Fiber Systems Manager

The City of Palo Alto is proud to offer residents and businesses a full suite of City-owned and operated utility services including electricity, natural gas, water, sanitary sewer, and commercial fiber optic services. 

We have a unique and exciting career opportunity for an experienced Fiber Systems Manager to drive the integration, expansion, and technical management of the City of Palo Alto fiber backbone network and work on a large-scale cutting-edge Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) project. This role will support both dark fiber services and the deployment of our new FTTP network to provide municipal fiber internet services. The Fiber Systems Manager is critical in optimizing and managing our fiber-optic network infrastructure, backbone upgrades, and supporting field construction for outside plant projects. You'll work collaboratively with our OSP Manager, Electrical Engineering team, and other stakeholders to achieve seamless FTTP rollouts and enhanced network performance.

Why Join Palo Alto? 

• Impact the Community: Palo Alto’s community broadband network will benefit the community at large by keeping dollars local. 

• Innovate for the Future: Fiber is the gold standard for fast, reliable internet, far outpacing DSL and cable. It is capable of carrying vast amounts of data over enormous distances and can support the symmetrical upload and download speeds, allowing for the seamless connectivity that is needed in today’s digital world.

• Collaborate for Change: Partner with internal teams, stakeholders, and regional entities to deliver a high service of excellence, impacting economic development and improve quality of life for the community.

• Join an award-winning team that offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package.

Who You Are

• You have demonstrated experience in designing, integrating, and optimizing fiber-optic networks for FTTP services.

• You possess in-depth knowledge of fiber optic principles, including splicing, testing, and troubleshooting techniques.

• Strong understanding of fiber-optic equipment such as OLTs, splitters, switches, routers, and other active network elements.

• Ability to lead and manage a team, including providing oversight and direction for engineering and working closely with OSP teams.

• Proficient in fiber network planning tools and techniques (e.g., route optimization, link budget analysis), though expertise in CAD/GIS tools is not required.

• You have experience working with multi-dwelling units (MDUs), commercial businesses, and residential fiber installations.

• Possess excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to work cross-functionally and manage external contractors or vendors.

• Strong problem-solving abilities and the capacity to troubleshoot network performance issues.

• You have project management expertise to effectively coordinate and execute complex fiber projects with cross-functional teams.

Essential Duties

Essential and other important responsibilities and duties may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Oversee fiber network management, leading the strategic management of the entire fiber network, ensuring the integration, expansion, and upgrade of the existing fiber backbone network with FTTP to support new fiber internet and legacy dark fiber services:

  • Fiber Management System: 3-GIS implementation

  • Permitting: Prepare and manage permit submissions required by various jurisdictions (City of Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, railroads, and other agencies)

  • Manage Engineering Updates: Through the permitting process and construction, prepare routine design updates

  • Manage Final As-Built Documentation: Oversee final as-built documentation, including final construction records

• Design and optimize fiber-optic systems to ensure technical performance, reliability, and scalability for residential, business, and multi-dwelling unit (MDU) services.

• Collaborate with the OSP Manager overseeing the buildout of the Outside Plant (OSP) to ensure field work aligns with system designs and network requirements.

• Manage Fiber Design and lead fiber design specialists to develop and approve optimized fiber routes for both the backbone and distribution networks.

• Ensure proper system integration between the OSP and active network components, including splitters, Optical Line Terminals (OLTs), and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE); integration between GIS system and OSS/BSS and other FTTP-related solutions.

• Monitor and test fiber performance, troubleshoot issues, and ensure compliance with signal performance standards (e.g., loss budgets, optical power levels).

• Oversee fiber splicing plans, fiber allocation, cable testing, and end-to-end system verification to ensure proper light levels and system integrity.

• Work with cross-functional teams to coordinate network expansions, upgrades, and rebuilds to meet business and service delivery goals.

• Develop and maintain network documentation, including system designs, fiber route maps, splice documentation, and as-built records.

• Provide technical guidance and act as a subject matter expert for all fiber-related infrastructure projects.

• Collaborate with stakeholders to plan for future network growth, ensuring that the infrastructure is scalable and can support increasing customer demand.

See full job description HERE.

Minimum Qualifications

Sufficient education, training and/or work experience to demonstrate possession of the following knowledge, skills, and abilities which would typically be acquired through:

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Engineering, Economics, Mathematics, or other related field.

• Seven years of increasingly responsible experience in telecommunications and computer internet industry or design engineering for telecommunications facilities. (Engineering degree may substitute for two years of experience).

Note: Master's degree in Engineering or other related field and/or registration as a Professional Engineer may be considered in lieu of one year's experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Professional certifications in fiber optics or telecommunications (e.g., FOA, CFOT, FTTX)

• Experience with fiber backbone rebuilds and upgrades in preparation for FTTX service launches.

• Familiarity with outside plant construction methods, including aerial and underground fiber deployment.

• Knowledge of fiber management systems and network documentation tools.

• Experience with lighting and testing fiber networks and ensuring that premises are properly connected and activated.