Strategic Sourcing Manager, Data Center Infrastructure, Electrical & Mechanical
About The Position
OpenAI’s Industrial Compute organization is building infrastructure to support the next generation of AI, partnering with engineering firms, construction partners, utilities, equipment manufacturers, and strategic suppliers to deliver hyperscale campuses. The Strategic Sourcing team develops supplier relationships and commercial strategies to secure critical equipment, manage long-lead constraints, and deliver reliably at scale, working across Design Engineering, Infrastructure Delivery, Capacity Planning, Construction, Finance, Legal, and Hardware Operations. The Strategic Sourcing Manager will lead sourcing strategy for electrical and mechanical infrastructure systems across Industrial Compute campuses. The role develops supplier and commercial strategies, negotiates agreements, and aligns supplier capacity with technical requirements and deployment plans. It spans both electrical and mechanical categories; candidates should have deep sourcing expertise in at least one discipline and enough cross-functional fluency to partner effectively across both. Relevant backgrounds may include hyperscale data centers, mission-critical facilities, industrial construction, semiconductor manufacturing, or energy infrastructure.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Construction Management, Business, Finance, Operations, or a related field.
- 8+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, supplier management, or infrastructure supply chain.
- Experience sourcing major infrastructure systems, industrial equipment, or equipment for large capital projects.
- Demonstrated success negotiating complex commercial agreements with strategic suppliers.
- Strong understanding of supplier qualification, contract strategy, performance management, and sourcing governance.
- Experience partnering with engineering, construction, finance, legal, and operations teams.
- Strong analytical, financial modeling, negotiation, and executive communication skills.
- Deep sourcing experience in electrical or mechanical infrastructure, plus the ability to work across the other discipline.
Nice To Haves
- Experience sourcing electrical categories such as substation and transformer equipment; medium- and low-voltage distribution; switchgear; busway; UPS; protection, control, and monitoring systems; or prefabricated electrical skids and e-houses.
- Experience sourcing mechanical categories such as modular cooling plants; chillers; heat exchangers; pumps; VFDs; air- and water-cooled systems; dry or adiabatic coolers; CRAH/CRAC units; air-handling equipment; piping, valves, and related components.
- Experience with modular data center infrastructure or fabricated enclosure systems.
- Experience with hyperscale cloud, AI infrastructure, semiconductor, energy, or advanced manufacturing programs.
- Experience with long-lead equipment planning and supplier capacity management.
- Experience with global supplier networks across North America, Europe, and Asia.
- Experience in EPC, design-build, or integrated project delivery environments.
Responsibilities
- Develop sourcing strategies for critical electrical and mechanical infrastructure systems.
- Lead supplier selection, RFx processes, negotiations, and contract execution for major infrastructure programs.
- Build strategic relationships with manufacturers, EPC firms, integrators, and infrastructure suppliers.
- Partner with Engineering and Infrastructure Delivery to align commercial decisions with technical requirements, project schedules, and deployment priorities.
- Coordinate with Capacity Planning on long-term supplier capacity, lead times, and infrastructure roadmaps.
- Evaluate suppliers’ manufacturing capacity, quality, financial health, delivery performance, and operational maturity.
- Identify and mitigate supply risks through supplier diversification, capacity reservations, long-term agreements, and alternative sourcing strategies.
- Monitor market conditions, manufacturing trends, commodity impacts, and other factors that could affect cost or delivery.
- Establish supplier scorecards and performance measures for quality, cost, schedule, responsiveness, safety, and execution.
- Develop market analyses, supplier benchmarks, financial models, and scenarios to support sourcing decisions.
- Partner with Finance and Legal to structure scalable agreements and sourcing governance.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
