Chief Technology Officer (СТО) – Fiber Infrastructure & Network Operations Jobs – Zuku Fiber

Job Title: Chief Technology Officer (СТО) – Fiber Infrastructure & Network Operations

Organisation: Zuku Fiber

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

About Organisation:

Zuku Fiber is a prominent residential and business fiber-optic internet service provider operated by the Wananchi Group across East Africa, primarily serving Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Job Summary: The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) will be responsible for defining and executing the overall technical strategy, network architecture, and engineering infrastructure for the Uganda Business. You will own end-to-end network deployment, capital project delivery, systems integration, network reliability, and technical service delivery across both consumer (B2C) and enterprise (B2B) fiber segments. You will bridge the gap between commercial demand and physical infrastructure rollouts, ensuring that fiber plant engineering translates rapidly into active, highly available, and scalable customer connectivity. This role requires a dynamic mix of executive engineering leadership, hands-on fiber rollout management, operational rigor, vendor governance, and agile technological leadership to scale our network footprint in Uganda’s competitive broadband landscape.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Network Engineering, Architecture & Fiber Rollout Strategy

• Technical Strategy: Develop and execute the country’s end-to-end technical and network engineering strategy aligned with Group Objectives and long-term expansion goals.
• FTTx Deployment: Oversee all fiber infrastructure rollouts, including route planning, civil works, OSP/ISP engineering, optical distribution network (ODN) design, and last-mile connectivity for B2C home fiber and B2B dedicated enterprise connections. |
• CapEx Project Management: Direct large-scale network construction projects, ensuring strict adherence to timelines, quality standards, safety regulations, and budgetary allocations.
• Vendor & Contractor Governance: Manage relationships with fiber installation contractors, equipment vendors (OEMs), and civil engineering partners, enforcing strict SLAs and quality audit frameworks.

Network Operations, NOC & Quality of Service (QoS)

• NOC & Incident Management: Work with Group for support with centralized Network Operations Center (NOC) services, and drive locally Field Maintenance teams to ensure 24/7/365 network visibility, rapid fault isolation, and minimal Mean Time to Repair (MTTR).
• High Availability & SLA Compliance: Maintain industry-leading network uptime, redundancy, and performance metrics across core, backhaul, and access networks to fulfill strict enterprise Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
• Preventative Maintenance: Implement proactive maintenance regimes and fiber route monitoring systems to mitigate outages caused by civil works, environmental factors, or hardware failures.
• Capacity Planning: Continuously monitor core IP traffic, backhaul utilization, and international bandwidth links, planning timely capacity upgrades to support growing B2C and B2B traffic demands.

Systems Integration, OSS/BSS & Technical Automation

• OSS/BSS Ecosystem Ownership: Serve as the primary technical owner for the Operational Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS), ensuring seamless integration with commercial CRM, billing, and provisioning engines.
• Automated Provisioning & Workflow: Architect automated lead-to-service provisioning workflows that enable rapid, zero-touch service activation for newly onboarded B2C and B2B subscribers.
• Data Integrity & Service Assurance: Ensure technical data accuracy across GIS mapping tools, network inventory platforms, and customer database records to streamline field operations and asset management.
• Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Protection: Establish robust network security protocols, firewalls, DDoS mitigation strategies, and disaster recovery procedures to safeguard company assets and enterprise customer data.

Technical Budget, CapEx/OpEx & Resource Optimization

• Financial Accountability: Take full ownership of the technical division’s CapEx and OpEx budgets, maximizing return on infrastructure investment and optimizing cost-per-passed-home and cost-per-connected-building.
• Drive down cost of operations, ensuring zero wastage.
• B2B Enterprise Solutioning: Partner with the Commercial team to design and cost complex enterprise technical architectures-including SD-WAN, Cloud Connectivity, IP Transit, Managed Cybersecurity, and custom ICT enterprise solutions.
• Lifecycle & Inventory Management: Establish rigorous procurement, warehouse inventory, and active asset lifecycle management practices across all network nodes, CPEs, and field equipment.

Cross-Functional Commercial Alignment & Field Operations

• Commercial-Technical Synergy: Work in tight lockstep with the Commercial Director and sales channels to prioritize fiber deployment zones based on market demand, high-density yields, and pre-registration data.
• Last-Mile Onboarding Execution: Partner with CX and Field Installation teams to streamline ‘Last Mile’ drop connections, lowering installation lead times and delivering a premium onboarding experience.
• Regulatory & Compliance Management: Ensure full compliance with local telecommunications regulations, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) guidelines, environmental standards, and municipal fiber trenching permits.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• Experience: 15+ years of progressive engineering and technical leadership experience within telecommunications, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), or fiber infrastructure utilities.
• Proven track record of directing large-scale B2C (FTTH) and B2B fiber rollouts.
• Regional Knowledge: Direct technical and operational experience within East Africa (specifically
• Uganda) is highly preferred, including familiarity with local regulatory bodies (UCC), municipal permitting, and field vendor management.
• Technical Mastery: Deep, hands-on expertise in fiber network architectures (GPON, XGS-PON, DWDM, IP/MPLS, SD-WAN), core routing/switching, OSP/ISP civil engineering, and network monitoring platforms.
• OSS/BSS & Automation Integration: Demonstrated success in configuring, operating, or integrating telecom OSS/BSS platforms, GIS mapping systems, network automation scripts, and billing/CRM integrations.
• Proven Infrastructure Scale: Proven track record of managing multi-million-dollar CapEx budgets, driving down deployment costs, and scaling active subscriber networks in competitive markets.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field. Master’s degree or MBA is a strong plus.
• Certifications: Relevant industry certifications (e.g., CCIE/CCNP, PMP, ITIL, FTTH Council certifications) are highly advantageous.

Key Attributes

• Entrepreneurial & Agile Leadership: Thrives in a dynamic, high-growth environment where network structures are built alongside rapid subscriber scaling, and leadership requires both strategic vision and hands-on execution.
• Data & Metrics-Driven Operations: Utilizes network performance telemetry, SLA compliance metrics, MTTR statistics, and CapEx efficiency data to make decisions and optimize technical performance.
• Cross-Functional Collaborator: Capable of building seamless, high-trust partnerships with commercial teams, customer experience leaders, finance managers, and external regulatory bodies to achieve overall business growth.

How to Apply:

Qualifying CVs can be shared at Apply by Email with the subject line CTO – Uganda

NB: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline

Level of Education: bachelor degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 180