Director of Commercial Services, LV and Fiber Deployment

Role summary

Lead the commercial services group that supports low-voltage and fiber deployment in North America. The group owns process, vendor management, procurement, and accounting support so halls are scoped, bought, contracted, changed, and billed on the deployment schedule.

Scope is in-building and campus LV plant: structured cabling and fiber, network fabric, meet-me and distribution frames, and pathway and riser. It does not include electrical power distribution. The group can take on related commercial work for Physical Deployment where the VP assigns it.

The field team installs. This group makes the commercial side of that work repeatable across campuses, and adjustable as the program mix changes.

What the group owns

Process

• The commercial path from design phase through buyout, deployment, test, turnover, billing, and closeout.
• The playbook for estimating, award, subcontract terms, receiving, change control, pay-app review, test acceptance, and billing handoff. Campuses use it. Local exceptions come back to this group.
• Handoffs with design, deployment, procurement, vendors, and project accounting, and the record each handoff needs.
• The operating rhythm with Physical Deployment: commercial standups, buyout reviews, change-log review, and cost-to-revenue reconciliation.
• Process measures such as order-to-install cycle time, change aging, pay-app rejection, test-fail rework, and days from turnover to billed. Breaks get fixed in the playbook, not worked around on one site.

Commercial control

• Baselines for LV and fiber deployment by campus or program: quantities, unit rates, subcontract packages, and customer-versus-base-building split.
• Billable milestones aligned to the deployment sequence: pathway, cable pull, terminate, test, label, and turnover.

Vendor management

• The approved-vendor slate for cabling, fiber, network fabric, and testing. Qualification covers safety, campus experience, crew depth, and ability to certify to the program standard.
• Bid leveling and award recommendations with deployment and procurement. Awards weigh capacity as well as price. Critical-path work is not left on a single crew without a backup.
• Subcontract terms for live-campus and phased-hall work: access windows, retainage, back-charge for failed tests, warranty, and flow-down of customer requirements.
• Vendor scorecards on pull completion, test fail rate, punch aging, and safety. Underperformers are supplemented or removed before a hall date is missed.
• A second source on long-lead cable, fiber, connectors, and frames.

Procurement support

• One procurement status tracker for fiber optic cable and components: backbone and trunk cable, pre-terminated and MPO assemblies, cassettes, connectors, panels, and enclosures. Each line is tied to a campus, hall, and position in the deployment sequence.
• Every line carries a current status: requisitioned, quoted, PO issued, acknowledged by the manufacturer, in production, shipped, received, inspected and accepted, and staged to the hall.
• Manufacturer lead times and promised ship dates are tracked against the hall need date. Lines with no float, or with a slipped promise date, are escalated when known, not at the weekly review.
• Purchase orders are placed against the baseline, with variance flagged before award. The tracker ties to the commitment register.
• Factory test reports for pre-terminated assemblies are in hand before shipment is accepted. Receiving checks reel or assembly IDs, fiber counts, lengths, and condition against the bill of materials with the deployment lead, including shortages, damage, and returns.
• Second-source status is shown for every long-lead fiber line, so a manufacturer miss does not stop a hall.
• Material bought for one hall is not pulled to another without a recorded transfer, and the tracker is updated when it moves.
• Fiber procurement status feeds the weekly production health snapshot. Campuses do not keep a separate tracker.

