Area Operations Manager job at True North Consult Ltd

True north

Position Description

Job Title: Area Operations Manager

Reports To: Country O&M Head

Supervises: Direct : Field Support Engineers Indirect: Business partners and technicians in the assigned area

Interacts/Interfaces with: Internal: O&M; New Build; SCM; Technology; other enabling functions External: Operators (customers); partners; landlords; government authorities — police, city administration, labour commissioner, and other administrative officials

Job Summary Ensure reliable and compliant tower operations by overseeing site uptime, safety standards, energy management, and maintenance activities across the assigned area.

Job Purpose Manage stakeholders and partners to optimise operational costs, maintain service levels, and support consistent customer satisfaction across the assigned area.

Responsibilities 1. Environment, Safety and Health Compliance • Build and reinforce a strong safety culture across all sites. • Monitor safety compliance and ensure adherence to all safety guidelines and procedures. • Ensure identification of safety training needs to meet compliance requirements. • Manage external environmental risks, identify potential challenges in the area, and develop actions to mitigate them. 2. Stakeholder Management • Engage with community members, landowners, local administration, energy backup officials, and other stakeholders to build relationships and secure support for resolving site issues. • Ensure customer expectations are met by aligning on requirements and resolving concerns proactively. • Manage partners by tracking and monitoring their performance to ensure service delivery as per defined service level agreements. • Liaise with internal stakeholders for requisitions, work orders, and services to ensure timely closure and site support. • Secure timely customer sign-offs on uptime and service delivery. • Coordinate with the country team to ensure optimal utilisation of capex and opex for site stability as per defined processes. 3. Operations Management • Review Tower Operating Centre reports periodically (outage, fault, uptime), conduct root-cause analysis, and implement corrective measures to maintain smooth site operations and SLA-defined uptime. • Monitor and ensure timely closure of preventive and corrective trouble tickets to maintain zero-defect sites. • Conduct periodic site visits to assess operations, key management, security, asset monitoring, safety, upkeep, and hygiene; identify gaps against audit checklists to ensure quality assurance and audit compliance. • Use digital tools to monitor diesel usage, validate diesel and energy backup consumption data, and ensure timely fuel filling while minimising pilferage for effective energy management. • Propose decisions on asset replacement based on asset lifecycle and performance to ensure optimal utilisation and protection of company assets. • Ensure full compliance with internal operations and maintenance processes and systems. • Provide solar-power corrective maintenance support and optimise power consumption. 4. Cost Management • Oversee repair and maintenance costs and ensure optimal levels are maintained. • Monitor diesel consumption trends, review beat plans, and conduct root-cause analysis to optimise energy costs across sites. • Ensure timely certification, review, validation, and root-cause analysis of abnormal bills; resolve outstanding issues and process bills as per SLA to optimise opex. • Provide inputs to the country opex manager / operations support manager for customer SLA sign-off and partner KPI sign-off. • Drive Indoor-to-Outdoor (I2O) site conversion initiatives to reduce operational costs. 5. Team Development • Supervise, guide, and motivate business partners and technicians to deliver on objectives; review performance and provide feedback to reinforce ownership and process compliance. • Identify training needs of business partners and technicians; coach them on technical and behavioural skills and recommend relevant training programs. • Set clear individual performance expectations, conduct regular reviews, recognise good work, and guide improvement areas to build a high-performance team. • Monitor on-ground operations and actively identify business risks. • Ensure adoption of Total Quality Management (TQM) practices and the Plan–Do–Check–Act (PDCA) problem-solving approach across the team.

Key Performance Indicators • Site uptime delivered within SLA; timely customer sign-offs on uptime and service delivery. • Safety compliance across all sites; safety training needs identified and closed. • Preventive and corrective trouble tickets closed on time; zero-defect sites maintained. • Diesel/energy consumption and cost optimised; pilferage minimised; abnormal bills resolved within SLA. • Partner performance delivered against SLAs and KPIs; partner KPI sign-offs completed. • Repair and maintenance costs held within sanctioned opex/capex budget. • I2O conversion initiatives progressed as planned.

