Manager, 24x7 Media Operations

Role description summary

As a key leader, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our Media Operations team by managing a high-performing team in a 24/7 environment. You are a hands-on leader responsible for executing and continuously improving operational processes and procedures to deliver a world-class experience for our customers, while maintaining strict adherence to SLAs and OLAs to minimize service disruptions. This role requires strong real-time decision-making skills and close collaboration with key stakeholders such as Service Assurance, Level 3 support functions, and senior management.

In addition, you will ensure effective communication across all levels of the organization, foster the SES culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement, and take ownership of key people processes, including employee development, performance management, and career growth within the team.

1. Incident & Major Incident Management

• Take ownership of all incidents, ensuring proper logging, categorization, and restoration in line with SLA/OLA, with timely and high-quality updates to customers and management
• Manage real-time escalations, ensuring key stakeholders and senior leadership/SLT remain informed during major incidents concisely
• Ensure Root Cause Analysis (RCA) & Post-Incident Reviews are completed, providing structured feedback/action items to team for learning as well as to Service Assurance for continuous process improvement.

2. Change Management

• Work with Service Assurance team to ensure a "First-Time-Right" approach for new Customer, new Product & Service on-boarding with the required documentation and training, and by driving the punch list to closure with due escalations as needed
• Ensure NOC engineers are situationally aware of Change Requests (CRs) impacting services handled by the NOC.
• Enforce the 4-Eye Principle for NOC-executed changes, with the goal that high-impact changes undergo thorough review and approval.

3. Knowledge Management

• Ensure NOC engineers strictly follow documented SOPs, notifying gaps in procedures to Service Assurance for updates
• Provide feedback on incident handling challenges, ensuring Service Assurance team updates troubleshooting runbooks accordingly.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing across shifts to ensure consistency in resolution approaches and best practices such as Shift Handover, Closure Codes, etc

4. Shift & Performance Management

• Ensure all shifts are aligned with incident management expectations, tracking adherence to SLA/OLA requirements.
• Monitor real-time dashboards, ensuring no incident backlog and proper ticket handling.
• Provide feedback to Service Assurance team and senior leadership on operational challenges impacting shift performance.

5. People Management & Team Development

• Act as the first point of escalation for NOC staff, making quick and informed operational decisions.
• Guide and mentor NOC engineers, ensuring adherence to operational best practices and performance expectations, objective setting and shift scheduling
• Conduct performance reviews, provide constructive feedback, and facilitate continuous skills development and recognition to foster a high-performance culture and motivated team

6. Strategic Alignment, Automation, and Resilience

• Collaborate with senior management to align NOC operations with broader business objectives, identifying opportunities for service improvement and cost efficiency.
• Drive automation initiatives to streamline workflows, reduce manual interventions, and enhance operational efficiency within the NOC.

competencies

• Strong interpersonal skills and proven leadership skills including ability to communicate appropriate detail to all levels of management 

• Skilled in managing employees, fostering a culture where employees can grow in a healthy work environment of continuous learning & professional advancement, thereby enhancing individual contributions to improvement initiatives.
• Highly efficient time management skills ensuring the attainment of objectives within challenging timelines
• Resourceful problem-solving abilities, capable of navigating challenges independently or collaboratively with minimal supervision in a fast-paced environment with aggressive deadlines.
• Empowered to make informed decisions and assume accountability for outcomes, learning from any mistakes with strong follow-through and initiative to stay with issues until they are resolved, along with discipline and tenacity to meet deadlines.
• Proficient in data analysis, extracting actionable insights that accurately reflect the performance of Customer Operations.

Qualifications & Experience

• BS or Higher in Computer Science, Information Assurance, Electrical Engineering (or) minimum equivalent of 5 years Network Operations experience. 
• 2 or more years of experience in video distribution/transport, encoding, decoding, and signal monitoring with working knowledge of satellite and RF related theory/equipment.

• Working knowledge or hands-on experience in resolving transport related incidents for the ground segments of Media network infrastructure (Juniper, Cisco, Comtech) and off-net carriers (Lumen, GTT, Telstra)
• Fundamental knowledge of Network Management Systems, ticketing systems (based on ITIL), monitoring systems, operational procedures, philosophies and processes.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills and fluency in English

• Experience managing people, including remote teams across multiple time zones.  
• Ability to work extended hours including overnight, weekends and on-call hours as needed