Accounting support

• Cost structure. Set with project accounting so every commitment, receipt, pay app, change, and bill lands on the right campus, hall, and work type. Codes are agreed before buyout, not corrected at closeout.
• Commitment register. Matches awarded subcontracts and purchase orders to the baseline. Variance is explained when the award moves off the estimate.
• Pay-app and invoice review. Checked against installed, tested, and accepted quantities. Mismatched units, missing certification, open punch, and unapproved changes go back. Lien waivers and required backup are in hand before a recommendation to pay.
• For work in place and materials received but not yet invoiced, so month-end cost reflects the hall, not the vendor's billing cycle. Accruals reverse cleanly when the invoice posts.
• Milestone and customer billing. Earned quantities, acceptance evidence, and change logs are packaged so revenue can be billed when the deployment sequence says it is earned, and so LV and fiber do not sit in WIP after turnover.
• Change-cost tracking. From authorization through subcontract modification and billing. Approved, pending, and rejected changes stay separate. Nothing is paid or billed from a verbal instruction.
• Retainage and back-charges. Includes failed tests, damage, and incomplete turnover. Release of retainage waits on the closeout file, not on the vendor's request.
• Monthly tie-out. Baseline, committed, incurred, accrued, and billed amounts, with a short explanation of gaps. Forecast cost-to-complete is updated from the buyout and field progress, not from last month's run rate alone.
• For each deployment package: final quantities, open changes, unsettled back-charges, warranty start, and the asset record billing needs once the plant is in service.
• Audit and lender support. Records are kept so a reviewer can trace a billed unit to a test result, a pay app, and a purchase order without a campus reconstructing the file.

Reporting

• The Director is responsible for communicating the monetary and production health of the group to the VP, Physical Deployment, North America.
• Monetary health covers baseline versus committed cost, incurred and accrued cost, billed and unbilled amounts, pending changes, retainage, back-charges, and forecast cost-to-complete, by campus and by hall.
• Production health covers buyout status, material readiness, progress against the sequence, test completion, punch and rework, vendor performance, and turnover readiness.
• Reporting is on a set cadence: a weekly snapshot for active halls and a monthly close that ties to project accounting. Variances are called with a cause and a next action, not left as a chart.
• One view is used across campuses. A site does not keep a separate health report.
• Issues that threaten a hall date, a cost overrun, or unbilled earned work are raised when they are known, not at month-end.

How the role is run

• The Director leads the group and is the commercial counterpart to the LV and fiber deployment leads, from buyout through commissioning.
• Status goes to the VP, Physical Deployment, North America.
• Legal, finance, and design are partners on pathway congestion, long-lead fiber, and live-environment work.
• The group approves exceptions. A campus does not waive a control on its own.
• Group size and coverage flex with the campus load. The Director can keep work in the group or place it with deployment, procurement, or accounting, as long as the process and the numbers still tie.

Qualifications

Required

• 10 or more years in data center or mission-critical construction, with at least 5 in commercial, estimating, procurement, or program controls tied to field deployment.
• Experience leading a small commercial, procurement, or controls group, or operating as the senior owner of that work across multiple sites.
• Direct experience with low-voltage and fiber deployment: backbone and horizontal cabling, network fabric, frames, testing, and turnover documentation.
• Has put a delivery process in place and held teams to it.
• Vendor management of subcontract and material packages, including pay-app review and back-charge use.
• Working knowledge of project accounting: commitments, accruals, milestone billing, retainage, and cost-to-revenue reconciliation.
• Control of scope on multi-hall or multi-campus work, including phased delivery and live-site rules.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, construction management, business, or a related field, or equivalent field experience.

Preferred

• Developer or operator side, not only subcontract delivery.
• Hyperscale or multi-tenant campus deployment, including high-density fiber counts and accelerated hall schedules.
• Cost systems, ERP or purchasing tools, and cable or DCIM records.

Success in the first 12 months

1. A commercial services group in place, with coverage for process, vendors, buyout, and accounting support on active North American campuses.
2. One LV and fiber deployment commercial process in use, with measures reported to Physical Deployment leadership.
3. A single monetary and production health report in use, trusted by Physical Deployment and tied to the accounting close.
4. Current baselines and buyout plans tied to hall sequence, with long-lead items visible and second-sourced where a miss stops deployment.
5. An approved-vendor slate in use, with scorecards driving award and removal.
6. Pay apps and billing reviewed against tested quantities. Commitments, accruals, and billed revenue tie at month-end. No material LV or fiber cost unaccrued, and no earned revenue unbilled, at hall turnover.