Senior Manager, Procurement & Supply Chain - Data Centre Infrastructure

About the Role

You will own end‑to‑end procurement and supply chain operations for data centre infrastructure, ensuring the right equipment is sourced, delivered, tracked, and supported across multiple locations. The role blends strategic sourcing, contract/vendor management, inventory & asset lifecycle control, logistics, and cross‑functional program leadership. Success means high availability of critical gear, tight cost/lead‑time control, audit‑ready asset records, and zero‑surprise installs and refreshes.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Sourcing & Category Management

• Build and execute category strategies for data centre infrastructure (power & cooling, racks, PDUs/UPS, structured cabling, network/compute/storage hardware, optics, spares).
• Run competitive events (RFI/RFQ/RFP) & quick bids, TCO analyses, and should‑cost/benchmarking; negotiate MSAs, SLAs, and warranty terms.
• Develop multi‑vendor risk‑balanced supply, including OEMs, distributors, and integrators; maintain approved vendor lists (AVL) and qualification criteria.

Procurement Operations

• Convert demand signals (build plans, refresh cycles, projects) into POs and delivery schedules; manage order expediting/de‑expediting.
• Drive compliance to sourcing strategies, preferred suppliers, and contract terms; resolve PO/invoice discrepancies with Finance/Accounts Payable.
• Ensure ESG and supplier diversity targets are reflected in sourcing decisions.

Inventory, Asset Tracking & Lifecycle

• Design and run a multi‑location asset tracking program (central DCs, DR sites, regional depots, field spares, and staging hubs).
• Maintain serialized asset records (make/model/SKU/serial, MAC, location, rack/U, owner, status, warranty, contract, refresh/EoL dates).
• Implement cycle counts, annual physicals, and reconciliation to financial ledgers; maintain parts requirements.
• Set min/max levels, safety stock, and sparing strategies by site tier and SLA; prevent stockouts and reduce excess/slow‑moving inventory.

Logistics & Deployment Enablement

• Coordinate inbound freight, customs/brokerage, and last‑mile delivery to white‑space; arrange equipment relocation to supply build need.
• Standardize BOMs, labeling, and barcoding; ensure materials tracking accuracy

Vendor & Contract Management

• Own QBRs, scorecards, and corrective actions; monitor OTIF (On‑Time/In‑Full), lead‑time adherence, defect/DOA rates, and RMA performance.
• While coordinating with DC Operations, manage support/maintenance contracts, renewals, and co‑terming; track warranties and ensure coverage aligns with site criticality.

Data, Systems & Reporting

• Operate and continuously improve the tooling stack (e.g., ERP: SAP/Oracle/MS D365; ITSM/CMDB: ServiceNow; WMS; DCIM; asset management; barcode/RFID).
• Build dashboards and KPIs (cost, lead time, inventory turns, stockouts, shrinkage, OTIF, forecast accuracy, SLA adherence, surplus reduction, capital utilization).

Critical Qualifications

• 7+ years in procurement/supply chain with at least 3 years focused on data centre or network infrastructure categories.
• Demonstrated experience running multi‑site inventory and asset tracking programs with serialized control.
• Strong negotiation and contract drafting/redlining experience (MSAs, SOWs, SLAs, RMAs, warranties).
• Proficiency with ERP and asset systems  and barcode/RFID workflows.
• Solid analytics: Excel/Sheets (Power Query, Pivot, XLOOKUP) and BI (Power BI/Tableau); comfort with data reconciliation.
• Ability to travel (limited) to sites and vendors.

Preferred Qualifications

• Data centre operations exposure (install windows, change controls, hot/cold aisle, white‑space protocols).
• Understanding of DCIM tools,
• Experience with vendor ecosystems (OEMs, distis, integrators) in Canada/US and international shipping/customs.