Sourcing Manager, Network Infrastructure

F5 Networks•Seattle, WA

About The Position

At F5, we strive to bring a better digital world to life. Our teams empower organizations across the globe to create, secure, and run applications that enhance how we experience our evolving digital world. We are passionate about cybersecurity, from protecting consumers from fraud to enabling companies to focus on innovation. Everything we do centers around people. That means we obsess over how to make the lives of our customers, and their customers better. And it means we prioritize a diverse F5 community where each individual can thrive. F5's Infrastructure Capacity Engineering team is responsible for the planning, sourcing, and delivery of network, compute, security, and data center capacity across F5’s global SaaS footprint. This includes an active data center expansion spanning multiple metro deployments worldwide. The team sits at the intersection of engineering, procurement, finance, and legal; translating capacity forecasts into real infrastructure on the ground. F5 is seeking a strategic sourcing leader to own end-to-end procurement execution for network hardware supporting our global PoP and data center expansion. You will partner closely with the Capacity Engineering planning function to ensure hardware availability, build and manage vendor relationships, and negotiate commercial agreements that keep pace with an aggressive build schedule. You'll own supplier engagement, contract structuring, and vendor accountability for the network hardware that powers our SaaS infrastructure at scale. This is a cross-functional role by design. You'll work directly with Supply Chain, Network Engineering, Infrastructure Operations, Finance, Product, and Procurement as the connective layer that turns capacity signals into sourcing decisions and supply constraints into acquisition strategies. This role reports into the Infrastructure Capacity Engineering organization.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, or contract management experience, with specialization in data center, network infrastructure, or a closely related discipline, with a track record of owning sourcing and planning functions.
Demonstrated success negotiating and managing vendor contracts for large-scale data center or network environments, including OEMs and global suppliers.
Working technical fluency in network hardware (switches, routers, DWDM/optical transport, cabling, NICs) sufficient to evaluate vendor proposals and partner credibly with engineering.
Strong analytical skills with a focus on cost optimization, risk mitigation, and on-time delivery.
Experience structuring multi-vendor or multi-site deals and driving vendor accountability against SLAs.
Clear, executive-ready communication: You can write a crisp capacity briefing, present it to a VP, defend your assumptions, and translate complex infrastructure analysis into the language of business risk and investment.
Hyperscale or SaaS background: You've done this at a company where infrastructure runs at scale.
Network architecture depth: You understand network hardware at a level that lets you reason about generations, form factors, power envelopes, configurations and what those choices mean for capacity math.
Broad infrastructure literacy: You don't need to be a network or security engineer, but you need to understand how network bandwidth, security appliance capacity, and physical data center constraints interact with compute capacity planning, and you need to be able to work fluently across those domains to produce a single integrated capacity model.
Strong analytical and modeling skills: Proficiency in tools and methods for building, validating, and communicating capacity models whether that's Python, SQL, advanced Excel, or purpose-built capacity planning platforms. The tool matters less than the rigor. The result, however, must be a dashboard, queryable agentic AI, or other real-time artifact, not a PowerPoint deck.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end sourcing strategy and execution for network hardware, including switches, routers, optics, cabling, and rack hardware, DWDM across F5's global PoP and data center footprint.
Partner with Capacity Engineering planning to translate forecasted demand into sourcing plans, lead times, and delivery commitments.
Initiate, negotiate, and manage contracts and MSAs with OEMs, ODMs, and global suppliers, including standard redline and clause negotiation with Legal and Procurement.
Identify supply chain risk and secure optionality across the hardware portfolio to protect against single points of failure and lead-time exposure.
Partner cross-functionally with engineering, legal, finance, and procurement to ensure sourcing strategies align with capacity and budget plans.
Develop competitive commercial strategies that ensure material readiness and cost efficiency across the PoP expansion roadmap.
Provide technical and commercial input during vendor evaluation and selection to ensure alignment with data center design and operational standards.
Track and report sourcing progress, risks, and key milestones to Capacity Engineering leadership with clarity and precision.
Maintain and evolve sourcing documentation, including supplier scorecards, contract trackers, and delivery timelines.