Strategic Sourcing Lead — Data Center Electrical (Equity)

OpenAI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 226,000 - 285,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI in San Francisco is seeking a Strategic Sourcing Manager for Data Center Infrastructure to shape sourcing strategy for critical electrical and data center systems.

You will negotiate supplier agreements, manage executive relationships, and align with Infrastructure Delivery, Engineering, Finance, and Legal to support rapid growth across global campuses. The ideal candidate has 8+ years in strategic sourcing of major infrastructures and strong analytical and negotiation skills.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Construction Management, Business, Operations, Finance, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, supplier management, or infrastructure supply chain management.
• Experience sourcing major infrastructure systems, industrial equipment, mission‑critical facilities, or large capital projects.
• Proven experience negotiating complex commercial agreements with strategic suppliers.
• Strong understanding of supplier qualification, contract strategy, supplier performance management, and sourcing governance.
• Experience partnering with engineering, construction, finance, legal, and operations organizations.
• Excellent analytical, financial modeling, negotiation, and executive communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop long-term sourcing strategies for data center infrastructure systems supporting Industrial Compute.
• Lead strategic supplier selection, RFx processes, commercial negotiations, and contract execution for major infrastructure programs.
• Build and maintain executive relationships with key suppliers, manufacturers, EPC firms, integrators, and infrastructure vendors.
• Partner with Infrastructure Delivery and Engineering to align sourcing strategies with project schedules, technical requirements, and deployment priorities.
• Collaborate with Capacity Planning to ensure supplier capacity aligns with long-term infrastructure roadmaps.
• Evaluate supplier capabilities across manufacturing capacity, execution quality, financial health, delivery performance, and operational maturity.
• Identify and mitigate supply chain risks through supplier diversification, long‑term agreements, alternative sourcing strategies, and capacity reservations.
• Monitor global market conditions, manufacturing trends, commodity impacts, geopolitical risks, and supplier ecosystems that may affect infrastructure delivery.
• Develop supplier scorecards and performance metrics across quality, cost, schedule, responsiveness, safety, and execution.
• Support executive sourcing decisions through financial analysis, market intelligence, scenario planning, and supplier benchmarking.
• Partner with Legal and Finance to structure scalable commercial agreements that support Industrial Compute's long‑term infrastructure strategy.

Job description

OpenAI in San Francisco is seeking a Strategic Sourcing Manager for Data Center Infrastructure to shape sourcing strategy for critical electrical and data center systems.

You will negotiate supplier agreements, manage executive relationships, and align with Infrastructure Delivery, Engineering, Finance, and Legal to support rapid growth across global campuses. The ideal candidate has 8+ years in strategic sourcing of major infrastructures and strong analytical and negotiation skills.