Senior Strategic Sourcing Manager – Infrastructure

This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a newly formed Strategic Sourcing function in a fast-paced and dynamic business in the entertainment industry.

Responsible for the leadership, transformation, strategy and execution of complex, long-term category sourcing strategies across Activision, Blizzard and King technology spend categories. 

The role will be responsible for leading the charge to evaluate new suppliers, to negotiate current contracts with an emphasis on price, terms, quality, and to execute on consolidation opportunities.

This individual would work closely with key stakeholders across the organizations to develop effective cost optimization strategies and implementation plans.

The ideal candidate is an independent, self-motivated leader with a proven track record of establishing a standard of excellence aligned to meet objectives of key stakeholders.

Demonstrated ability to source new technologies to improve business operations while reducing cost to achieve maximum value.

Responsibilities

• Understand Activision, Blizzard, King technology roadmaps and the competitive external market for these technologies.

• Build relationships with key decision makers across Activision, Blizzard, King technology teams.

• Oversee development and execution of strategies through the sourcing process for Activision, Blizzard, King Technology categories.

• Develop and implement sourcing and negotiation strategies supporting a fast-moving business.

• Drive annual productivity improvements and cost savings initiatives to targeted goals.

• Consistently seek process optimization and quality of service opportunities.

• Continually monitor both cost and demand opportunities for savings.

• Perform cost and scenario analysis, and benchmarking.

• Develop RFP’s and negotiate new contracts.

• Drive the process to select, evaluate, onboard suppliers.

• Build and maintain ongoing relationships with active suppliers and build relationships with potential future suppliers.

• Partner with teams to build systems to monitor support contract expiration and actively engage technology owner on future needs.

• Manage issues and quality concerns with suppliers to ensure timely resolution

• Oversee a systematic, analytical and results-based method for monitoring suppliers performance and communicate results to suppliers and stakeholders

• Present to executive leadership as necessary.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree in relevant field of study

• 7+ years of Strategic Sourcing (not transactional) focus, ideally at a multinational company.

• Category Management experience with infrastructure services including but not limited to, Colocation (i.e.

Retail/Wholesale), Telecommunications (Data/Voice), Content Delivery Networks, Public Cloud (i.e.

AWS, GCP, Azure).

• Quantitative Analysis (financial or price modeling-both creation of model itself and performing the analysis from which a negotiation strategy is determined, requires comprehension of complex business objectives and a high level of attention to detail) is required

• Experience managing the infrastructure service categories across NA, LatAM, EMEA, APAC.

• Infrastructure Financial Operations experience and strong understanding of FP&A, Accounting, and the P2P process.

• Demonstrated experience building trust across a diverse set of engineering disciplines and business units in various global regions.

• Strategic mindset and solid analytical skills

• Strong negotiating skills and experience

• Strong verbal and written communication skills

• Strong presentation skills, with the ability to work with stakeholders across an organization

• Project Management (medium to large scale); able to handle and prioritize multiple projects

• Able to work independently, with limited direction and limited ability to delegate

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA

• ISM or APICS; similar certifications desired but not required