Strategic Sourcing Manager, Data Center Infrastructure: Electrical

About the Team OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops silicon and system-level solutions designed for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. The team builds next-generation AI-native silicon and systems while working closely with software, research, and manufacturing partners to co-design hardware tightly integrated with AI models. In addition to delivering systems for OpenAI’s supercomputing infrastructure, the team develops the tools, methodologies, and strategic partnerships needed to accelerate hardware innovation. About the Role We’re seeking an experienced Hardware Strategic Sourcing Manager to own sourcing strategy and supplier partnerships for fiber and optical interconnect components across OpenAI’s next-generation AI infrastructure. Reporting to the Head of Partnerships & Strategic Sourcing, you will lead sourcing across fiber cable assemblies, internal optical harnesses, fiber shuffles, optical backplane assemblies, connectorized and standalone passive optical assemblies, fiber-array units (FAUs), fiber-to-chip and coupling interfaces, detachable connectors, optical routing, and assigned optical packaging, assembly, and test services. You will work closely with electrical engineering, optical engineering, systems engineering, mechanical and packaging engineering, quality, rack integration, data-center deployment,manufacturing, supply chain, finance, legal, and program management teams to translate demanding bandwidth, signal integrity, reliability, and scale requirements into resilient supplier partnerships and scalable commercial strategies. Your work will directly support the performance, reliability, manufacturability, and scale of the high-speed optical connectivity required for OpenAI’s next-generation AI systems. In this role, you will: Develop and execute a comprehensive sourcing strategy for fiber and optical interconnect components supporting high-bandwidth AI systems and infrastructure. Own sourcing across optical fiber cable assembli

About the Team OpenAI, in close collaboration with our capital partners, is building the world’s most advanced AI compute infrastructure ecosystem. The InfraDev team is central to this mission, setting the strategy and executing the roadmap to scale our supercomputing footprint globally. From site planning to system integration, this team operates at the intersection of commercial, technical, and operational excellence, partnering with leaders across OpenAI and the industry. About the Role We are seeking a Strategic Sourcing Manager who is ready to take on global-scale challenges in AI compute supply and manufacturing — an opportunity to shape the future of supercomputing. As part of the Infrastructure Strategy & Delivery organization supporting Industrial Compute, OpenAI’s next-generation supercomputing platform, you will lead sourcing and strategic supplier engagements for compute infrastructure at hyperscale. This role will drive commercial strategy and supplier accountability across server platforms, accelerators, rack systems, and associated thermal & power delivery components. This is not traditional procurement — it is foundational work enabling OpenAI to deploy compute faster and more efficiently than anyone in the world, while building deeply-integrated partnerships with the global compute supply chain. Key Responsibilities Develop and execute sourcing strategies for the next generation of AI compute infrastructure in partnership with engineering and program leadership. Stay at the leading edge of industry and supply-chain trends to inform category strategy and long-range planning. Initiate, negotiate, and manage commercial agreements across OEM/ODM/JDMs for accelerators, GPUs/CPUs, server platforms, rack systems, liquid-cooling components, PSUs, and supporting mechanical/electrical subsystems. Secure capacity and optionality across a rapidly scaling compute supply chain while mitigating risk and ensuring manufacturing readiness. Partner cross-funct

About the Team OpenAI's Industrial Compute organization is building the world's most advanced AI infrastructure ecosystem. Working alongside leading cloud providers, engineering firms, construction partners, utilities, and equipment manufacturers, we are delivering hyperscale AI campuses that enable the next generation of frontier AI models. The Strategic Sourcing team develops and executes the commercial strategies that ensure our infrastructure programs have reliable access to the equipment, materials, and strategic partners needed to deliver at unprecedented scale. We partner closely with Infrastructure Delivery, Capacity Planning, Design Engineering, Hardware Operations, Finance, Legal, and our external suppliers to build a resilient global supply network capable of supporting Industrial Compute's long-term growth. As we continue expanding globally, strategic sourcing becomes a critical competitive advantage, ensuring our infrastructure programs remain cost-effective, resilient, and capable of executing against aggressive deployment timelines. About the Role We are seeking a Strategic Sourcing Manager, Data Center Infrastructure: Owner Furnished Equipment to lead sourcing strategy for the critical infrastructure systems that power Industrial Compute campuses. This role will develop commercial strategies, negotiate strategic supplier agreements, and manage relationships across engineering, construction, manufacturing, and infrastructure partners responsible for delivering mission-critical facilities. You will work closely with Infrastructure Delivery, Capacity Planning, Engineering, Finance, Construction, and external suppliers to ensure Industrial Compute has the capacity, supplier relationships, and commercial frameworks required to support rapid global expansion. The ideal candidate has experience sourcing major infrastructure systems for hyperscale data centers, mission-critical facilities, industrial construction, semiconductor manufacturing, energy infrastr

