Data Center Sourcing Manager

Groq, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 154,000 - 209,000; Full time

Job summary

Groq, Inc. seeks an Infrastructure Sourcing Manager to own data center site sourcing end to end, from pipeline to closing on favorable terms.

You will partner with Engineering, Networking, Operations, Finance, and Legal, with FinOps oversight, and will work remotely initially with a transition to onsite as offices open.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of experience in data center site selection, colocation sourcing, infrastructure development, or strategic sourcing for mission-critical infrastructure.
• Ownership of site or capacity transactions end to end - sourced, diligenced, negotiated, and closed.
• Experience negotiating colocation agreements, leases, or comparable infrastructure contracts, including power, SLA, and delivery terms.
• Working knowledge of data center power and cooling infrastructure to evaluate provider claims with engineering.
• Experience presenting recommendations to executive leadership and driving capital decisions.
• Comfortable in fast-moving, ambiguous environments as an individual contributor.
• Willingness to travel up to approx. 30%.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain a network of site opportunities and translate requirements into technical specs for sourcing.
• Develop and implement sourcing strategies for data center infrastructure to optimize cost, quality, and delivery.
• Lead technical due diligence on candidate sites, including power, interconnection, cooling readiness, and security.
• Serve as the primary contact for site negotiations: LOIs, term sheets, MSAs, service orders, leases.
• Negotiate commercial terms driving economics and risk: $/kW-month, escalation, SPoF terms, renewals.
• Assist in building financial cases for each site: TCO, cost per MW, capex vs opex.
• Drive cost savings and value improvements through market intelligence and competitive bidding.
• Implement supplier selection processes and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Translate infrastructure requirements into sourceable BOMs with Procurement & Network Eng.
• Maintain market intelligence on colocation pricing and energy markets.

Skills

Data center sourcing

Site selection

Negotiation

Cross-functional collaboration

Financial analysis

Vendor management

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

ERP platforms

CRM systems

GIS tools

Job description

Mission:

As an Infrastructure Sourcing Manager, you will own data center sourcing end to end: building the pipeline of site opportunities, leading technical and commercial due diligence, negotiating with landlords and colocation providers, and presenting site recommendations to executive leadership for approval.

This is a single-threaded owner role. You will partner across Engineering, Networking, Operations, Finance, and Legal, but you will be the person accountable for finding sites, proving they fit, and closing them on the best terms available. You will sit in the Finance organization and report to the Head of FinOps at Groq.

Location:

This role will be based in one of our three hiring hubs: the Dallas, San Francisco, or New York City area. The person hired for this role must be based in one of these three areas. You'll have the flexibility to work remotely while we establish our local Groq office, with the expectation that this role will transition to onsite once the office opens.

Responsibilities & opportunities in this role:

• Build and maintain the relationship network that generates our site pipeline - data center developers, brokers, retail and wholesale colocation operators, power developers, and utilities - and translate those requirements into technical specifications and constraints that Direct Procurement sources against
• Strategic Sourcing: Develop and implement sourcing strategies for data center and telecoms infrastructure and services that optimize cost, quality, and delivery outcomes.
• Lead technical due diligence on candidate sites: power availability, utility interconnection and energization timelines, electrical topology and redundancy, rack density and liquid cooling readiness, structural and logistics constraints, fiber and carrier diversity, PUE, security and compliance posture, and commissioning evidence.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for site negotiations, structuring and closing LOIs, term sheets, colocation MSAs and service orders, leases, and powered shell agreements in partnership with Legal and Finance.
• Negotiate the commercial terms that drive our economics and risk position - $/kW-month pricing, NRC and MRC structure, escalators, PUE treatment, ready-for-service dates and delay credits, SLAs, ramp schedules, expansion rights, cross-connect pricing, liability, and renewal and exit terms.
• Assist in building the financial and operational case for each site - TCO, cost per MW, lease-versus-own and capex-versus-opex scenarios - and partner with FinOps and Finance on data center unit economics and capital planning.
• Cost & Value Optimization: Drive cost savings and value improvements by leveraging market intelligence, competitive bidding, and value engineering initiatives to improve total cost of ownership (TCO) for data center assets.
• Process Improvement & Compliance: Implement and refine supplier selection processes and tools (e.g. RFI/RFP processes, supplier onboarding workflows, document management) to increase efficiency and ensure compliance with company policies and regulatory standards.
• Partner with networking engineering to understand the infrastructure required to deploy each GPU platform, and translate those requirements into sourceable BOMs for network, storage, admin, and supporting racks.
• Consult & inform infrastructure equipment procurement - covering switches and routers, optics and cabling, cooling hardware, storage and network racks, cabinets, PDUs, busway, pathway, and out-of-band management, alongside the Direct Procurement and Network Engineering teams.
• Maintain market intelligence on colocation pricing, supply trends, energy markets, and competitor activity, and manage contract hygiene and the renewal calendar across the portfolio.

