Associate Director, AI Connect Sales Engineering at Verizon in Irvine, CA

Job description

When you join Verizon You want more out of a career. A place to share your ideas freely — even if they’re daring or different. Where the true you can learn, grow, and thrive. At Verizon, we power and empower how people live, work and play by connecting them to what brings them joy. We do what we love — driving innovation, creativity, and impact in the world. Our V Team is a community of people who anticipate, lead, and believe that listening is where learning begins. In crisis and in celebration, we come together — lifting our communities and building trust in how we show up, everywhere & always. Want in? Join the #VTeamLife. Every AI model trained, every GPU cluster lit, and every inference workload served depends on physical fiber: dark fiber, long-haul routes, and metro rings that connect campuses, power-advantaged regions, and cloud on-ramps. Hyperscalers and neoclouds are committing billions to this build-out, and they will choose the partner that can design it right and deliver it on time. Verizon is building AI Connect to be the intelligent fabric of the AI economy. As an Associate Director, you will lead the experts who turn that ambition into signed, buildable, and profitable designs for our largest strategic customers. About the Role You will lead the sales engineers who design dark fiber, ultra-long-haul, metro and campus interconnect solutions for hyperscalers and neoclouds. Your team shapes route strategy, fiber count, diversity, latency and cost inputs before a deal is won, and makes sure what we quote can be built. The Team You Will Lead You will lead some of the most experienced people in the industry, typically with 15-25 years in the field. Many have: Come up through outside plant (OSP) planning and engineering design, and know what a route costs, how long it takes and where it breaks. Led ultra-long-haul and metro fiber programs from engineering through construction and delivery. Built cost studies and facility designs that balance customer needs against margin. Worked inside carriers, fiber builders and construction firms, so they understand every hand-off from the sales call to the splice. They don't need managing. They need a leader who is technically credible, drives innovation and standardization, clears obstacles, sets direction and makes them more valuable to the customer and to the company. What You Will Do Set the vision. Build and execute the strategy for dark fiber and AI Connect design engineering so customers reach AI-forward outcomes. Lead the design team. Guide sales engineers supporting Verizon's top strategic AI Connect customers across a multi-billion-dollar portfolio, driving bookings and revenue growth. Direct world-class designs. Own solutions for GPU campus interconnect, data center interconnect, long-haul and intercity routes, metro rings, and cloud on-ramps. Set design standards. Define standards for ultra-high-count fiber, route diversity, latency budgets, splice and handhole strategy, ILA/regen siting and phased growth for multi-stage AI builds. Bring commercial rigor. Evaluate build, IRU, lease and swap options with Finance and Product, and build ROI and cost models for every large pursuit. Connect design to delivery. Partner with Network Planning, Construction, Right-of-Way, Legal and Operations so quoted routes are constructible, on schedule and on budget. Differentiate Verizon. Equip the team to articulate Verizon's advantages across AI Connect, Dark Fiber, Lit Fiber/Wave and Edge Data Centers, and to be recognized as thought leaders. Raise efficiency. Introduce automation and off-load low-value work so senior engineers spend time on customer-facing design. Develop talent. Hire, coach and retain top engineers, maintain certifications and build a succession bench. Build a public presence. Represent Verizon at industry events, in thought leadership and on customer advisory boards. What We're Looking For You'll need to have: Bachelor's degree in a technical discipline or directly r