Strategic Sourcing Business Partner, R&D Operations

Anthropic•Seattle, WA

2d•$190,000 - $230,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Anthropic's R&D teams rely on a vast and expanding network of external service providers, with Human Data Operations (HDO) being the largest and most intricate component, involving approximately 140 vendors for data, evaluations, and expert feedback crucial for research. In addition to HDO, there's a growing need for other R&D services such as wet labs, robotics labs, outsourced and BPO providers, and specialized partners. This role is designed to manage the commercial aspects of this portfolio, driving ownership of end-to-end commercial terms, including contract redlining, deployment of contract templates, and negotiation. The objective is to unlock significant value through improved pricing, contract terms, and vendor performance. The job encompasses managing contracts (redlining, templates, renewals), leading commercial negotiations, partnering with business stakeholders to influence decision-making, and overseeing vendor performance post-contract signing. Success requires balancing deal execution with relationship management, negotiating favorable terms, and ensuring adherence through QBRs, SLA enforcement, and escalation management. The role also involves exploring how AI can transform sourcing functions, deal-making, and vendor management.

Requirements

7+ years of strategic sourcing, category management, vendor management, or commercial negotiation experience, primarily in services categories (data services, BPO or outsourced operations, lab or research services, managed services, staffing, or similar)
Hands-on contract experience: you have personally redlined MSAs and SOWs, built templates and fallback positions, and know where the commercial value sits in a services contract (pricing exhibits, volume commitments, termination rights, SLAs and remedies, IP and data terms) and when to bring in Legal
A track record of personally leading multi-million dollar services negotiations to strong outcomes, not just managing the process around them
Judgment about where leverage lives and how hard to use it: you can look at a portfolio of many vendors and many concurrent deals and know which ones deserve a deep negotiation and which need a fast, standard path, and you have a reputation with past vendors and colleagues for being commercially tough and fair with partners that need to scale with us
Strong analytical skills: rate and unit-cost analysis, TCO modeling, and pricing model design; you can find the real economics underneath a vendor proposal
Services vendor management experience: SLAs, scorecards, QBRs, and escalations, and how to enforce them without damaging the relationship
Comfort operating at pace: high deal volume, ambiguity, imperfect information, and a bias to execute rather than perfect
Clear, direct communication with executives internally and across the table, including in difficult conversations and escalations
Fluency with AI tools in your daily work and demonstrated experience in rebuilding your own workflows around them

Nice To Haves

Experience sourcing human data, data labeling, annotation, or evaluation vendors, or comparable BPO and outsourced operations categories, and a point of view on where that market is heading
Experience sourcing lab services, scientific equipment and consumables, robotics or hardware services, or other technical services for a research organization
Experience at a hypergrowth company renegotiating or restructuring vendor pricing and contract structures under the growth curve
Experience standing up sourcing coverage for a category from scratch (templates, playbooks, benchmarks), not just operating within an established program
Experience designing vendor scorecards, SLA frameworks, and performance management programs
Familiarity with the confidentiality, data-handling, and IP terms that matter for research and data vendors
A point of view on how AI will change services vendor relationships and negotiations, backed by things you have actually tried

Responsibilities

Own the commercial redline for HDO and R&D services agreements (MSAs, SOWs, order forms, amendments, and renewals), partnering with Legal on legal terms, so deals move quickly while maintaining negotiation posture
Build and maintain the template library for these categories (standard MSA and SOW templates, pricing exhibits, SLA schedules, and a fallback playbook) so that most deals start on our paper rather than the vendor's
Run the renewal calendar for the portfolio so that no agreement auto-renews or lapses without a deliberate commercial decision
Keep contract data (rates, volume commitments, SLAs, key dates) current in our contract and intake systems so obligations are visible and enforceable
Lead pricing and commercial negotiations across the portfolio, from strategy and deal structure through terms, SLAs, and executive alignment; you will personally run the ones that matter most
Build playbooks and Claude-powered tools for redlining, negotiation prep, benchmarking, and vendor reporting that raise the throughput and deal quality of the whole team
Design pricing structures that fit how R&D actually consumes these services (per-unit, per-hour, capacity, tiered, and committed-volume models) and that align vendor incentives with quality and throughput
Build and maintain a competitive bench for every mission-critical category via RFPs and competitive processes: qualified second sources, contracts structured so volume can move as needed, and flexible pricing constructs
Track and report savings, cost avoidance, and improved terms for the portfolio
Own the vendor management cadence for mission-critical vendors: QBRs, scorecards, SLA and quality reporting, and remedies when performance slips
Manage escalations between R&D teams and vendors and drive them to resolution
Identify consolidation, rationalization, and renegotiation opportunities as volumes shift, and bring executive-ready recommendations to R&D and Finance leadership
Manage TPRM, security, and compliance approvals, audit rights, and data-handling terms in partnership with Security and Legal
Partner with Procurement Ops BPs and the leaders in R&D and special-initiative teams to understand upcoming needs and growth, and get vendor capacity and terms in place ahead of them
Partner with Finance & Strategy on vendor budgets, forecasts, and multi-year cost models for the portfolio