into recommendations for new products, enhancements, pricing approaches, and commercial frameworks.
• Partner closely with inbound product management, architecture, engineering, IT, operations, finance, and sales to define requirements, scope business cases, influence roadmap priorities, and align product investments to wholesale growth opportunities.
• Develop clear product requirements and shepherd initiatives through Lumen’s product introduction and governance processes from concept through launch, commercialization, and lifecycle management.
• Own and communicate product-level KPIs, including revenue performance, sales adoption, win rates, customer traction, usage trends, pricing realization, and strategic growth indicators.
• Provide deep market intelligence on wholesale infrastructure trends, route economics, technology evolution, pricing dynamics, and competitor positioning to support executive decisions, go-to-market planning, and product marketing strategy.
• Support GTM and product marketing efforts by helping define positioning, value propositions, use cases, sales enablement narratives, and customer-facing messaging for infrastructure solutions.
• Influence cross-functional teams without direct authority, bringing strategic clarity, disciplined execution, and strong leadership across highly visible, complex, and commercially important initiatives.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent education and relevant experience; advanced business or technical education preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in product management, product strategy, or infrastructure solution leadership within telecommunications, optical networking, or wholesale infrastructure markets.
• Deep expertise in optical and fiber-based infrastructure services, including waves, dark fiber, dim fiber constructs, managed optical systems, and high-capacity on-demand bandwidth models.
• Exceptional executive presence to engage senior customer stakeholders and the strategic acumen to shape portfolio direction.

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.

• $152,066 - $202,755 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
• $159,670 - $212,893 in these states: CO, HI, MI, MN, NC, NH, NV, OR, RI
• $167,273 - $223,031 in these states: AK, CA, CT, DC, DE, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, TX, VA, WA

Benefits

• 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.