DC Contracts - Early Works Category Manager

DC Contracts - Early Works Category Manager

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.

Qualifications

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.

Responsibilities

The DC Contracts - Early Works Category Manager will lead pre- and post-award contract activities for Datacenter Early Works construction, to improve availability, velocity, capability and scalability in Capex construction supply chain. These Early Works projects typically entail early site preparation and improvement works in advance of permanent data center construction activities. Such works include but are not limited to site clearance, tree felling, demolition, site remediation, earthworks grading, test piles, utility diversions, and site access works.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborates with the sub-regional contract teams and other contract stakeholders to ensure awareness of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and/or defined milestones and deliverables, and to drive timeliness, accuracy, quality, and consistency across supply chain requests.
• Applies an end-to-end understanding of procurement processes and policies to drive business impact by applying market intelligence to define, develop, and influence the adoption of channel strategies.
• Ensures adherence to policy, educates stakeholders and suppliers on policy compliance, and drives the remediation and resolution of sourcing issues.
• Creates, maintains, and executes on multi-year sourcing strategy for early works projects across APAC, optimizing costs and ensuring continuity of supply and/or services.
• Leads contract and price negotiation activities for one or more purchasing categories cross-functionally and ensures that price, capacity, and strategic business needs are met.
• Provides support in the creation and delivery of contract administration plans, assisting in the definition of control processes and approaches.
• Drives early business engagements for highly complex and/or undefined business areas or purchasing categories with cross functional leadership.
• Develops and leads pricing and negotiation strategies for several complex purchasing categories.
• Manages supplier activity and progress across multiple accounts and complex purchasing categories.

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.
• Team player & collaborative – Demonstrates an ability to foster collaborations across teams and stakeholders.