About the Team OpenAI's Industrial Compute organization is building the world's most advanced AI infrastructure ecosystem. Working alongside leading cloud providers, engineering firms, construction partners, utilities, and equipment manufacturers, we are delivering hyperscale AI campuses that enable the next generation of frontier AI models. The Strategic Sourcing team develops and executes the commercial strategies that ensure our infrastructure programs have reliable access to the equipment, materials, and strategic partners needed to deliver at unprecedented scale. We partner closely with Infrastructure Delivery, Capacity Planning, Design Engineering, Hardware Operations, Finance, Legal, and our external suppliers to build a resilient global supply network capable of supporting Industrial Compute's long-term growth. As we continue expanding globally, strategic sourcing becomes a critical competitive advantage, ensuring our infrastructure programs remain cost-effective, resilient, and capable of executing against aggressive deployment timelines. About the Role We are seeking a Strategic Sourcing Manager, Data Center Infrastructure to lead sourcing strategy for the critical infrastructure systems that power Industrial Compute campuses. This role will develop commercial strategies, negotiate strategic supplier agreements, and manage relationships across engineering, construction, manufacturing, and infrastructure partners responsible for delivering mission-critical facilities. You will work closely with Infrastructure Delivery, Capacity Planning, Engineering, Finance, Construction, and external suppliers to ensure Industrial Compute has the capacity, supplier relationships, and commercial frameworks required to support rapid global expansion. The ideal candidate has experience sourcing major infrastructure systems for hyperscale data centers, mission-critical facilities, industrial construction, semiconductor manufacturing, energy infrastructure, or similarly comple

About the Team OpenAI's Industrial Compute organization builds and operates the infrastructure required to train and serve frontier AI models. The Capacity Planning team connects rapidly changing research and product demand with the compute, networking, storage, power, data center, hardware, and operational resources required to make that demand executable. About the Role We are seeking a Technical Program Manager to build and lead capacity planning across OpenAI's large-scale AI infrastructure. You will translate uncertain workload demand into clear infrastructure requirements, allocation decisions, supply commitments, activation priorities, and long-range capacity strategies. This role sits at the intersection of research, engineering, infrastructure, finance, sourcing, deployment, and operations. You will create the planning models, operating cadences, governance mechanisms, and source-of-truth systems that allow teams to understand what capacity is required, what is available, what is at risk, and what decisions must be made. This is not a finance-only forecasting or reporting role. Success requires technical fluency across the infrastructure stack, strong analytical judgment, and the ability to move consequential decisions forward when requirements, timelines, and supply conditions change quickly. Key Responsibilities Own capacity-planning processes across near-term workload allocation, quarterly execution, and longer-range infrastructure horizons. Translate research, training, inference, and product demand into compute, accelerator, cluster, networking, storage, rack, power, and site requirements. Develop scenarios that make assumptions, confidence levels, constraints, sensitivities, and decision points explicit. Reconcile requested demand against contracted, delivered, installed, activated, and workload-usable capacity. Partner with research and engineering teams to understand workload priorities, technical dependencies, utilization patterns, and changing req

ABOUT BASETEN Baseten powers mission-critical inference for the world's most dynamic AI companies, like Cursor, Notion, OpenEvidence, Abridge, Clay, Gamma, and Writer. By uniting applied AI research, flexible infrastructure, and seamless developer tooling, we enable companies operating at the frontier of AI to bring cutting-edge models into production. We're growing quickly and recently raised our $1.5B Series F , led by Altimeter Capital, Conviction Partners, and Spark Capital. Join us and help build the platform engineers turn to ship AI products. THE ROLE This is a sourcing-first role, not a deal-closing role. Baseten needs someone who can build and maintain deep relationships across the long tail of data center and powered land providers, well beyond the handful of large, well-known players that everyone in the market is already competing for. This coverage area is a key differentiator for Baseten's broader compute strategy, so we're looking for the best possible person in this specific lane rather than a generalist. You'll own the full lifecycle of a sourcing relationship — from first outreach to ongoing management — not just the introduction. WHAT YOU'LL DO Build and maintain a comprehensive map of data center and powered land opportunities, with a particular focus on the long tail rather than the handful of major, oversubscribed players Own the full sourcing lifecycle for each relationship — from identifying and reaching out to new providers, through negotiation support, to ongoing relationship management — not just the initial introduction Develop and manage sourcing relationships across neoclouds, hyperscalers, brokers, and independent operators Quickly and independently evaluate new sites and spaces to determine fit and priority Prepare business cases and cost analysis to support new data center and powered land opportunities, partnering with Finance where needed Maintain accurate records of suppliers, contracts, and commercial terms so the team has a reli