Manager, Strategic Sourcing, AI Infrastructure & Services

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.