Manager, Strategic Sourcing, AI Infrastructure & Services
Strategic Sourcing Manager owning end-to-end AI infrastructure and services spend at Datadog. Leads high-value vendor negotiations, builds pricing/consumption models with FinOps, partners with Engineering/Finance on business cases, and champions AI/automation tools for the sourcing function. Requires 8+ years in procurement with AI/SaaS category experience.
About the job
What You’ll Do
- Own the AI spend category end-to-end, covering foundation-model and AI APIs, AI development and productivity tools, and AI-enabled SaaS (with neocloud and inference compute as an emerging area), while developing and executing category strategies aligned to business objectives.
- Champion AI and automation adoption across the sourcing function by identifying tools (e.g. Claude, ChatGPT) and building repeatable workflows that make sourcing faster, smarter, and more scalable.
- Lead high-value AI vendor negotiations spanning foundation-model and API agreements, AI development and productivity tools, and AI SaaS, structuring seat- and consumption-based pricing across net-new purchases and strategic renewals, and building neocloud and GPU-capacity capability as the category grows.
- Partner with Engineering and Finance to turn architectural and consumption trade-offs into commercial business cases, forecasts, and savings targets.
- Build pricing and consumption models and apply FinOps discipline to quantify buying scenarios and uncover savings across a fast-moving spend base.
- Work alongside executive and senior technology leadership as a trusted advisor on AI and neocloud investment decisions, influencing strategy and commercial trade-offs at the leadership level.
- Track category KPIs (savings, pipeline, cycle time), monitor AI market, vendor, and pricing trends, and report outcomes and recommendations to leadership.
- Partner cross-functionally with Procurement Operations, Legal, and Security to ensure compliant, scalable execution.
Who You Are
- 8+ years supporting procurement through strategic sourcing, with a history of category ownership and negotiated savings, ideally across AI software and services, SaaS, and engineering tooling, with neocloud or compute a plus.
- Fluent in AI spend economics: foundation-model and API pricing, seat- and consumption-based SaaS models, and the cost drivers behind inference, with neocloud provider models an emerging area.
- Able to lead complex, high-spend negotiations independently and present business cases and savings outcomes to senior stakeholders and Finance leaders in a clear, concise way.
- Strong executive presence, with the ability to build trust and align senior leaders (up to the executive level) on strategy and commercial trade-offs.
- Curious about AI and emerging technologies, with a track record of turning them into practical applications that improve team productivity and sourcing workflows.
- Able to create structure in ambiguous, high-growth environments: global initiatives, scaling headcount, and breaking down silos.
- Able to become an SME for sourcing and procurement systems such as Zip, and hold a Bachelor’s degree in a related field.
Skills
Strategic Sourcing, Vendor Negotiation, Ai Spend Economics, Finops, Procurement Systems, Category Management, Consumption-Based Pricing, Neocloud, Gpu Capacity, Zip
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