EMEA Strategic Sourcing Manager – Professional Services

This job is with Microsoft, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community. Please do not contact the recruiter directly.

Overview

Microsoft Cloud Operations and Innovation (CO+I) is the team behind the cloud.  We are responsible for delivering over 200 Microsoft web portals, Live and Online Services around the world including infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide. We are looking for a passionate, high-energy individual to help build the network that powers the world’s largest online services.

Within CO+I, the strategic Supply Chain team is responsible for establishing a supply chain that can meet the ever-growing growth of the Cloud and our customers. We support a portfolio of complex, multi-disciplinary, multi-billion, multi-year datacenter construction and lease projects. Furthermore, we support the Operations team that manages and runs the cloud assets. We are looking to fill a critical role of Strategic Sourcing Manager to lead the sourcing of construction consultancy services in support of our build program across the EMEA region.

In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Quantity Surveying or other related construction qualification AND
• 10+ years post graduate experience in construction supply chain and/or construction procurement specifically with large complex capital projects.
• Strong commercial understanding and experience of driving and developing key contractual components of categories (General Contractor, Civil Works Contracting, Architect / Engineer, Commissioning, Project Management, Cost Management and other construction services suppliers).
• Knowledge of Datacenter industry preferable and / or mission critical experience and experience managing a variety of project delivery methods – ability to collaborate with a project team in defining risk and developing the appropriate contracting and compensation approaches.
• Ability to work independently and within a matrixed environment; a self-starter and quick learner of Microsoft systems and processes.
• Experienced in the set up and management of category management plans to capture the long term business strategies for the General Contractor and Associated Sub-Categories. Strong analytical and presentation skills to succinctly report status in the achievement of OKR’s.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills for executive communication; ability to articulate points of view with executive management and stakeholders.
• Ability to implement new processes and get buy in from a cross functional team.
• High integrity – must be ethical and strong value based individual focused on fairness and maintaining confidentiality.
• Be a high performer – be able to fit the Microsoft “culture” by effectively multi-tasking and managing priorities; have a “sense of urgency” regarding issue resolution.
• Understand the importance of relationships inside the company and with our supply chain partners.

These requirements include, but are not limited to, the following specialized security screenings: Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form .

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

These requirements include, but are not limited to, the following specialized security screenings: Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
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Responsibilities

Sourcing

• Defines, maintains, and executes on sourcing strategies for one or more complex projects and/or purchasing opportunities to ensure optimal cost and sufficient continuity of supply and/or service, collects relevant internal and industry data to understand business requirements, benchmarks data against relevant markets, and shares industry and category expertise across stakeholder teams to develop and execute sourcing strategies.
• Integrates business specifications for complex purchasing areas into request for information (RFI) and/or request for proposal (RFP) processes. Collaborates cross-functionally to define and manage supplier scorecard criteria (e.g., key performance indicators (KPIs), Service Level Agreements (SLAs)), coordinates supplier performance reviews, and drives corrective actions. Actively partners with suppliers to identify and drive continuous improvement and risk management opportunities by evaluating procedural, operational, and/or environmental factors, analyzing root causes of issues, sharing insights with key stakeholders, and influencing the adoption of needed improvements.
• Manages contract and price negotiation activities for a single purchasing category cross-functionally and ensures that both price and capacity needs are met while also reflecting Microsoft's cross functional engagements with suppliers. Identifies cost reduction opportunities and works closely with suppliers to drive cost competitiveness.

Compliance

• Applies an end-to-end understanding of the tradeoffs between Microsoft and key suppliers to drive business impact by influencing senior managers cross-functionally, or cross-regionally to apply market intelligence and adopt practices that enable execution with consistency, accuracy, quality, and timeliness of delivery. Manages supplier scorecard process, leads strategic business reviews, educates stakeholders on policy compliance, analyzes root causes of issues, and influences change internally and/or externally to address issues.
• Ensures adherence to policy, educates stakeholders and suppliers on policy compliance, and manages the remediation and resolution of sourcing issues. Identifies opportunities to adapt policy as needed to mitigate risk and better enable suppliers to meet business requirements.
• Ensures consistency, timeliness, quality, and accuracy of deliverables, and ensures Procurement stakeholders are aware of Service Level Agreement (SLA) and/or defined milestones and deliverables terms. Communicates delay to Procurement stakeholders, and independently proposes and executes contingency measures.

Procurement and Contracts

• Processes or supports stakeholder procurement requests for complex purchasing categories via engagement and/or leveraging workflow process or technology, where applicable in support of product and service requirements. Manages the resolution of escalated pricing issues raised by other sourcing personnel.
• Executes contracts and complies with established control processes to ensure delivery and execution on contracts in alignment with business requirements. Identifies risks and roadblocks to contract execution and drives action internally and/or externally to resolve and/or escalate, as appropriate. Monitors the impact of change orders to the underlying business case, and partners cross-functionally to adjust impact models.
• Develops coherent sourcing strategies for early enabling works scopes across multiple geographies in EMEA building deep market knowledge through a network of sources in the industry. Accountable to lead engagement with potential supply chain and lead the onboarding process in collaboration with our partner teams in Land Development, Engineering and Construction.

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Develops pricing and negotiation strategies for one or more complex purchasing categories, ensures that strategies clearly articulate the tradeoffs, roles, and responsibilities across parties, and gains senior executive support for strategies both internally and externally. Identifies negotiation setbacks and takes action to mitigate contract disagreements.
• Drives early business engagements for complex business areas or purchasing categories with cross-functional leadership including product design, quality, and business teams, to define and drive action on supply solutions and strategies, business requirements, optimal sourcing spend, and priorities. Shares expertise in advising cross-functional teams on sourcing decisions.
• Collaborates with suppliers, serves as contact point between suppliers and multiple Microsoft accounts across one or more complex purchasing categories, developing and executing supplier account plans detailing priorities and focus for the supplier relationship for the upcoming period.