Strategic Sourcing Principal

We are looking to fill the critical role of Strategic Sourcing Principal.

The Strategic Sourcing Principal provides strategic leadership for procurement, contracting, and supplier relationship management across a portfolio of data center projects, driving commercial value, supply continuity, risk mitigation, and operational excellence. Accountable for complex negotiations, contract execution, supplier performance, compliance, and commercial governance, the role ensures the timely and cost-effective delivery of critical infrastructure while optimizing total cost of ownership. As a trusted partner to engineering, construction, commissioning, cost management, finance, and operations teams, the Strategic Sourcing Principal aligns stakeholders on business priorities, leads decisions on change orders, claims, and escalations, and leverages market intelligence and data-driven insights to strengthen supply chain resilience and enable predictable project outcomes. The role also leads executive supplier engagements and fosters strategic partnerships that drive innovation and continuous improvement, and develops high-performing teams through empowerment, accountability, collaboration, and a culture of delivery excellence.

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.

“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 will be based at our office location in Dublin, Ireland.

Relocation support will be provided, and successful candidates must relocate or reside within 50 miles of the office location.

Compliance

• Owns and negotiates SLAs, milestones and deliverables; ensures company-wide compliance, communicates terms across functions and regions, serves as the SLA expert, coaches teams, and manages escalations and internal or external contingency plans.

• Leads global stakeholder and supplier partnerships to identify systemic threats, assess sustainable alternatives, mitigate risk at scale, and champion policy changes that resolve and remediate sourcing issues across Microsoft and its partners.

• Sets process, compliance and supplier performance standards; uses market insight to improve efficiency, value and cost; leads cross-company channel strategy, automation and governance, and oversees supplier audits against policy and contracts.

People Management

• Managers deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, coaching, and caring. Model: Live our culture. Embody our values. Practice our leadership principles. Coach: Define team objectives and outcomes. Enable success across boundaries. Help the team adapt and learn. Care: Attract and retain great people. Know each individual’s capabilities and aspirations. Invest in the growth of others.

Procurement and Contracts

• Sets company-wide negotiation, pricing and procurement standards; oversees complex requests, compliance and process improvement. Guides contract execution, change orders and executive risk briefings; leads claims resolution with Legal, and manages supplier and contractor performance, including safety.

Sourcing

• Leads cross-functional contract and price negotiations across strategic categories; sets enterprise best practices and identifies scalable cost reductions. Develops multi-year sourcing strategies aligned to business goals, value, supply continuity, global benchmarks and risk mitigation.

• Integrates business requirements and sourcing strategy into complex supplier selection. Sets global sourcing-process vision and priorities to improve supplier risk, cost, time and technology adoption; validates changes, drives accountability, and shares best practices and root-cause insights.

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Leads enterprise sourcing and supply strategies for complex categories, developing scalable solutions and business cases with cross-functional leaders. Directs pricing and negotiations, builds stakeholder consensus, and manages strategic suppliers, executive engagements, innovation, value optimization, and Quarterly Business Reviews.

Required Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Data Analytics, Business, Finance or related field AND Good experience in data science/analytics, finance, project management, supply chain, and/or operation OR Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Data Analytics, Business, Finance or related field AND Proven experience in data science/analytics, finance, project management, supply chain, and/or operation OR equivalent experience.

Background Check 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.

While not required, we also look for the following Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Data Analytics, Business, Finance or related field AND Proven experience in data science/analytics, finance, project management, supply chain, and/or operation OR Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Data Analytics, Business, Finance or related field AND Significant experience in data science/analytics, finance, project management, supply chain, and/or operation OR equivalent experience.

• Proven people management experience.

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