Principal Data Center Supply Chain Lead

Lambda, The Superintelligence Cloud, is a leader in AI cloud infrastructure serving tens of thousands of customers. Our customers range from AI researchers to enterprises and hyperscalers. Lambda's mission is to make compute as ubiquitous as electricity and give everyone the power of superintelligence. One person, one GPU. If you'd like to build the world's best AI cloud, join us. *Note: This position requires presence in our San Francisco/San Jose/Bellevue office location 4 days per week; Lambda's designated work from home day is currently Tuesday. What You'll Do - Own the multi-year sourcing and category strategy for the equipment and construction scopes that deliver Lambda's datacenter capacity — long-lead electrical and mechanical equipment, construction, and trade packages - Partner with Construction, Design, and Development teams from site selection and basis-of-design through procurement, construction, commissioning, and handover, ensuring sourcing strategy and construction schedule are built against the same dates - Own procurement of long-lead datacenter infrastructure equipment — generators, switchgear, transformers, UPS, busway, chillers, air handling units, and cooling distribution — sequencing awards and deliveries to protect the critical path - Lead the contracting strategy for construction delivery: select and negotiate with general contractors, EPCs, design firms, and specialty trades, and choose the commercial model (lump sum, GMP, cost-plus, design-build) that fits each project's risk profile - Serve as Lambda's lead negotiator on the highest-value construction and equipment agreements — setting negotiation strategy, driving consensus on goals and success criteria internally and externally, and partnering with Legal on master agreement terms - Own the owner-furnished equipment strategy — deciding what Lambda buys directly versus through the contractor, and managing the logistics, storage, warranty, and installation interfaces that decision creates - Drive change order discipline across active construction projects: assess claims and schedule impacts against the underlying business case, partner with Construction Management and Legal on resolution, and adjust impact models cross-functionally - Identify systematic, long-term cost reduction opportunities across equipment and construction categories — standardization, volume aggregation across sites, early buys, and design-to-cost — and lead the cross-functional effort to realize them - Build and own strategic partnerships with OEMs, contractors, and trade partners that secure capacity and delivery slots in a constrained market, and drive innovation, prefabrication, and schedule compression - Negotiate and provide strategic oversight of delivery commitments, milestones, and SLAs across equipment vendors and construction partners; own compliance end to end and cascade expectations into the business - Set standards for procurement and contract execution across the construction program, serve as the escalation point on pricing and delivery issues, and deliver executive-level briefings on execution models, anticipated risks, and contingency plans - Partner with stakeholders, contractors, and suppliers to identify threats to schedule, cost, and safety, determine which alternative solutions or policy changes best mitigate them, and drive remediation - Oversee supplier and contractor performance management — including quality and safety deliverables — through audits, site walks, and business reviews, and ensure governance keeps sourcing and contract data current - Define and execute the strategy for industry and ecosystem engagement across the datacenter construction supply base, articulate business cases that earn leadership buy-in, and influence decisions that deploy across the portfolio You - Have deep, hands-on experience across end-to-end supply chain (planning, sourcing, logistics, fulfillment) and strategic sourcing, procurement, or category management — typically 10+ years, or 8+ with a Master's degree - Hold a Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Business, Data Analytics, Finance, or a related field, or have equivalent experience - Have owned multi-year category strategies for complex, high-spend, supply-constrained areas with material cost and continuity-of-supply impact - Are recognized as a lead negotiator — you have personally closed the hardest contracts, not directed someone else to - Have set process, policy, or governance standards that an organization adopted, and have driven policy change to mitigate real business risk - Have led through influence at scale: 3+ years of informal or indirect team leadership, coaching senior practitioners, and driving consensus across functions you do not own - Brief and persuade executives comfortably, internally and across the supplier base, and can build the business case that earns the decision - Are fluent with data and use it to anticipate risk, model change-order impact, and defend decisions - Operate well in ambiguity, on compressed timelines, in a supply-constrained market - Have worked shoulder to shoulder with construction teams — general contractors, construction managers, design and engineering firms, and specialty trades - Have led construction contracting and contract administration: selecting delivery models, negotiating GC/EPC and trade agreements, and managing change orders, claims, and closeout through to project completion - Have procured long-lead datacenter or critical-facility infrastructure equipment and sequenced it against a live construction schedule Nice to Have - Category management experience with datacenter infrastructure equipment – Generators, Switchgear, Chillers, Air Handling Units, etc. - Program management experience delivering datacenter capacity at scale, from equipment sourcing and procurement through project execution - Experience negotiating master agreements and resolving contract disputes