Lead - ISP Planning

Job Description: GPON OLT Planning Engineer Position Summary The GPON OLT Planning Engineer is responsible for the strategic sizing, dimensioning, configuration design, and capacity management of the active Optical Line Terminal (OLT) infrastructure. This role ensures that central office active nodes have sufficient switching fabric, line card slots, uplink bandwidth, and power to support subscriber growth. You will translate commercial penetration targets into active network deployment plans, choosing hardware configurations that bridge the fiber physical plant with the IP core. Key Responsibilities: - OLT Dimensioning & Capacity Planning: Forecast subscriber growth to plan the deployment, scaling, and expansion of OLT chassis, line cards, and optics across central offices (COs) and street cabinets. Hardware Architecture Design: Define high-level chassis configuration standards, including control cards, power distribution units, switching fabrics, and GPON/XGS-PON line card distribution. Uplink & Backhaul Planning: Size and plan high-capacity active uplinks (10GE, 40GE, 100GE) from OLT nodes to the Metro Ethernet / IP Core routers, ensuring proper Link Aggregation (LACP) and redundancy. Bandwidth & SLA Modeling: Design Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) profiles and T-CONT models to enforce Quality of Service (QoS) and committed information rates (CIR) for various customer tiers. VLAN & IP Schema Layout: Plan logical traffic isolation layouts, assigning service VLANs (S-VLAN/C-VLAN) per PON port, DHCP Option 82/PPPoE intermediate agent parameters, and multicast/IPTV routing structures. Next-Gen Evolution Planning: Create technology migration blueprints for transitioning active OLT nodes from legacy GPON to XGS-PON, 25G-PON, or combo-PON architectures without interrupting existing services. Lifecycle & Vendor Evaluation: Benchmark vendor hardware (chassis densities, power consumption, throughput), write technical specifications for RFPs, and manage hardware lifecycle upgrades or end-of-life (EOL) swap-outs. NMS System Sizing & Architecture: Plan and dimension the vendor Element Management System (EMS) and Network Management System (NMS) platforms to ensure they can scale in server compute, storage, and licensing as thousands of new OLT nodes and ONTs are added to the network. OSS/BSS Provisioning Alignment: Partner with IT and Software Architecture teams to bridge the gap between active hardware and backend Operational Support Systems (OSS). Design automated end-to-end service provisioning workflows (e.g., zero-touch provisioning) triggered by customer billing registrations. Northbound Interface (NBI) Design: Define and plan the data structure utilizing Northbound Interfaces—such as NETCONF/YANG, RESTCONF, Kafka, or SNMP—to export real-time active alarms, performance telemetry, and inventory metrics from the OLT NMS to central ISP data lakes and fault management tools. Template & Policy Standardization: Design and enforce centralized configuration templates, service profiles, and security policies within the NMS platform (e.g., Nokia AMS/NSP or Huawei NCE-FAN) to ensure uniform deployment across the entire active network footprint. "Build vs. Buy" Evaluation: Lead structured evaluation frameworks to determine whether critical OLT provisioning and capacity-planning tools should be engineered by the in-house DevOps team or sourced via third-party software vendors. Vendor & SLA Management: Author high-quality Requests for Proposals (RFPs), Statements of Work (SOWs), and technical specifications for third-party software delivery. Manage external software vendors to ensure milestones match strict ISP rollout timelines. Cross-Functional Stakeholder Alignment: Convene and lead regular alignment workshops between Network Operations (NOC), Engineering, IT/OSS, and PMO executives to ensure newly developed tools solve real-world field friction points Required Technical Proficiencies: - Active Platform Mastery: Deep architectural knowledge of major telecom OLT platforms (e.g., Nokia FX/Lightspan series, Tejas 1400 Series, Adtran Total Access, or ZTE C-series). Protocols & Standards: Mastery of ITU-T G.984 (GPON), G.987 (XG-PON), G.9807.1 (XGS-PON), and IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging mechanisms. Layer 2 / Layer 3 Networking: Proficient in traffic engineering concepts including OSPF/BGP uplink routing, IGMP Snooping/Proxy for multicast IPTV, LACP, and ERPS ring topologies. Capacity Modeling Tools: Experience using network monitoring data (SNMP, Telemetry, NMS data) and Excel/Python modeling to predict active port exhaustion. NMS/EMS Platforms: Hands-on architectural familiarity with enterprise-grade access network management suites, including Nokia NSP/AMS, Huawei NCE-FAN / U2000, Calix SMx, or ZTE NetNumen. OSS Integration Mechanics: Working knowledge of OSS framework standards (such as TM Forum Frameworx / Open APIs) and automation protocols used to push logical commands from a CRM down to an OLT port. API & Scripting Languages: Competency in writing or evaluating Python, JSON/XML, or SOAP/REST API payloads used for automated bulk configuration and querying of NMS systems Telemetry Accuracy: Maintenance of a 100% data sync rate between physical OLT field inventory and the logical records stored within the OSS/NMS inventory management system. Product & Project Frameworks: Strong familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies, sprint planning, and product lifecycle management. Collaboration & Tracking Tools: Advanced proficiency with Jira, Confluence, or similar enterprise project management ecosystems to track tool development lifecycles. Strategic Procurement Knowledge: Understanding of CAPEX/OPEX structures, software licensing models (SaaS, perpetual, node-based), and software evaluation matrices Qualifications & Experience: - Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Telecommunications Engineering, Network Engineering, Electronic Engineering, or Computer Science. Experience: Minimum of 4+ years of network engineering experience, with at least 2 years focused specifically on active OLT configuration, dimensioning, or access network planning at an ISP or Telecom Carrier level.