DC Contracts - Professional Services Category Manager

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Date posted

Dec 23, 2024

Job number

1793813

Work site

Up to 50% work from home

Travel

0-25 %

Role type

Individual Contributor

Profession

Supply Chain

Discipline

Sourcing and Category Management

Employment type

Full-Time

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.

​​​​​​​Microsoft Cloud Operations and Innovation (CO&I) is the team behind the cloud. Within CO&I, the Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) team is responsible for delivering core datacenter infrastructure for Microsoft’s cloud business. The MS portfolio consists of complex, multi-disciplinary, large scale, multi-year datacenter construction and lease projects. We are looking for a passionate, high-energy individual to help build the cloud datacenters that power the world’s largest online services. 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.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Engineering, Supply Chain Management, Quantity Surveying, Construction Management, and/or Operations.

• Proven experience managing hyper-scale construction projects, demonstrating the ability to lead and deliver complex, large-scale projects from initiation through to completion.

• Extensive experience in supply chain management, commercial negotiations, and contracting, as well as external supplier/contractor management across multiple projects in diverse locations.

• Deep understanding of Commercial Contracting language and terms with proven negotiation skills with external suppliers / service providers.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in the Data Center, Infrastructure, Semi-conductor, Power, or Oil & Gas industries, managing capital projects with contractor and supplier management responsibilities.

• Experience working in a large, multinational organization, preferably on the owner’s side, with a strong understanding of corporate processes, stakeholder management, and global operations.

#EPCCareers

The DC Contracts Professional Services Category Manager will responsible for the sourcing of construction-related services projects across Asia-Pacific. This role involves developing multi-year sourcing strategies to support a rapidly growing project roadmap, leading supplier onboarding and selection in collaboration with cross-functional project teams, entering into framework agreements with key suppliers, negotiating project-specific contracts, and establishing supplier performance standards to achieve project excellence. Professional Services contracts include, but are not limited to, Architecture, Engineering, Quantity Surveying, Project Management and related service providers for the provisions of construction-related services. The individual will collaborate with the Sub-Regional contract teams and other internal stakeholders to ensure awareness of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and/or defined milestones and deliverables, and drive timeliness and consistency across supply chain requests. The individual will identify issues related to sourcing requests and collaborate with business partners, create contract execution plans with control processes and approaches, develop and lead pricing and negotiation strategies, and secure management support both internally and externally. He/she will drive early business engagements with internal customers and stakeholders, manage supplier activity and progress, and develop and execute supplier account plans detailing mutual priorities and focus for the supplier relationship for the upcoming period.

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 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.

Data Center Contracts & Supplier Management

• 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.

• Defines, maintains, and executes 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.

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.

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.

Behavioural Attributes

• Can create clarity, generate energy, and deliver success; always be planning for the future.

• Have high integrity – must be ethical and strong value-based individual focused on fairness and maintaining confidentiality.

• Bring high energy – a drive to achieve results in midst of ambiguity and a matrix organization.

• 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.

• Team player & collaborative – Demonstrates an ability to foster collaborations across teams and stakeholders, leveraging diverse perspectives to achieve common goals. Actively participates in and drives cross-functional initiatives, balancing individual contributions with group success.