Director, Strategic Program Management -AI Infrastructure

Sumitomo Electric Group • San Jose, CA

8d

About The Position

Sumitomo Electric U.S.A., Inc. is seeking a high-impact leader to serve as the primary strategic interface with leading chipmakers, hyperscalers, and ODM/rack integrators in the U.S. market. This role combines strategic account management, product management, customer program management, and business development. The Director will translate customer requirements into technical specifications, product roadmaps, and supply chain strategies while leading cross-functional teams across Japan, the U.S., Vietnam, and Mexico.

The role owns the customer business lifecycle, from understanding strategic roadmaps and defining business cases to negotiating commercial terms and ensuring stable, profitable mass production. It covers customer strategy and roadmaps; specifications, demand, and responsibility matrices; internal business cases; design and quoting; price, investment, and contract negotiation; NPI, certification, and mass production; and revenue, profit, and ROI management. The position reports to the SVP, Data Center Business Division and requires 20–30% travel.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, or a related field.
• At least 10 years of experience in B2B sales, account management, business development, or product management.
• At least 5 years in a leadership role managing a team.
• A proven B2B sales or account-management track record with semiconductor manufacturers, hyperscalers, cloud providers, ODM/EMS companies, or network equipment vendors.
• Experience negotiating with procurement and C-level executives.
• Strong knowledge of connectors, optical cables, transceivers, data center equipment, or server/switch architecture.
• Ability to interpret drawings and BOMs and translate them into technical challenges for internal teams.
• Experience leading the full lifecycle from RFQ/RFI and costing through NPI, capacity planning, and mass production.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-geography stakeholders and hold them accountable without direct hierarchical authority.
• Ability to communicate complex technical and commercial issues clearly and persuasively to customer executives and internal leadership.
• Proficiency in calculating ROI and NPV and managing P&L for product lines or accounts.
• Understanding of lead-time management, safety stock, and capacity planning in a global manufacturing environment.
• Experience with complex commercial contracts, including LTAs and Master Service Agreements, and ability to collaborate with legal teams to mitigate risk.
• Native or professional fluency in English.

Nice To Haves

• MBA.
• Japanese language proficiency.
• Familiarity with AI server and rack-scale architectures, relevant industry standards such as OCP, IEEE 802.3, and MSAs, and hyperscaler qualification processes.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary point of contact for Tier-1 chipmakers, hyperscalers, and ODMs, building relationships across engineering, procurement, and executive levels.
• Analyze customer technical roadmaps, product architectures, and demand trends to anticipate needs and secure early positioning in design-in cycles.
• Monitor competitors, emerging technologies, and pricing dynamics to inform product and account strategies.
• Review RFQs, demand forecasts, BOMs, CAD drawings, and connectivity diagrams to identify gaps, inconsistencies, and responsibility boundaries.
• Translate customer requirements into product specifications, volume targets, cost structures, quality standards, and capacity requirements.
• Own responsibility matrices and change management, documenting and assessing changes to specifications, scope, and schedules and reflecting them in pricing and commitments.
• Lead global matrix teams across Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Procurement, Supply Chain Management, and Finance in quotation, development, and mass-production planning.
• Manage programs from NPI through customer qualification and certification to stable ramp-up, escalating and resolving schedule, quality, and yield risks.
• Establish program governance, including milestones, KPIs, and regular reviews, to provide customers and internal leadership visibility into status and risks.
• Lead negotiations involving NRE, CAPEX underwriting, Minimum Purchase Guarantees, Long-Term Agreements, and inventory liability.
• Balance customer forecasts, supply scenarios, and investment risks to ensure ROI.
• Own account-level revenue, margin, and growth targets and report performance to executive leadership.
• Support occasional matters as directed.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director