Commodity Manager II (Energy)

First Solar•Perrysburg, OH

About The Position

The Commodity Manager II, Global Energy Sourcing independently develops and executes sourcing strategies for electricity, natural gas, utilities, renewable energy, energy services, and bulk industrial gases across multiple manufacturing sites, countries, or regions. The position owns sourcing outcomes across cost, supply continuity, supplier performance, contractual risk, sustainability, and stakeholder service. It leads complex competitive sourcing events and negotiations, turns consumption and market data into sourcing decisions, manages strategic supplier relationships, and develops resilient commercial solutions that support factory operations, network expansion, and enterprise financial objectives. The role partners with Manufacturing, Facilities, Engineering, Finance, Sustainability, Legal, EHS, Treasury, and site leadership. It supports manufacturing expansion and infrastructure planning, renewable-energy and decarbonization objectives, and continuous improvement of category performance. The position has no direct reports and may require up to 20% travel. The estimated salary range is $84,200–$120,000 annually.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Finance, Economics, Engineering, Energy Management, Sustainability, Operations, or a related discipline.
Five or more years of progressive experience in strategic sourcing, commodity or category management, energy procurement, utility management, supplier management, commercial operations, or a related field.
Demonstrated experience independently leading competitive sourcing events, supplier evaluations, commercial negotiations, contracting activities, and implementation workstreams.
Experience managing moderately complex or high-value categories across multiple manufacturing locations, business units, or geographic markets.
Strong understanding of electricity, natural gas, utility-rate structures, energy-market drivers, bulk-gas commercial models, and supply-continuity risks.
Experience applying total cost of ownership, cost modeling, price benchmarking, scenario analysis, supplier segmentation, and risk assessment.
Proficiency with ERP, e-sourcing, contract lifecycle management, spend-analytics, business-intelligence, and supplier-performance tools.
Demonstrated ability to use AI-enabled procurement or analytical applications for market analysis, proposal evaluation, risk sensing, scenario development, or contract review while critically validating results.
Advanced ability to translate enterprise demand, market conditions, site requirements, sustainability goals, and commercial risks into actionable multi-year sourcing strategies.
Ability to evaluate energy-market fundamentals, index movements, tariff structures, consumption patterns, price exposures, timing alternatives, and commercial scenarios.
Strong knowledge of energy, utility, renewable, and bulk-gas pricing mechanisms, service-level provisions, volume commitments, performance requirements, and contractual risk allocation.
Ability to construct and interpret cost models, forecasts, sensitivity analyses, sourcing scenarios, and business cases supporting commercial decisions.
Ability to assess supplier capabilities, market positions, financial conditions, operating risks, technology developments, regulatory changes, and emerging energy alternatives.
Accountability, integrity, commitment to results, and continuous improvement.
Clear, structured, and empathetic communication skills, tailored to audience needs and focused on actions, ownership, and next steps.
Financial acumen and cost-benefit thinking to manage resources responsibly and support sound business choices.
Analytical aptitude to frame problems, evaluate data, test assumptions (including AI-generated insights), and translate analysis into sound decisions.
Structured problem-solving skills, including root-cause identification, countermeasure testing, and prevention of recurrence.
Execution skills to translate strategy into measurable results, manage dependencies, remove obstacles, and drive work to closure.
Collaboration skills to build alignment across teams and functions in matrix environments and prioritize enterprise outcomes.
Negotiation skills to prepare options, balance interests, and achieve mutually beneficial agreements while maintaining relationships.
Influencing skills to build alignment through credibility, data, and logic and gain buy-in across levels and functions.
Business partnership skills to translate stakeholder needs, align priorities, and enable informed tradeoffs that create enterprise value.
Systems thinking to understand interactions among people, processes, technology, and decisions and optimize enterprise outcomes.
Process and project management expertise to plan, execute, and improve projects and processes while managing scope, resources, and stakeholder alignment.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain, Finance, Engineering, Energy, Sustainability, or a related discipline.
Experience procuring energy or bulk gases within a multinational manufacturing, semiconductor, solar, chemical, automotive, aerospace, data center, or energy-intensive operation.
Experience with deregulated power and natural-gas markets, utility tariffs, renewable power structures, power purchase agreements, renewable-energy certificates, guarantees of origin, or comparable environmental instruments.
Experience sourcing bulk or on-site industrial gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, argon, hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide, or specialty gases.
Understanding of index-based pricing, transportation and pipeline charges, take-or-pay provisions, minimum-volume commitments, demand response, renewable claims, and energy-related regulatory considerations.
Experience with Oracle, Power BI, energy-management platforms, or market-intelligence applications.
CPSM, CSCP, C.P.M., CPP, Certified Energy Manager, or other relevant professional certification.
Working knowledge of category-management frameworks, Porter’s Five Forces, Kraljic segmentation, supplier preferencing, clean-sheet costing, and structured negotiation methodologies.

Responsibilities

Develop, implement, and continuously improve global or regional sourcing strategies for assigned energy, utility, renewable-energy, and bulk-gas portfolios.
Consolidate requirements across sites and identify demand aggregation, contract alignment, supplier leverage, and sourcing-wave opportunities.
Lead end-to-end RFIs, RFQs, RFPs, competitive negotiations, supplier selections, sourcing recommendations, awards, and implementation activities.
Negotiate energy supply agreements, utility arrangements, bulk-gas contracts, framework agreements, service agreements, and related commercial terms.
Build total-cost models and evaluate pricing alternatives, including fixed, indexed, blended, tariff-based, and transportation-inclusive structures.
Develop market outlooks, pricing scenarios, budget assumptions, sensitivity analyses, and sourcing recommendations for Finance and business stakeholders.
Lead supplier business reviews and corrective-action initiatives to improve cost, service, quality, and delivery performance.
Develop category risk-management plans addressing supplier, market, regulatory, infrastructure, and geopolitical risks.
Identify and execute supplier consolidation, standardization, and demand-management opportunities that improve total cost of ownership.
Support manufacturing expansion projects, utility infrastructure requirements, and capacity-planning initiatives through commercial sourcing strategies.
Manage supplier relationships and performance across cost, service, reliability, responsiveness, compliance, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Assess supplier, market, regulatory, contractual, infrastructure, and geopolitical risks and establish mitigation or contingency actions.
Partner with Manufacturing, Facilities, Engineering, Finance, Sustainability, Legal, EHS, Treasury, and site leadership to align sourcing strategies with operational requirements.
Support renewable-energy and decarbonization objectives by evaluating commercially credible renewable supply structures, energy attributes, and lower-carbon alternatives.
Establish category performance measures covering savings, cost avoidance, budget performance, supply reliability, contract coverage, supplier performance, and risk.
Lead resolution of significant supplier, contract, pricing, service, or implementation issues.
Provide category guidance, sourcing support, and informal coaching to less-experienced procurement professionals and site stakeholders.
Identify opportunities for standardization, demand management, specification optimization, supplier consolidation, process simplification, and commercial innovation.
Apply approved AI-enabled tools to monitor market signals, analyze spend and consumption, compare proposals, identify contract risks, develop scenarios, and prioritize supplier or sourcing actions.
Design and lead practical AI-supported workflows for proposal analysis, market-intelligence synthesis, pricing-anomaly detection, contract review, or supplier-risk monitoring.
Evaluate AI-generated recommendations using validated business, supplier, market, financial, legal, and operational information before presenting sourcing decisions.
Train stakeholders and sourcing colleagues on responsible use of approved AI tools, including validation, confidentiality, documentation, and human-decision requirements.
Perform other duties as assigned.