Spectrum-Licence Accounting Recovery Leader — Mobile Networks

The mandate

Auction instalments, renewal options, spectrum-sharing agreements, refarming commitments and coverage obligations are recorded through different legal and engineering registers. Network plans alter utilisation and cash forecasts, but licence useful lives and impairment papers lag commercial changes. A regulator’s consultation and the finance leader’s departure leave the next annual close and spectrum investment cycle without one accountable financial bridge.

The fifteen-month assignment starts within three weeks and covers licence inventory, rights and restrictions, payment schedules, financing, sharing, renewal, refarming, network use, amortisation, impairment indicators, regulatory commitments and disclosures. It must deliver one controlled planning and audit cycle while preserving Legal, Regulatory and Engineering ownership of rights, compliance and network design.

Permanent recruitment opens in month eight. Handover requires a licence-to-ledger register, cash and commitment calendar, network-use evidence, approved accounting judgements, three controlled quarter closes, annual reporting and two spectrum scenarios. The successor must resolve an unseen refarming delay plus sharing-agreement change during a seven-week overlap and present accounting, liquidity and network-plan effects independently.

The role may reject unsupported finance forecasts, require licence and engineering attestations, set close standards, approve delegated corrections, redirect the authorised KRW 85 billion remediation budget and replace temporary finance leads. The board retains auction participation, licence bids, network allocation, sharing strategy, regulatory commitments, accounting policy, valuation, financing, public disclosure and permanent appointments.

Radio planning, licence negotiation, regulatory interpretation, competition analysis, technical compliance, network construction and spectrum valuation remain outside scope. The leader may quantify their effects but cannot infer legal rights or technical feasibility. Recovery cannot be achieved by extending useful lives to absorb an adverse network case or by omitting conditional payment and coverage obligations.

Why this seat is open

Regulatory teams own licence terms, Engineering decides network use, Treasury funds instalments and Accounting reports the asset. The consultation exposed inconsistent registers just as the incumbent left. Temporary authority is required through the annual cycle to make those views reconcilable and establish a permanent owner tested on real spectrum change.

What you will own

• Reconcile licence award, term, frequency, geography, restriction, payment, renewal and regulatory obligation across authoritative records.
• Link network deployment, sharing, refarming, utilisation and technology migration to financial forecasts and impairment indicators.
• Govern auction instalments, financing, foreign exchange, amortisation, commitment, modification and disclosure evidence.
• Establish source ownership, cut-off, attestation, judgement, versioning, exception ageing and annual audit support.
• Lead scenarios for delayed refarming, licence sharing, renewal uncertainty, coverage shortfall and technology substitution.
• Maintain clearly separate legal-right, engineering-use, regulatory-compliance, accounting and investment-decision views through each reporting cycle.
• Transfer three quarters, annual close, licence register and unseen change case to the permanent leader.

Candidate qualifications

• Held senior telecom spectrum, network-finance or asset-accounting authority through material licence and investment cycles.
• Reconciled auction, renewal, sharing and refarming terms with payments, ledgers, amortisation and impairment evidence.
• Connected network utilisation and technology plans to financial consequences without directing radio engineering.
• Worked with regulators, counsel, treasury, valuation specialists, engineers and auditors across clear accountability boundaries.
• Governed conditional commitments and disclosures under licence uncertainty and changing network strategy.
• Completed succession through a live annual close and an unseen sharing-and-refarming scenario under regulatory scrutiny.

Non-negotiables

• Can work onsite in Seoul through the annual reporting and full spectrum investment cycle.
• Will disclose relationships with operators, regulators, vendors, auction advisers, valuers, auditors and financing banks.
• Brings licence-level spectrum finance accountability; general telecommunications asset accounting alone is insufficient.
• Will not bid, allocate spectrum, design networks, interpret regulation, value licences or alter useful lives opportunistically.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a spectrum accounting judgement that changed after network-use evidence was rebuilt.
2. 49 words maximum. How would you separate licence right, engineering use and regulatory compliance?
3. 49 words maximum. What sharing-and-refarming scenario must the permanent leader resolve before handover?