Person Specification

Education, Training, Skills & Experience Minimum Educational Qualifications • Mandatory: Bachelor's degree (B.Tech). Experience • 5+ years of relevant experience. Knowledge Required • Telecom infrastructure. • Power & energy systems. • Asset & infrastructure knowledge. Functional Skills • Mandatory: landlord engagement; on-site material management; risk management (operations); safety compliance; investigative skills; data analytics; energy efficiency management; project/program management. • Preferred: cost management (capex, opex); key account management (vendors/partners/suppliers/business partners). Technical Skills • Mandatory: ERP systems; MS Office. Preferred: Power BI.

Environment • Field-based role across the assigned area's tower sites, with regular site visits and travel. • Operates within sanctioned opex/capex budgets, working with customers (operators), business partners, landlords, and the estate and projects teams.

Additional Behavioural Competencies • Business mindset; digital mindset; be collaborative; lead people — delivering performance; lead people — developing talent; influence through communication; create happy customers; problem solving; deliver through process; action and decision.

• Build and reinforce a strong safety culture across all sites.
• Monitor safety compliance and ensure adherence to all safety guidelines and procedures.
• Ensure identification of safety training needs to meet compliance requirements.
• Manage external environmental risks, identify potential challenges in the area, and develop actions to mitigate them.
• Engage with community members, landowners, local administration, energy backup officials, and other stakeholders to build relationships and secure support for resolving site issues.
• Ensure customer expectations are met by aligning on requirements and resolving concerns proactively.
• Manage partners by tracking and monitoring their performance to ensure service delivery as per defined service level agreements.
• Liaise with internal stakeholders for requisitions, work orders, and services to ensure timely closure and site support.
• Secure timely customer sign-offs on uptime and service delivery.
• Coordinate with the country team to ensure optimal utilisation of capex and opex for site stability as per defined processes.
• Review Tower Operating Centre reports periodically (outage, fault, uptime), conduct root-cause analysis, and implement corrective measures to maintain smooth site operations and SLA-defined uptime.
• Monitor and ensure timely closure of preventive and corrective trouble tickets to maintain zero-defect sites.
• Conduct periodic site visits to assess operations, key management, security, asset monitoring, safety, upkeep, and hygiene; identify gaps against audit checklists to ensure quality assurance and audit compliance.
• Use digital tools to monitor diesel usage, validate diesel and energy backup consumption data, and ensure timely fuel filling while minimising pilferage for effective energy management.
• Propose decisions on asset replacement based on asset lifecycle and performance to ensure optimal utilisation and protection of company assets.
• Ensure full compliance with internal operations and maintenance processes and systems.
• Provide solar-power corrective maintenance support and optimise power consumption.
• Oversee repair and maintenance costs and ensure optimal levels are maintained.
• Monitor diesel consumption trends, review beat plans, and conduct root-cause analysis to optimise energy costs across sites.
• Ensure timely certification, review, validation, and root-cause analysis of abnormal bills; resolve outstanding issues and process bills as per SLA to optimise opex.
• Provide inputs to the country opex manager / operations support manager for customer SLA sign-off and partner KPI sign-off.
• Drive Indoor-to-Outdoor (I2O) site conversion initiatives to reduce operational costs.
• Supervise, guide, and motivate business partners and technicians to deliver on objectives; review performance and provide feedback to reinforce ownership and process compliance.
• Identify training needs of business partners and technicians; coach them on technical and behavioural skills and recommend relevant training programs.
• Set clear individual performance expectations, conduct regular reviews, recognise good work, and guide improvement areas to build a high-performance team.
• Monitor on-ground operations and actively identify business risks.
• Ensure adoption of Total Quality Management (TQM) practices and the Plan–Do–Check–Act (PDCA) problem-solving approach across the team.

• landlord engagement
• on-site material management
• risk management (operations)
• safety compliance
• investigative skills
• data analytics
• energy efficiency management
• project/program management
• cost management (capex, opex)
• key account management (vendors/partners/suppliers/business partners)
• ERP systems
• MS Office
• Power BI

• Bachelor's degree (B.Tech).
• 5+ years of relevant experience.
• Telecom infrastructure knowledge.
• Power & energy systems knowledge.
• Asset & infrastructure knowledge.