Manager, Strategic Sourcing, AI Infrastructure & Services

The shape of it

In the posting’s own words

We’re looking for an experienced sourcing leader to join the Datadog Procurement team and help grow the Strategic Sourcing group. Make an impact by partnering closely with senior technology and business leaders, owning our fastest-growing AI, neocloud, and inference spend end-to-end, and continuing to prove the value that Strategic Sourcing brings to the organization.

What it asks for · 7

• 8+ years supporting procurement through strategic sourcing, with a history of category ownership and negotiated savings, ideally across AI software and services, SaaS, and engineering tooling, with neocloud or compute a plus
• Fluent in AI spend economics: foundation-model and API pricing, seat- and consumption-based SaaS models, and the cost drivers behind inference, with neocloud provider models an emerging area
• Able to lead complex, high-spend negotiations independently and present business cases and savings outcomes to senior stakeholders and Finance leaders in a clear, concise way
• Strong executive presence, with the ability to build trust and align senior leaders (up to the executive level) on strategy and commercial trade-offs
• Curious about AI and emerging technologies, with a track record of turning them into practical applications that improve team productivity and sourcing workflows
• Able to create structure in ambiguous, high-growth environments: global initiatives, scaling headcount, and breaking down silos
• Able to become an SME for sourcing and procurement systems such as Zip, and hold a Bachelor’s degree in a related field

What the job covers

• Own the AI spend category end-to-end, covering foundation-model and AI APIs, AI development and productivity tools, and AI-enabled SaaS (with neocloud and inference compute as an emerging area), while developing and executing category strategies aligned to business objectives
• Champion AI and automation adoption across the sourcing function by identifying tools (e.g. Claude, ChatGPT) and building repeatable workflows that make sourcing faster, smarter, and more scalable
• Lead high-value AI vendor negotiations spanning foundation-model and API agreements, AI development and productivity tools, and AI SaaS, structuring seat- and consumption-based pricing across net-new purchases and strategic renewals, and building neocloud and GPU-capacity capability as the category grows
• Partner with Engineering and Finance to turn architectural and consumption trade-offs into commercial business cases, forecasts, and savings targets
• Build pricing and consumption models and apply FinOps discipline to quantify buying scenarios and uncover savings across a fast-moving spend base
• Work alongside executive and senior technology leadership as a trusted advisor on AI and neocloud investment decisions, influencing strategy and commercial trade-offs at the leadership level
• Track category KPIs (savings, pipeline, cycle time), monitor AI market, vendor, and pricing trends, and report outcomes and recommendations to leadership
• Partner cross-functionally with Procurement Operations, Legal, and Security to ensure compliant, scalable execution

Degree language

• Able to become an SME for sourcing and procurement systems such as Zip, and hold a Bachelor’s degree in a related field

Tools and skills named

Words the posting leans on

• sourcing8×
• neocloud6×
• category5×
• savings5×
• business4×
• leaders4×
• pricing4×
• procurement4×
• saas4×
• senior4×
• spend4×
• build3×
• executive3×
• foundation-model3×
• grow3×
• inference3×

Counted from the posting after the mission statement and the legal notices are set aside. The ones near the top are the ones a screener is looking for.

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