Data Center Strategic Sourcing Lead

About Anthropic: Anthropic is a premier, internationally recognized public benefit corporation, artificial intelligence safety pioneer, and large-scale frontier model innovator on an absolute mission to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems that are safe and deeply beneficial for society as a whole. Approaching next-generation AI research as an empirical science akin to fields like physics and biology, our quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders works as a single cohesive unit on large-scale “big science” advancements (such as GPT-3 history, circuit-based interpretability, scaling laws, and human preference training). Headquartered in San Francisco, Anthropic provides high-agency systems builders and operations experts with an uncompromised professional environment centered on collaborative impact, transparent communication, and fair equity frameworks. The organization equips its procurement teams with an elite canvas to scale high-performance computing footprints and secure critical data center physical layers safely across global supply chains.

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly analytical, systems-minded Data Center Strategic Sourcing Lead to join our core centralized operations division in a full-time location-based hybrid capacity within the United States. In this highly critical enterprise sourcing seat, you will step up to claim individual strategic accountability for driving the development, market forecasting, and absolute commercial execution of procurement plans to rapidly scale Anthropic’s global Data Center IT equipment footprint. Shifting completely away from routine administrative buying or passive vendor checking, you will own the end-to-end sourcing strategies for critical hardware assets, balancing multi-million dollar computing infrastructures spanning high-performance servers, optical fiber routing, and advanced networking gear. This role requires a supply chain veteran with 7+ years of background who negotiates complex Master Service Agreements fluidly, audits material allocation pipelines smoothly across third-party warehouses, and partners with finance teams to optimize capital efficiency under constrained market timelines.

Key Responsibilities

• Commercial Enterprise Negotiation Leadership: Command, structure, and drive complex commercial negotiations and Master Service Agreements (MSAs) for critical IT infrastructure components, including networking equipment, fiber networks, and compute hardware modules.
• constrained Market Procurement Auditing: Audit partner procurement schedules and component availability sheets, ensuring optimal hardware allocation and driving cost efficiency of supply inside constrained markets natively utilizing Project Management trackers.
• Data Center Partner Compliance Governance: Implement and enforce rigorous governance frameworks to ensure third-party datacenter facilities adhere to strict commercial equipment terms, technical parameters, and physical specifications.
• Global Inventory Strategy Formulation: Develop and execute global inventory blueprints natively leveraging Spreadsheets (Excel/Google Sheets) data matrices to oversee warehousing allocations, third-party logistics (3PL) tracks, buffer stock thresholds, and international distribution models.
• Supply Chain Volatility Mitigation: Proactively monitor macro global supply chain updates and raw materials disruptions, executing agile contingency models to completely eliminate critical server deployment delays.
• Technical Asset Pipeline Transformation: Translate engineering research roadmaps into highly precise compute capacity forecasts, hardware pipelines, and milestone procurement schedules.
• Return Workflows and RMA Optimization: Establish and govern highly efficient equipment return, replacement, and warranty workflows with global hardware suppliers to restore failed server infrastructure elements rapidly.
• Cross-Functional Corporate Partnership: Collaborate peer-to-peer alongside internal deep-learning researchers, infrastructure engineers, and corporate Finance cells to optimize capital allocation balances and hardware time-to-market.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 7+ years of verified professional history running advanced supply chain management, data center material procurement, strategic corporate sourcing, international asset logistics, or technical operations consulting.
• Deep, authoritative technical command of modern data center network topologies and physical compute architectures (including switches, core routers, fiber cabling, servers, and PDUs).
• Expert-tier operational proficiency tracking capital deployments, managing milestone timelines, and auditing vendor contract matrices natively utilizing Project Management systems.
• Practical software capability building raw equipment forecasting equations, material risk charts, and lifecycle budgets natively leveraging Spreadsheets (Excel/Google Sheets) scripts.
• Possession of a formal university Bachelor’s degree in a relevant business, engineering, or quantitative science field, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and practical experience.
• Outstanding verbal, written, and presentation communication traits in fluent English, with an absolute capacity to break down complex contractual constraints or hardware lead times cleanly for technical and executive leaders.
• Location Context and Hybrid Policy: Position open to qualified sourcing leads residing within the **United States**, with the strict operational expectation to maintain a physical presence in one of our core offices (such as San Francisco) at least 25% of the time.

Preferred Strategic Indicators (Nice to Have)

• 10+ years of verified history running complex global supply chain sourcing, or 5+ years dedicated explicitly to hyperscale data center infrastructure expansion.
• Prior commercial procurement history working directly with general contractors, computing integrators, component tier-1 suppliers, or on massive data center construction programs.
• Demonstrated leadership and influencing skills, showing a proven background building internal consensus across cross-functional engineering cells and external corporate entities.
• An outcome-driven personal philosophy rooted in intellectual grit, deep technical curiosity regarding next-generation AI hardware arrays, and an intentional approach that turns problems into opportunities.

What We Offer

• High-Yield United States Salaried Structure: An exceptionally competitive full-time base salary scale structured transparently between $365,000 – $435,000 USD per year, calibrated precisely to evaluate your sourcing authority, commercial negotiation craft, and compute scaling velocity.
• The uncompromised professional canvas to directly direct, shape, and engineer the physical supply chain and hardware sourcing pipelines power-routing the world’s leading safe AI systems and large-scale research efforts.
• Immediate eligibility to access comprehensive premium health, dental, and vision insurance protections for you and your family.
• Access to elite personal and family calibration benefits, featuring generous paid parental leave programs and flexible vacation time off parameters to prioritize your long-term wellbeing.
• Supportive professional parameters providing an optional corporate equity donation matching program to expand social and ethical impact.
• A beautiful, highly collaborative physical office space designed for deep innovation, featuring flexible working hours and shared research discussion forums to help you thrive in all dimensions of your career.
• Comprehensive global mobility support, featuring an immigration lawyer to facilitate **Visa Sponsorship** paths for qualified international candidates.