Strategic Sourcing Leader - Enterprise & Engineering Technology

Responsibilities

• Lead sourcing strategy and execution across enterprise and engineering technology categories, including infrastructure software, engineering platforms, security technology, enterprise systems, IT, and hardware.
• Independently define, prioritize, and lead multiple complex sourcing workstreams, shaping supplier strategy and commercial decisions without regular oversight.
• Own strategic supplier negotiations, including major renewals, enterprise license agreements, infrastructure software commitments, security technology agreements, engineering platform agreements, and hardware-related sourcing decisions.
• Manage and develop experienced category leads, creating clarity, improving commercial judgment, and empowering the team to deliver strategic goals without heavy managerial intervention.
• Build scalable category tools and frameworks, including category cards, negotiation playbooks, supplier segmentation, renewal calendars, reporting dashboards, and escalation paths.
• Partner with senior leaders across the CTO, CISO, and IT organizations to translate technical roadmaps, security requirements, platform dependencies, adoption plans, performance needs, and supplier constraints into sourcing strategies and commercial structures.
• Advise senior leaders on major supplier decisions by presenting clear deal narratives, financial impact, risk, tradeoffs, supplier context, and recommendations.
• Create cost and commercial structures aligned to OpenAI’s business model, including usage-based pricing, flexible consumption models, pooled commitments, ramp structures, scale protections, and performance-based economics.
• Set direction for coordinators and category partners supporting quick-turn negotiations, ensuring routine work moves quickly with consistent standards, strong documentation, and appropriate escalation.
• Establish supplier governance and portfolio reporting across pipeline health, savings, risk, renewal exposure, supplier performance, forecast accuracy, QBRs, escalation management, and value realization.
• Influence difficult or highly opinionated stakeholders by building trust, clarifying tradeoffs, creating alignment, and positioning sourcing as a strategic partner in technical, security, and commercial decision-making.

Requirements

• Recognized sourcing expert with deep experience across enterprise technology, infrastructure software, engineering tools, security technology, IT platforms, hardware, or adjacent technology categories.
• Led complex, high-stakes supplier negotiations balancing cost, leverage, speed, flexibility, risk, security requirements, and long-term partnership value.
• Independently led multiple complex workstreams, prioritized tradeoffs, and shaped strategic decisions in ambiguous environments.
• Managed experienced sourcing professionals or category leads, building clarity, accountability, ownership, and sustainable team performance.
• Influenced senior stakeholders and mentored peers through strong communication, structured thinking, commercial judgment, and calm leadership.
• Built scalable sourcing tools or operating mechanisms such as category cards, negotiation playbooks, reporting dashboards, supplier governance models, or renewal planning processes.
• Created commercial models that reflect usage growth, technical adoption, platform dependency, security requirements, and OpenAI’s business model.
• Cares deeply about responsible growth, disciplined supplier management, inclusive leadership, and building sourcing as a strategic lever.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience using AI to improve sourcing workflows including intake, market analysis, negotiation preparation, reporting, documentation, and decision quality.