The
Director of Procurement leads procurement strategy and execution across the United States and Americas, with strong responsibility for critical categories and securing long-lead-time equipment. This is a hands-on as well as strategic role, requiring real data center experience and an understanding of the critical importance of schedule milestones in this type of infrastructure.
About the Job:
Procurement leadership - Define procurement strategy, governance, and execution for the U.S. portfolio.
- Establish procurement policies, approval thresholds, competitive bidding rules, contract controls, and compliance requirements.
- Lead key procurement metrics: savings, lead times, budget adherence, contract coverage, supplier performance, and risk.
Category Management- Own category strategies for power generation, UPS systems, and critical power infrastructure, including transformers, medium- and low-voltage switchgear, and generators.
- Manage mechanical cooling categories, including chillers, direct liquid cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, and coolant distribution units.
- Manage white-space categories, including racks, power distribution units, busways, and structured cabling.
- Cover civil and structural works, construction services, and professional services, in accordance with applicable building codes
Project Procurement & EPC Interface- Engage from the design phase, contributing to specifications, supplyability analysis, and cost, schedule, and performance trade-offs.
- Lead sourcing processes, negotiations, and contracting with EPCs, general contractors, and manufacturers through to delivery and L1-L5 commissioning.
- Negotiate critical contractual clauses, including liquidated damages, warranties, spare parts, indexation, title ownership, and risk transfer.
Strategic Sourcing & Resilience- Develop market intelligence, supplier panels, should-cost models, total cost analyses, and master agreements.
- Anticipate long-lead-time equipment, reduce single-source exposure, and implement dual-sourcing strategies.
- Work with customs compliance teams on international logistics and Chinese-origin equipment, including tariffs, anti-dumping measures, supply-chain traceability, and rules of origin related to tax incentive programs.
Supplier Performance- Establish supplier qualification processes, audits, scorecards, and corrective action plans.
- Monitor cost, quality, delivery, and commitment-performance indicators.
Management & Cross-Functional Collaboration- Build, lead, and develop a high-performing procurement team.
- Work closely with Engineering on specifications, Project Management on milestones, Finance on budgets, and Operations on execution.
- Support procurement digitalization (Odoo or equivalent) and data reliability.
- Present procurement strategy, supplier risks, savings, and project progress to the Executive Committee.
RequirementsRequirements- 15+ years of procurement experience, with significant management responsibility.
- Direct data center experience is required in procurement, strategic sourcing, category management, supplier management, or project procurement.
- Strong experience in data center construction, capital equipment, critical infrastructure, or heavy industrial construction.
- Demonstrated expertise in power generation, UPS systems, critical power, electrical infrastructure, mechanical systems, and cooling.
- Experience managing multi-million-dollar contracts and conducting complex commercial negotiations.
