Senior Manager Customer Repair

Lumen is the trusted network for the AI‑powered world, connecting people, data, and applications through our expansive fiber network and connected ecosystem. We enable secure, high‑performance connectivity across cloud, edge, and AI workloads for enterprises, governments, and communities. At Lumen, you’ll work on infrastructure customers rely on today and build for what’s next, where performance, security, and resilience matter. This is a high accountability environment where bold ideas drive real innovation for our customers, partners, and industry. The work is challenging, expectations are clear, and trust is built into how we operate. If you’re ready to take ownership, deliver meaningful impact, and help shape the future of AI‑ready connectivity, join us today. The Role This Senior Manager leads the Strategic Engagement and Response Team (SERT), within Enterprise Repair. The role drives critical projects across the organization and leads the team, handles the most critical, chronic, and executive-visible customer service issues. It owns the highest-tier (4th and 5th level) escalations and executive escalation resolution and tracking, drives chronic circuits to permanent resolution, and represents the Repair organization to customer and internal executives. It also program manages the team's automation and AI goals: increasing touchless tickets (tickets resolved without manual intervention), delivering Agentic AI (AI agent) solutions for customers, growing revenue through managed operations services (Ops as a Service) and advancing Customer Experience initiatives, with regular executive updates on progress and alignment to organizational priorities. Location and Schedule This is a full time remote/work from home position in the US. Must be available for any shift, including nights, weekends, and holidays. The center that this position supports works on a 7x24x365 operational basis. The Main Responsibilities 1. Executive Communication Represent Repair with customer and internal executives during critical escalations, setting expectations and communicating through resolution. Lead executive bridges and communications, including status updates, briefings, RFOs and remediation commitments. Communicate escalation, chronic circuit, project and risk updates to leadership and account teams. 2. Project and Program Management Lead cross-functional projects, including Ops as a Service, Customer Experience and automation initiatives. Own roadmaps, priorities, milestones, UAT, production readiness, rollout, adoption and executive reporting. Drive corrective actions across Engineering, Field Operations, NOC, Provisioning, Sales and third-party carriers. 3. Executive and Highest-Tier Escalations Serve as Repair's point of contact for executive escalations from customers, Sales, Account Management and senior leaders. Act as the final operational tier for 4th and 5th level escalations, balancing customer impact, cost and risk. May participate in rotational 24x7 on-call support. Own escalations from intake through closure, including lessons learned and follow-up actions. 4. Chronic Issues and Process Improvement Lead SERT in resolving critical, chronic and executive-visible customer issues. Own the chronic circuit program, including identification, criteria, tracking and permanent resolution. Lead root cause and trend analysis using repeat trouble, MTTR and failure data to correct systemic issues. Define and improve escalation and communication processes, including SLAs, RACI, SOPs, runbooks, playbooks and KPIs. Drive continuous improvement and proactive actions to prevent repeat issues. 5. Automation and AI Set automation and AI goals, including increasing touchless tickets. Drive Agentic AI and other AI solutions from use case through implementation and adoption. Translate operational pain points and escalation data into automation opportunities, including auto-ticketing, diagnostics, chronic detection, notifications and closure automation. Partner with development and product teams to prioritize solutions based on MTTR reduction, savings, fewer repeat issues and improved customer experience. Measure and report ROI and operational impact. 6. Leadership and People Lead escalation, chronic circuit, executive carrier escalation and process/automation resources directly or through a matrix. Set team goals aligned with organizational priorities. Coach and develop employees and build bench strength for high-pressure escalation work. Build AI and automation capabilities across the team. Foster a culture of ownership, resilience and continuous improvement. Represent Customer Repair in cross-functional leadership forums. What We Look For in a Candidate Most Critical Skills for Success Executive-level communication: can face a frustrated customer executive or a senior internal leader, give a clear and honest status, and leave them confident in the plan. Command of escalations: takes charge of a crisis bridge, makes decisions with incomplete information and pulls the right resources across the organization quickly. Project and program delivery: runs several cross-functional projects at once, with clear scope, owners, milestones and executive reporting. Proactive, data-driven problem solving: uses trends and root cause analysis to fix the system, not just the ticket, and stops repeat issues before customers feel them. Process discipline: builds processes, SOPs and KPIs that hold up under pressure and enforces them consistently. Automation and AI vision: sees where automation, AI and Agentic AI solutions can remove manual work, and turns that into requirements, delivery and measurable results. Leadership under pressure: keeps a high-performing team focused, developing and resilient through demanding escalation work. Required Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Telecommunications, Business or a related field, or equivalent experience 10+ years in telecom network operations, service assurance or customer repair, with 5+ years in leadership Deep knowledge of circuit-based and IP services (Ethernet, Wavelength, MPLS/IP VPN, DIA, TDM/legacy) and the repair lifecycle Proven success handling executive-level customer escalations, including leading bridges and communicating directly with customer and internal executives Strong written and verbal communication skills, including writing executive briefings and RFOs (Reasons for Outage) and presenting to senior leaders Proven project management experience leading cross-functional initiatives to on-time delivery Experience defining and running operational processes and KPIs Experience leading or sponsoring automation, AI or software delivery in an operations setting Strong root cause analysis skills and comfort using data to drive decisions Preferred Hands-on experience with AI, generative AI or Agentic AI (AI agent) solutions in operations or customer service PMP or equivalent project management certification Familiarity with Agile delivery, backlog management and UAT Experience growing revenue through managed services or operations-as-a-service offerings Experience leading Customer Experience (CX) initiatives Lean, Six Sigma or ITIL certification Data analysis skills (SQL, Power BI/Tableau) Experience managing third-party carrier and LEC escalations 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. Location Based Pay Ranges: $129,639 - $172,852 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, and WY. $136,121 - $181,494 in these states: CO, HI, MI, MN, NC, NH, NV, OR, and RI. $142,603 - $190,137 in these states: AK, CA, CT, DC, DE, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, TX, VA, and WA. 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. We're able to answer any additional questions you may have about our bonus structure (short-term incentives, long-term incentives and/or sales compensation) as you move through the selection process. Learn more about Lumen's: Benefits ( Bonus Structure Requisition #: 343978 Life at Lumen Life at Lumen is human and connected, even in a fast moving, AI‑focused organization. We set clear expectations and trust people to meet them. With real support and shared accountability, teams collaborate better, move faster, and deliver meaningful outcomes. Our Lumen 8 behaviors guide how we interact, make decisions, and work together, shaping a culture built to perform and win. To learn more about Life at Lumen and how we live the Lumen 8, please visit: Background Screening If you are selected for a position, there will be a background screen, which may include checks for criminal records and/or motor vehicle reports and/or drug screening, depending on the position requirements. For more information on these checks, please refer to the Post Offer section of our FAQ page ( . Job-related concerns identified during the background screening may disqualify you from the new position or your current role. Background results will be evaluated on a case‑based basis. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Equal Employment Opportunities We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all persons regardless of race, color, ancestry, citizenship, national origin, religion, veteran status, disability, genetic characteristic or information, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, family status, pregnancy, or other legally protected status (collectively, “protected statuses”). We do not tolerate unlawful discrimination in any employment decisions, including recruiting, hiring, compensation, promotion, benefits, discipline, termination, job assignments or training. 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