Chief Executive Officer — Mobile And Fixed Network

The mandate

The business operates mobile and fixed connectivity assets whose investment decisions have historically been made through separate plans. Mobile teams prioritise coverage and capacity, fixed teams focus on footprint and take-up, and commercial units pursue propositions that assume both networks will be ready. Capital has increased, yet customers still experience specific congestion, installation delay and reliability gaps. The board needs one enterprise account of where the next unit of investment creates the greatest customer, regulatory and financial value.

The Chief Executive Officer will lead that reprioritisation. The role carries full responsibility for strategy, profit and loss, cash, network, consumer and enterprise propositions, wholesale, operations, technology, people, regulation and reputation. The CEO must decide which coverage and capacity commitments are non-negotiable, where build should follow proven demand, where wholesale or sharing can improve returns and which legacy investments should slow or stop.

This urgent new appointment does not come with a predetermined preference for fibre, wireless or asset-light growth. The board wants decisions grounded in local customer experience, network constraint, total capital and long-term competitive position. The successful executive will challenge technology roadmaps that lack a service or economic thesis and commercial plans that promise performance before the network can support it.

Scope and operating context

Based in London under a hybrid arrangement, the CEO will lead approximately 750 employees and material partners across the United Kingdom and a wider international region. The executive team spans network, technology, consumer, enterprise, wholesale, operations, finance, regulatory and people leadership. Managed-service providers, build partners, equipment vendors, tower or infrastructure owners and field contractors are material to delivery.

The capital problem is geographically specific. Coverage, congestion, fixed availability, backhaul, spectrum, site access and competitor intensity vary by area. National averages can conceal severe customer frustration or underused assets. Investment cases must therefore connect local demand and experience to the complete network path, not isolate radio, access or core metrics.

Regulatory and social obligations matter. Emergency access, lawful services, resilience, coverage commitments, accessibility and fair treatment may require investment whose direct return is limited. The CEO must state these obligations clearly and distinguish them from discretionary growth, ensuring both are funded and governed responsibly.

First-year agenda

The first one hundred days will establish an integrated network and customer baseline. The CEO will review mobile congestion and coverage, fixed footprint and take-up, installation and repair, core and transport constraints, service contacts, churn, enterprise commitments, wholesale utilisation, capital work in progress and vendor obligations. Field visits and customer evidence will test whether engineering and commercial accounts of priority align.

The executive will then present a multi-year capital thesis with a detailed first-year sequence. Investment categories will include mandatory resilience and compliance, customer-experience repair, capacity, coverage, growth build, legacy retirement and strategic options. Each will state the customer or wholesale demand, network dependency, capital and operating cost, delivery capacity, risk and decision milestones.

Mobile and fixed plans will be joined at local-market level. A congested mobile area may be relieved through densification, spectrum, offload or fixed substitution; a fibre build may be more attractive when enterprise, wholesale and consumer demand are considered together. The CEO will ensure alternatives are evaluated before functions defend their preferred asset.

Wholesale and sharing will receive a deliberate strategy. Opening capacity, co-investing, roaming or sharing may improve utilisation and speed, but can also create service, control and strategic dependence. Agreements must reflect access, performance, data, investment and exit. The board will expect the CEO to distinguish collaboration that expands value from arrangements that merely defer difficult capital choices.

Within twelve months, the business should have stopped or re-sequenced lower-confidence programmes, redirected capital to a focused set of customer and resilience priorities and improved delivery against approved milestones. The executive team should use one view of network, commercial and cash consequences. Several priority areas should show tangible improvement in service or take-up.

Leadership responsibilities

The CEO will run an enterprise operating cadence that connects network performance, customer experience, commercial demand, regulation and cash. Investment changes will state what has changed in the thesis, not disappear into portfolio movement. The board will receive alternatives and confidence ranges rather than a single engineered answer.

The executive will assess leadership and reshape accountabilities where mobile, fixed, commercial and delivery ownership remains fragmented. Incentives should support total customer and capital outcomes without removing clear responsibility. Critical network, regulatory and commercial succession will be strengthened.

External responsibilities include regulators, government, wholesale customers, infrastructure partners, lenders or investors and employee representatives. The CEO must communicate investment trade-offs credibly, protect legitimate confidentiality and avoid public commitments unsupported by delivery evidence.

Measures of success

The board will review service availability, coverage and congestion in priority areas, installation and repair, complaints, churn, fixed take-up, enterprise service, wholesale utilisation and resilience. Financial outcomes include capital efficiency, free cash flow, return on invested capital, cost to serve and benefits from retirement or sharing.

Portfolio quality will be visible through fewer unowned dependencies, reduced work in progress, milestone reliability and capital moved when evidence changes. Customer outcomes will be segmented geographically and by service so aggregate improvement cannot hide material gaps. Spending the capital budget will not count as success.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring at least 28 years of executive leadership in telecommunications, digital infrastructure, utilities or another regulated network business. They must have held a substantial profit-and-loss and capital remit spanning both commercial and technical decisions. Direct exposure to mobile and fixed economics, wholesale and regulation is essential.

The board will seek examples of reprioritising capital across network technologies, stopping a sponsored build, using sharing or wholesale selectively and improving customer experience in a constrained geography. Candidates should understand spectrum, access, transport, core, field operations and service sufficiently to test executive recommendations.

The successful CEO will be technology-literate without being technology-led. They must make hard capital choices, communicate obligations and uncertainty clearly and remain visible with field teams and customers. Experience leading through material vendor and workforce change is important.

Compensation and appointment terms

The expected base range is GBP 350,000–520,000, with annual incentive and long-term participation aligned to customer, cash and network value. Final positioning will reflect comparable capital scale, integrated-network experience and current arrangements. Any relocation or buyout provision will be decided against the selected executive's documented needs.

Confidentiality

The provider is unnamed because investment changes, network gaps and partner discussions are sensitive. Detailed technical, commercial and regulatory information will be shared after identity, conflict and confidentiality checks. Applications must anonymise network maps, customer contracts, regulator discussions and unreleased capital plans from other organisations.