Senior Director, Carrier Relations

Join Vonage and help us innovate cloud communications for businesses worldwide!

Vonage is a global cloud communications leader that helps businesses accelerate their digital transformation through our fully programmable Unified Communications, Contact Center Applications, and Communications APIs.

Why this role matters:

As the Sr Director, Carrier Relations, you will be responsible for leading a talented team focused on developing, optimizing, and managing relationships with our voice and messaging carrier partners. You will drive the team's success by fostering a collaborative environment, coaching team members, and ensuring the effective delivery of high-quality services. Your leadership will be instrumental in improving operational efficiency, service reliability, and compliance, while aligning team goals with the broader strategic objectives of the organization.

Your key responsibilities:

• Cost Management
• You and your team are responsible for overall cost targets and creating agreements to get to the costs Vonage needs across its product portfolio.
• Team Leadership & Development:
• Lead, mentor, and grow a cross-functional team responsible for managing carrier and vendor relationships.
• Establish team objectives, monitor performance, and provide coaching to ensure continuous improvement and achievement of KPIs.
• Foster a collaborative environment across departments to enhance communication and teamwork.
• Support team members in their professional development through regular feedback, training, and career growth opportunities.
• Vendor & Carrier Relationship Management:
• Oversee the team’s efforts in building and maintaining strong, long-term relationships with carriers and vendors to ensure exceptional service delivery.
• Lead and support contract negotiations, ensuring cost-effectiveness, strong service level agreements (SLAs), and alignment with the company’s strategic goals.
• Supervise the monitoring of carrier performance, ensuring adherence to contractual obligations, SLAs, and continuous improvement.
• Guide the team in managing escalations, dispute resolution, and troubleshooting network issues with carrier partners.
• Operational Efficiency & Continuous Improvement:
• Direct the team in analyzing carrier performance metrics to identify trends, inefficiencies, and opportunities for process improvements.
• Collaborate with internal teams (e.g., Fraud, Routing, Quality Assurance, and Finance) to ensure smooth carrier onboarding and service optimizations.
• Lead the execution of key projects (e.g., service/platform migrations, product enhancements) and drive initiatives that reduce costs while enhancing service reliability and operational efficiency.
• Work closely with the team on process improvements in carrier routing and fraud prevention (e.g., mitigating spam, robocalls, and security threats).
• Strategic Planning & Industry Engagement:
• Keep the team informed about emerging telecommunications technologies, regulatory changes, and market trends.
• Guide the team in identifying new carrier partnerships that align with the company’s long-term strategic goals.
• Provide actionable insights to internal stakeholders on carrier performance, market trends, and cost structures.
• Ensure the team collaborates with technical stakeholders to develop business continuity and disaster recovery plans related to carrier operations.

What you'll bring

Required:

• Proven experience in telecom vendor management or carrier relations, with a track record of team leadership and growth.
• Strong expertise in contract negotiations, vendor performance management, and team-driven success.
• Knowledge of carrier network technologies, interconnections, and routing, with an ability to guide the team in these areas.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and relationship-building skills, both internally and externally.
• Ability to lead and motivate teams to deliver results while maintaining high levels of engagement and morale.

Experience we consider a plus:

• Familiarity with A2P messaging, 10DLC regulations, SIP trunking, and international telecom standards.
• Experience in telecom billing structures, number provisioning, and compliance/regulations at a regional or global level.
• Project management experience and a background in process improvement methodologies (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma).

There’s no perfect candidate. You don't need all the preferred qualifications to make a valuable impact on our team. Our employees and customers come from diverse backgrounds, so if you're passionate about what you could achieve at Vonage, we'd love to hear from you.

Who we are:

At Vonage, our mission is to accelerate the way the world connects. As an emerging leader in the $10B+ cloud communications platform (CPaaS) market, we empower businesses to connect better with their customers, employees, and partners through transformative communications experiences. Our innovative solutions span messaging, voice, video, and data technologies, providing seamless and engaging interactions for customers like Airbnb, Viber, WhatsApp, and Snapchat.

Join us to be part of a dynamic team committed to shaping the future of connectivity!

Note: The purpose of this profile is to provide a general summary of essential responsibilities for the position and is not meant as an exhaustive list. Assignments may differ for individuals within the same role based on business conditions, departmental need or geographic location.