Senior Global Category Manager

Overview

Microsoft's Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) is the engine that powers our cloud services. As part of the U.S. Government Airgap team, you will perform a key role in delivering the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's dedicated online services supporting the U.S. Government.

While our U.S. Government dedicated datacenter operations team has a sharp focus on serving our U.S. Government customers and helping them achieve federal missions, together, all of Microsoft's Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) infrastructure is comprised of a large global portfolio of more than 100 datacenters and 1 million servers. Our foundation is built upon and managed by a team of subject matter experts working to support services for more than 1 billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 90 countries worldwide.

The 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.

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.

Responsibilities

• Category Strategy & Leadership - Independently define, own, and execute multi-year sourcing and category strategies for one or more complex purchasing categories within AGC datacenter infrastructure mechanical and electrical equipment and services. Translate business demand signals, market intelligence, and supplier capability assessments into long-range category plans that optimize total cost of ownership, ensure continuity of supply, and meet government-specific sovereignty and compliance requirements.
• Stakeholder Influence - Serve as the recognized category subject matter expert across CO+I and AGC. Influence senior managers, engineering leads, and operations partners to adopt sourcing best practices. Educate stakeholders to ensure compliance with policy, adapting guidance as needed to mitigate supply, commercial, and regulatory risk.
• Negotiation & Contracting - Develop pricing and negotiation strategies for high-value, high-complexity engagements. Lead end-to-end negotiations, secure senior executive support, draft and execute contracts, and resolve commercial disagreements. Apply advanced commercial acumen to structure agreements that balance cost, risk, performance, and flexibility.
• Supplier Management - Define and manage supplier scorecard criteria, coordinate executive-level performance reviews, and drive corrective actions when performance gaps emerge. Develop and enhance strategic supplier relationships, including supplier development, innovation partnerships, and risk mitigation planning.
• Sourcing Execution - Integrate business specifications into sourcing events (RFI/RFP/RFQ), drive consistency, timeliness, and quality of deliverables, and ensure stakeholders are aware of and aligned to Service Level Agreements. Process and support stakeholder procurement requests for critical environment equipment, maintenance, and services from engagement through award.
• Risk & Compliance - Execute contracts in compliance with established control processes and AGC-specific security requirements.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration - Drive early business engagements for complex business areas. Partner with legal, finance, engineering, operations, and security. Collaborate with suppliers and programs lead onboarding, qualification, and ongoing program governance.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Masters Degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Data Analytics, Business, Finance or related field AND 3+ years experience in data science/analytics, finance, project management, supply chain, and/or operation
• OR Bachelors Degree in Engineering, 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 equivalent experience.

Other Requirements

• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
• Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of U.S. citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local United States government agency customer and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport.

Preferred Qualifications

• Category Management experience in one or more key categories including General Contractors, Mechanical & Electrical Equipment, Construction Services, Operations Services, AND/OR Systems.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex commercial negotiations and contract execution at the enterprise level.
• Skilled project management experience plus exceptional communication and influencing skills.
• Experience with global and regional planning and development.
• Commercial understanding and experience driving and developing contracts on key categories (Mechanical & Electrical Equipment, Power Generation, Construction Services, Operations Services).
• Experience collaborating with key stakeholders to jointly develop and implement category strategies that drive efficiencies, improve performance delivery, and reduce costs.
• Experience developing and enhancing supplier relationships, including strategic supplier development programs.
• Data-driven mindset to support continuous improvement and accurate reporting; proficiency with spend analytics and category management tooling.
• Growth mindset to explore new technologies, new ways of working, and new contracting methods.
• Knowledge of the data center industry and experience managing a variety of project delivery methods - ability to lead a project team in defining risk and developing the appropriate contracting and compensation approach.
• Technical ability to write contracts; ability to set up sourcing plans and negotiation strategies and execute them.
• Ability to interact with diverse groups across organizational levels, including executive leadership.
• Familiarity with common process improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, etc.) and ability to facilitate change management.
• Ability to implement new processes and gain buy-in from cross-functional teams.

Sourcing and Category Management IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $97,600 - $188,400 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $125,000 - $206,400 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. 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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.