Director - Market Development

Lumos is seeking a Director, Market Development to join a growing team of employees to accommodate robust market growth opportunities for accelerating fiber broadband expansion across the region. This position will have direct responsibility for expanding Lumos’ geographic footprint across the region. The selected candidate will take the lead in expanding the physical presence of our strong market brand, working with local contacts to enter new franchise markets and pursue public private partnerships across a broad region. The role will directly engage external partners in local and state governments, form strategic alliances within industry groups, including state and regional broadband offices, actively seeking to expand our exposure in targeted markets.

*** This position is designated as a remote role, available only to residents of Florida.***

Company Summary:

Lumos provides 100% Fiber-Optic Internet access to more than 375,000 homes and businesses in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina and has recently announced expansion into Ohio and Kentucky.

We believe that the possibilities of tomorrow cannot be built on the infrastructure of yesterday. That’s why we’re building a 100% Fiber Optic network from the ground up for families, businesses, and communities, backed by local, expert customer service. An Internet built for that most hopeful of all things – the future. Because whatever the future holds, Lumos makes it faster. 

Learn more at Lumos | High-Speed Fiber Internet Provider (lumosfiber.com).

Our Mission and Values:

At Lumos, we are driven by our commitment to a brighter tomorrow. We take pride in being the first to deliver 100% Fiber Optic Internet for families, small businesses, and communities. We know the possibilities of tomorrow can’t be built on the infrastructure of yesterday. And when we deliver uninterrupted Internet and limitless capacity, we create new opportunities for everyone.

We believe that the past is over, and the future is fast. That’s why we are who we are: the disruptors of the status quo. Guided by our purpose and startup mindset, we step up, move first, and adapt as we go. Here, there’s no hierarchy, only hustle.

We are all servant leaders, confident in our purpose and humble enough to pay close attention to the details. We all have the power to help solve problems and find solutions for our customers and teammates - and we do - by putting people first and doing whatever it takes to build loyalty with our customers and within our team. 

We’re passionate about our customers’ experience. Their futures don’t stand still, and neither do ours. We’ll never stop reinventing ourselves to meet our customers’ evolving needs - because we know that our work, delivering 100% fiber optic internet, truly changes people’s lives.

Specifically, this role would include the following:

• Collaboratively developing and executing our expansion strategy leading to FTTP footprint growth.
• Initiating, expanding and sharing external relationships, seeking franchises and public partnerships.
• Influencing decision makers and key influencers in the allocation of Grants, Subsidies and Stimulus funds.
• Coordinating outreach with marketing, brand, public relations, and digital and social media.
• Providing a feedback loop to continually adjust the Lumos Market Expansion Strategy.
• Identifying, Creating, Coordinating and Attending local and regional meetings with government officials and public bodies to evangelize, explain and differentiate the Lumos symmetrical fiber story.
• Internally communicating company-wide to reinforce the expansion strategy.
• Travelling extensively across the area to build in-person relationships and attend public meetings.
• Developing and using geography-focused contact relationship tools.
• Using new franchises, and new public partnerships and media exposure as our leverage for driving network expansion, business development and market penetration.
• You will be the ‘first-in’ individual who introduces the talent and capabilities of our team.

This role will lead in the development of an extensive network of new external company relationships, particularly in geographies we do not currently serve. The Director of Market Development will identify and engage relevant contacts in each target geography and will stay engaged with key contacts while working to convert those relationships into new relationships between local partners and our executive team, the engineering and construction teams and the sales and marketing teams.

Essential Functions:

• Establishing local relationships and managing public affairs matters, working with state, local, counties and municipality jurisdictions to positively position Lumos Fiber.
• Partnering with other functional areas to prioritize and target market areas to maximize acceleration for rapid expansion.
• Working closely with other functional areas to transition market wins to market entry execution.
• Driving delivery on establishing new franchising, Public/Private Partnerships, and new anchor opportunities that produce timely new market opportunity.
• Finding or stimulating and responding to RFP/RFI’s, PPP requests, and other (Federal, State, and local) grant or funding programs of company interest that support aligning growth.

The Person

We are searching for a charismatic communicator with proven high performance serving in externally facing roles who possesses extensive experience engaging and creating new personal and corporate relationships leading to increased market presence. They will be a champion willing to personally represent our company’s brand. They will be able to articulate the depth of our internal team’s commitment to serving our communities’ broadband needs. The person will visibly demonstrate commitment to delivering our promises both externally and internally. The successful candidate will be highly collaborative with an unselfish commitment to converting their newly built relationships into working relationships across all company functions and the appropriate contacts in the new communities we will serve.

This leadership personality will be highly visible (internal and external) requiring close engagement with community leaders, partners and internal leadership, guiding and reinforcing market expansion opportunities. The successful candidate will have strong business acumen with demonstrated ability to work collaboratively across Marketing, Sales, Finance, Product, Engineering, and Operations as well as other key stakeholders to effectively deliver on FTTP growth business imperatives.

Knowledge and Skills Required:

Education: Bachelor’s degree required in Business, Marketing, Communications or a related field.

Experience: 5+ years of progressive experience in leadership positions in Market Management, Marketing, Government Relations, Business Development, Sales and/or other market growth environments is required.

Key Competencies:

• Extensive experience actively participating in various levels of public and governmental meetings is required.
• Must have demonstrated ability to integrate business or market development experience with an understanding of rate-of-return and financial value creation, as well as franchise, partnerships, regulatory policy and process.
• Sales management background including aligning revenue growth strategies with market placement is preferred.
• Previous experience in government and public relations, brand evangelism is highly desired.
• Previous experience with responses to grant and subsidy programs is desired.
• Expertise using software tools to share relationships across multiple teams.
• The successful candidate will have a demonstrated career progression beyond account ownership and will have experience coordinating and driving multi-faceted relationship-building, enveloping new contacts with purposeful engagement across multiple departments.
• Successful management, entrepreneurial start-up or new-market expansion experience, preferably in a fiber, cable, and/or broadband related utility and service industries.
• Demonstrated comfort level communicating and simplifying technical and operational industry terms.

Benefits and Perks:

Our commitment to communities includes recruiting and rewarding the Lumos team members who are working together to build a brighter tomorrow.

We have:

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage.
• Competitive compensation packages, including bonus options for eligible positions.
• Paid Time Off and 12 Paid Holidays / Personal Days.
• Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs).
• 100% employer-paid life and disability insurance.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with access to professional support for life’s challenges.
• 401K plan w/ up to 5% employer contribution and a self-directed brokerage option.
• Wellness program offering education and cash incentives for gym attendance and nutrition programs.
• Employee referral bonuses.
• Discounts on Lumos Fiber Internet for employees who live in our service areas.

Lumos provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

We are proud to be an EEO/AA employer M/F/D/V. We maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing.