Strategic Sourcing Manager - EMEA

Job Description

Cloud Operations + Innovation (CO+I) is the engine that powers Microsoft’s core cloud platforms and services that millions of people use every day. With more than 95% of Fortune 500 business on Azure, 180 million using Office 365, and millions using other services – all running on Microsoft's cloud infrastructure – CO+I builds and operates the foundation upon which Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and organization comes to life. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide. We are looking for a passionate Strategic Sourcing Manager - EMEA 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 Microsoft Cloud for our customers. We support a portfolio of complex, multi-disciplinary, multi-billion, multi-year datacenter construction and lease projects and operations of those assets.

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.

“Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.”

This role is located in Ireland or the UK.

This role is eligible for hybrid or remote work, up to 50%.

Responsibilities

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 addresses 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.

Sourcing

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

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 to advise cross-functional teams on sourcing decisions.
• Collaborates with suppliers and leads on-boarding, processes. 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.

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications

• Master's Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Supply Chain, Data Analytics, Business, Finance or related field AND 4+ years experience in Data Science/Analytics, Finance, Project Management, Supply Chain, and/or Operations
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Supply Chain, Data Analytics, Business, Finance or related field AND 5+ years experience in Data Science/Analytics, Finance, Project Management, Supply Chain, and/or Operations
• OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements

• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. 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.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Master's Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Supply Chain, Data Analytics, Business, Finance or related field AND 5+ years experience in Data Science/Analytics, Finance, Project Management, Supply Chain, and/or Operations
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Supply Chain, Data Analytics, Business, Finance or related field AND 6+ years experience in Data Science/Analytics, Finance, Project Management, Supply Chain, and/or Operations
• OR equivalent experience.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.