Director, Data Center Equipment Category Manager

Department: Data Center Business

Location: San Jose Office (Zanker), Remote, USA, San Francisco Office (Fremont St), Bellevue Office

Compensation: $224K – $350K • Multiple Ranges

Employment Type: FullTime

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. Lambdas mission is to make compute as ubiquitous as electricity and give everyone the power of superintelligence. One person, one GPU.

If youd like to build the worlds best AI cloud, join us.

What Youll Do

• Lead and develop a team of category managers across electrical, mechanical, and modular equipment, while personally owning Lambdas most critical categories, sourcing events, and negotiations

• Own the multi-year category strategy for Lambdas datacenter infrastructure equipment — transformers, MV/LV switchgear, generators, UPS, busway, power distribution, chillers, CDUs, air handling and liquid cooling systems, and prefabricated and modular power and cooling solutions

• Secure supply in a constrained market — reserve manufacturing slots, negotiate capacity commitments and framework agreements, and align supplier capacity with Lambdas multi-site demand forecast

• Lead end-to-end sourcing events (RFI, RFP, RFQ) from specification through supplier selection, award, and contract execution

• Serve as Lambdas lead negotiator on the highest-value equipment agreements — master supply agreements, pricing, lead times, warranties, liquidated damages, and performance guarantees — partnering with Legal and Finance on terms

• Partner with Design, Engineering, Construction, and Development to standardize specifications and basis-of-design across sites, driving volume aggregation and repeatable buys

• Sequence equipment awards and deliveries against live construction schedules to protect the critical path, and manage expediting, factory witness testing, logistics, and storage

• Own the owner-furnished vs. contractor-furnished equipment strategy, including installation, warranty, and commissioning interfaces with general contractors and EPCs

• Deliver systematic cost reduction through should-cost and total-cost-of-ownership models, design-to-cost, value engineering, and index-based pricing for commodities like copper and steel

• Build strategic partnerships with OEMs, integrators, and manufacturer representatives, and qualify new and second-source suppliers to reduce concentration risk

• Own supplier performance management — quality, on-time delivery, and safety — through scorecards, factory audits, and executive business reviews

• Identify and mitigate supply chain risks — lead time volatility, tariffs, commodity pricing, single-source exposure, and geopolitical disruption — and maintain contingency plans

• Set standards for category governance, contract templates, and spend and supplier data that scale with Lambdas growth

• Deliver executive-level briefings on category strategy, market conditions, supply risk, and savings performance

You

• Have 10+ years in strategic sourcing, procurement, or category management, with at least 5 years focused on datacenter, mission-critical, energy, or heavy industrial electrical and mechanical equipment

• Hold a Bachelors degree in Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Business, Finance, or a related field, or have equivalent experience

• Have 5+ years of people leadership managing category managers or sourcing professionals, while staying hands-on in sourcing strategy and negotiations yourself

• Have owned multi-year category strategies for high-spend, supply-constrained equipment categories with material cost and continuity-of-supply impact

• Know the datacenter equipment supply base — major OEMs, integrators, and their manufacturing capacity, lead times, and pricing dynamics

• Are recognized as a lead negotiator — you have personally closed large master supply agreements and capacity commitments, not directed someone else to

• Have sequenced long-lead equipment against a live construction schedule and worked shoulder to shoulder with design, engineering, and construction teams

• Have set process, policy, or governance standards that an organization adopted

• Brief and persuade executives comfortably, internally and across the supplier base, and can build the business case that earns the decision

• Operate well in ambiguity, on compressed timelines, in a supply-constrained market

Nice to Have

• Experience at a hyperscaler, AI cloud, colocation provider, or datacenter developer

• Experience on the OEM or integrator side — sales, commercial, or supply chain at an electrical or mechanical equipment manufacturer

• Hands-on experience with prefabricated and modular power or cooling solutions

• Experience with high-density AI infrastructure, including liquid cooling and CDUs

• Engineering background or technical fluency in electrical distribution and cooling systems

• Experience standing up a category management function or team where little existed

Salary Range Information

The annual salary range for this position has been set based on market data and other factors. However, a salary higher or lower than this range may be appropriate for a candidate whose qualifications differ meaningfully from those listed in the job description.

About Lambda

• Founded in 2012, with 500+ employees, and growing fast

• Our investors notably include TWG Global, US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), Andra Capital, SGW, Andrej Karpathy, ARK Invest, Fincadia Advisors, G Squared, In-Q-Tel (IQT), KHK & Partners, NVIDIA, Pegatron, Supermicro, Wistron, Wiwynn, Gradient Ventures, Mercato Partners, SVB, 1517, and Crescent Cove

• We have research papers accepted at top machine learning and graphics conferences, including NeurIPS, ICCV, SIGGRAPH, and TOG

• Our values are publicly available: https://lambda.ai/careers

• We offer generous cash & equity compensation

• Health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents

• Wellness and commuter stipends for select roles

• 401k Plan with 2% company match (USA employees)

• Flexible paid time off plan that we all actually use

Equal Opportunity Employer

Lambda is an Equal Opportunity employer. Applicants are considered without regard to race, color, religion, creed, national origin, age, sex, gender, marital status, sexual orientation and identity, genetic information, veteran status, citizenship, or any other factors prohibited by local, state, or federal law.