Network Development Manager, Network Investments

Meta is expanding its global backbone network to support its growing user community and products, including artificial intelligence (AI). We are looking for a Network Development Manager to join the Network Investments team for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and lead network infrastructure investments across Africa and other emerging markets.

The portfolio includes subsea cables, long-haul terrestrial fibre, network capacity, cable landing stations and points of presence (network interconnection sites).

In this role, you will own programmes end to end, from identifying the investment and setting the strategy through commercial agreements, approval and delivery of live network capacity. The programmes are multi-year, multi-party and multi-country, often in uncertain regulatory, commercial and operating conditions. The role combines network infrastructure expertise with commercial and investment judgement.

We welcome candidates from network operators, infrastructure providers and technology companies, and from investment banking, consulting or infrastructure investing with network infrastructure experience.

This role requires pre-planned international travel, up to 30% of working time, to support partner engagement and programme delivery.

Responsibilities

• Originate network investment opportunities and supply strategies based on Meta's capacity and coverage needs, including route and partner selection and options to build, acquire, lease or jointly develop infrastructure
• Define options and trade-offs using financial analysis and technical, commercial, regulatory, political and counterparty risk assessment. Recommend a course of action where information is incomplete, and own the resulting strategy and roadmap as conditions change
• Write investment cases, decision memos and programme updates for senior leadership, setting out recommendations, costs, risks and decisions required through formal approval processes
• Align engineering, planning, finance, legal, tax, policy and regulatory teams and external partners behind decisions through delivery, escalating issues with a recommended action
• Structure and negotiate agreements covering indefeasible rights of use (IRUs), capacity and dark fibre (unlit optical fibre) leases and acquisitions, joint builds, consortium and cable landing arrangements, and operations and maintenance. Lead the deal team through term sheets, contracts and closing
• Lead programmes from concept through contracting, construction, acceptance and activation of capacity. Set budgets, milestones and risk registers, direct internal teams, contractors and delivery partners, and put recovery plans in place when delivery slips
• Manage subsea, terrestrial fibre and carrier suppliers through the contract lifecycle, including performance, compliance, variations and renegotiation
• Partner with finance and planning on budgets, forecasts, capital expenditure timing and long-range plans, and with accounting to reconcile invoices, accruals and payments with contract terms
• Track subsea, terrestrial fibre and wholesale capacity markets, including pricing, technology, competitors, and regulatory and policy developments
• Represent Meta with operators, governments, regulators, investors and industry bodies, and at industry conferences

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business, finance, economics, engineering or a related technical field, or 8+ years of equivalent practical work experience
• Experience in subsea cables, terrestrial fibre or wholesale network capacity markets, gained at a network operator, infrastructure provider or technology company, or as an adviser or investor on network infrastructure transactions Experience delivering network infrastructure investments or programmes in Africa, South or Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, or Central or Eastern Europe, including managing regulatory uncertainty, partner risk or infrastructure constraints. This experience supports the role's regional investment and delivery responsibilities
• Experience originating, structuring and negotiating multi-party commercial agreements or infrastructure investments, from strategy through execution
• Experience evaluating network infrastructure investment options using financial analysis and documented technical, commercial and regulatory risks, and making recommendations where information is incomplete
• Experience leading complex programmes involving multiple organisations, with responsibility for defining the approach, coordinating execution and delivering agreed outcomes
• Experience preparing investment cases or decision documents that secured approval through formal governance processes, and presenting them to senior decision-makers
• Track record of major deal execution in subsea cables or terrestrial fibre, including joint investments with partners across multiple regions
• Familiarity with optical transport, wavelength planning or physical-layer infrastructure as it relates to network investment and capacity strategy
• Experience developing network capacity models, traffic forecasts or infrastructure investment analyses for multi-year planning
• Experience with infrastructure transaction structures such as IRUs, consortium agreements, project finance, joint ventures, concessions or licensing arrangements
• Experience delivering large-scale network infrastructure programmes, including managing delivery partners, contractors or programme management offices
• Experience in investment banking, management consulting, infrastructure investing, product management or general management, with responsibility for strategy and outcomes in network or digital infrastructure
• Professional working proficiency in French or Arabic, preferred for communicating with external partners whose business communications are conducted in either language
• Experience adhering to and implementing responsible, ethical AI practices (e.g., risk assessment, bias mitigation, quality and accuracy reviews)
• Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimise or redesign workflows and drive measurable impact (e.g., efficiency gains, quality improvements)
• Demonstrated ongoing AI skill development (e.g., prompt and context engineering, agent orchestration) and staying current with emerging AI technologies
• Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimize/redesign workflows and drive measurable impact (e.g., efficiency gains, quality improvements)
• Demonstrated ongoing AI skill development (e.g., prompt/context engineering, agent orchestration) and staying current with emerging AI technologies