Ideal candidates have/are:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of experience in data center site selection, colocation sourcing, infrastructure development, commercial real estate, capacity delivery, or strategic sourcing for mission-critical infrastructure.
• Demonstrated ownership of site or capacity transactions end to end - sourced, diligenced, negotiated, and closed.
• Experience negotiating colocation agreements, leases, or comparable infrastructure contracts, including power, SLA, and delivery terms.
• Working knowledge of data center power and cooling infrastructure sufficient to evaluate provider claims and partner credibly with engineering.
• Experience presenting recommendations to executive leadership and driving capital decisions.
• Comfortable working in fast-moving, ambiguous environments as an individual contributor without a supporting team.
• Willingness to travel as needed, up to approximately 30%.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in Telecommunications or Large enterprise network and datacenter sourcing
• Development-side perspective on data center economics, including yield-on-cost, cap rates, and how value is created in development.
• Familiarity with AI and GPU deployment requirements - high-density racks, direct-to-chip liquid cooling, and the constraints they place on site selection.
• Experience sourcing network or infrastructure equipment, or partnering closely with network engineering teams.
• Exposure to power procurement, including utility interconnection, tariffs, PPAs, and energy markets.
• Existing relationships across data center developers, operators, and brokers.
• Experience with procurement and ERP platforms, CRM-based deal pipeline management, and GIS or site evaluation tooling.

Success in This Role

• Maintain a healthy, diversified pipeline of qualified site opportunities ahead of capacity demand.
• Improve our cost per MW and overall data center TCO through the terms you negotiate.
• Deliver sites that meet technical requirements on the first pass, with no surprises discovered after signature.
• Give leadership the analysis they need to make capital decisions with confidence.
• Ensure networking and deployment teams have the infrastructure they need, on schedule, for every new space.
• Establish a documented, repeatable sourcing process that scales beyond a single person.

Why Join Us

• Purposeful Hiring: You're not here by accident, and neither is anyone else. Every teammate is handpicked with intention because who we build with matters.
• Builders Wanted: You're not just riding the rocket ship, you're building it. Your work directly shapes the trajectory of our company.
• Mission-Driven Work: We're here to make a real impact. Our mission fuels everything we do.
• Tackling Hard Problems: If easy isn't your thing, you're in the right place. We solve some of the most complex and exciting challenges in our space.
• Excellence Is The Standard: High performance isn't just encouraged, it's the baseline. And it's contagious.

Compensation

Groq is committed to providing competitive compensation through our Total Cash philosophy, which incorporates potential bonus value directly into base pay. The total cash salary range for this position, which is inclusive of the potential bonus value, is $154,300 - $208,700, with individual placement determined by your geographic location, experience, skills, and alignment with internal compensation standards. This range is specific to candidates located in the United States. Compensation for international candidates will vary based on local market dynamics. Beyond cash compensation, Groq also offers a Long-Term Incentive (LTI) Program and a robust suite of employee benefits.