Senior Sourcing Lead – Cloud & AI Inference

Optiver • Chicago, IL

2d

About The Position

We are seeking a Senior Sourcing Lead – Cloud & AI Inference to join our Global Procurement team. This role will serve as a strategic leader in driving cloud and AI infrastructure sourcing initiatives both across the US and globally, with a primary focus on optimizing third-party cloud spend, structuring hyperscaler commercial agreements, and enabling scalable growth of our cloud and AI footprint. As a senior member of the team, you will not only lead complex sourcing strategies, but also provide oversight, coaching, and guidance to sourcing managers and buyers on the US team. This role requires deep domain expertise in cloud commercial models, including hyperscaler enterprise agreements (AWS, GCP, Azure), committed-use and reserved capacity pricing, and AI inference procurement. You will partner directly with senior stakeholders, technology leaders, platform engineering, and finance teams to ensure we are extracting maximum value from our cloud investments, building cost transparency, and driving measurable business impact in our fastest-growing technology spend category.

Requirements

• 10+ years of sourcing/procurement experience, with significant depth in cloud or hyperscaler procurement.
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale cloud negotiations and delivering multimillion-dollar savings or cost avoidance.
• Experience building and executing cloud category strategies at an enterprise level.
• Proven ability to influence and collaborate with senior technology executives, including Platform Engineering and CTO-level stakeholders.
• Excellent negotiation, analytical, and financial acumen, with deep understanding of cloud pricing mechanics.
• Strong leadership presence with ability to communicate complex cloud sourcing strategies clearly to stakeholders at all levels.
• Strategic thinker with demonstrated ability to balance cost optimization, innovation, and architectural flexibility.
• Expertise in leveraging cloud consumption data and cost models to drive sourcing strategy creation.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-impact environment with competing priorities.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, Computer Science, or related field.
• Experience within financial services, trading, or other complex tech-focused industries.

Responsibilities

• Own and execute the cloud and AI inference category strategy across our organization (both within trading infrastructure and enterprise-wide).
• Lead negotiations for high-value and complex hyperscaler agreements (Enterprise Discount Programs, Committed-Use Discounts, Private Pricing Agreements), ensuring best-in-class commercial outcomes and risk mitigation.
• Drive measurable cost optimization initiatives across cloud and AI inference spend through FinOps discipline, multi-cloud benchmarking, and consumption analytics, while balancing speed, scalability, and innovation.
• Influence senior stakeholders (up to executive leadership) to align on cloud sourcing strategies, architectural trade-offs, and commercial business cases.
• Establish and strengthen key vendor relationships with hyperscalers and emerging AI infrastructure providers to maximize long-term value and innovation.
• Monitor cloud market trends, hyperscaler pricing benchmarks, and supplier performance to proactively identify opportunities for savings and improvement.
• Represent Procurement as a trusted advisor to technology and business leadership on all cloud and AI inference investment decisions.

What This Job Offers

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