MEP & Structural Sourcing, Director

Fluidstack; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 262,000 - 328,000; Full time

Job summary

Fluidstack seeks a senior sourcing leader for electrical, mechanical, and structural equipment in large-scale data center projects. You will own end-to-end category sourcing, build and manage a team of category managers, and secure multi-year capacity with OEMs to keep schedules ahead of plan.

Responsibilities include negotiating capacity reservations, expanding second sources, and aligning specs with engineering decisions. Prior experience in data center or critical infrastructure is preferred.

Qualifications

• Led sourcing for electrical and mechanical equipment on large construction/data center programs.
• Managed category managers or buyers and delivered results.
• Reserved factory capacity ahead of firm designs and managed commercial risk.

Responsibilities

• Lead MEP and structural sourcing end to end: switchgear, transformers, UPS, generators, etc.
• Build and run the sourcing team, hire and develop category managers.
• Lock in capacity years ahead with OEMs via multi-year supply agreements.

Skills

Sourcing leadership

Team management

Capacity planning

OEM contract negotiation

Lead-time knowledge

Expedite production

Reading specifications

Job description

About Fluidstack

We exist to make humanity more free. For most of human history, you farmed or you starved. Technology gave people more time for the things they wanted to do, instead of things they had to do. Powerful AI will be the biggest lever for human choice we've ever built - but only if models are aligned with what humanity actually wants. There are groups building AI who don't share these goals. Whoever deploys frontier compute infrastructure fastest will decide whether AI expands human freedom or shrinks it.

How We Operate

• Be a barrel. Full autonomy. Own things end to end, take on scope without being asked, no permission required to operate outside your core role.
• Insane urgency. We drive everything forward as fast as possible.
• Reason from first principles. Challenge every assumption. Zero analogy thinking, no egos, the best idea wins.
• Love of the game. The frontier of AI is the most interesting problem of our time. We put in long hours at high intensity to push the frontier forward.
• Build something that actually matters. If you're going to spend your time, spend it on something that matters to the world.

The Supply Chain Team

Fluidstack builds gigawatt-scale AI data centers with a modular approach that compresses schedules the industry treats as fixed. The Supply Chain team keeps that speed real by getting the longest-lead equipment bought, built, and delivered before the schedule needs it.

Examples of key problems the team is working on

• Supply gigawatt-scale compute. Qualify and dual-source every critical equipment category, with lead-time and capacity thresholds tied directly to the forward build pipeline.
• Make supply chain the reason we build faster than anyone. Our modular build lives or dies on supply chain. Keep procurement permanently off the critical path so schedule compression stays our advantage, not our constraint.
• Build the most accurate supply chain prediction modelling that exists. Use the frontier of AI to forecast lead times, demand, and disruption with a precision the industry has never had.

Role Scope

• Lead MEP and structural sourcing. Own the electrical, mechanical, and structural steel categories end to end: switchgear, transformers, UPS, generators, busway, chillers, CDUs, pumps, piping packages, and steel.
• Build and run the team. Hire, develop, and hold accountable the sourcing managers for each category, and set the category strategies they execute.
• Lock in capacity years ahead. Negotiate capacity reservations and multi-year supply agreements with OEMs, converting reservations to orders as the pipeline firms.
• Dual-source the critical path. Qualify second sources across equipment classes whose products are not interchangeable, and manage the design implications with engineering.
• Keep procurement off the critical path. Track factory slots and production milestones supplier by supplier, and elevate before a slipped delivery becomes a slipped data hall.
• Partner with engineering and manufacturing. Freeze equipment specs early enough to buy at the lead times the market gives, and feed supplier reality back into design decisions.

What We're Looking For

• You've led sourcing for major electrical and mechanical equipment (switchgear, transformers, UPS, generation, chillers, CDUs) on large construction or data center programs.
• You've managed a team of category managers or buyers and can show the results they delivered under you.
• You've reserved factory capacity ahead of firm designs and managed the commercial risk that creates.
• You've negotiated multi-year committed-volume agreements with OEMs and held them to price, lead time, and capacity.
• You know the current lead-time reality of the electrical and mechanical markets by product class, not by rumor.
• You've expedited equipment through a factory by knowing whom to call and what to trade.
• You read specifications and drawings well enough to challenge a spec or a price with substance.
• Bonus: Structural steel and modular skid packages. MV/HV equipment. Direct-to-chip liquid cooling. OFCI programs. Factory witness testing.

We are committed to pay equity and transparency.

Fluidstack is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Fluidstack will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.

Compensation Range: $262K - $328K