Strategic Sourcing Principal

<b>Overview</b><br/><p>Cloud Operations + Innovation (CO+I) is the engine that powers Microsoft’s core cloud platforms and services that millions of people use every day. With more than 95% of Fortune 500 business on Azure, 180+ million using Office 365, and millions using other services – all running on Microsoft's cloud infrastructure – CO+I builds and operates the foundation upon which Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and organization comes to life. </p><p>Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide. We are looking for a passionate, high-energy individual to help build the network that powers the world’s largest online services.</p><p>Within CO+I, the Global Supply Chain team is responsible for establishing a supply chain that can meet the ever-growing Microsoft Cloud for our customers. We support a portfolio of complex, multi-disciplinary, multi-billion, multi-year datacenter construction and lease projects and operations of those assets. We are looking to fill the critical role of <strong>Strategic Sourcing Principal.</strong></p><p>“Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.”</p><p>This role will be based at our office location in <strong>Dublin, Ireland or</strong> <strong>Reading or Paddington in the UK</strong>. </p><br/><br/><b>Responsibilities</b><br/><p><strong>Compliance</strong></p><ul><li>Negotiates and provides strategic oversight for improving existing, or establishing new, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and/or defined milestones and deliverables, holds accountability and ownership of SLAs with an end-to-end company-wide perspective, and ensures compliance is cascaded down to the business. Strategizes on and communicates SLA terms cross-functionally and/or cross-regionally to internal and external stakeholders. Serves as subject matter expert on the SLA and coaches team members to do the same, manages any escalations related to policy non-compliance, and manages the execution of contingency plans internally and externally as needed.</li><li>Leads partnerships with global stakeholders and suppliers to identify systematic business threats and determine which sustainable elements, alternative solutions, and/or policy changes would optimally mitigate risks at scale moving forward. Champions new policy direction and changes as needed to ensure systematic resolution and remediation of sourcing issues across Microsoft and its partners.</li><li>Drives business impact by establishing functional standards and performance expectations that define relevant process and compliance success metrics, while also identifying opportunities for improving process efficiency and policy compliance. Applies end-to-end expertise and leverages market intelligence to develop and influence Microsoft-wide channel strategies that optimize for value and enable execution with consistency, accuracy, quality, and timeliness. Leads decision making across organizations to determine optimum strategies for suppliers and partners to increase efficiency and manage costs, and drives accountability and governance for adopting workstream improvements and automation at scale to meet and surpass business expectations. Oversees periodic Microsoft-driven supplier audits to ensure compliance with policy/contractual requirements.</li></ul><p><strong>People Management</strong></p><ul><li>Managers deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, coaching, and caring. Model: Live our culture. Embody our values. Practice our leadership principles. Coach: Define team objectives and outcomes. Enable success across boundaries. Help the team adapt and learn. Care: Attract and retain great people. Know each individual’s capabilities and aspirations. Invest in the growth of others.</li></ul><p><strong>Procurement and Contracts</strong></p><ul><li>Provides high-level negotiation and sets standards across organizations and company. Resolves high-impact escalations related to pricing and category management issues, and proactively develops strategies to evaluate and drive change in processes broadly across the organization, as needed to ensure teams and/or partners adopt processes that improve the pricing and procurement of goods and services across Microsoft. Oversees price and procurement requests and complex pricing issues across purchasing categories to ensure procedural compliance.</li><li>Provides guidance and clarification on contract execution processes for consistency, accuracy, and timeliness across Microsoft. Provides thought leadership and shares best practices on established methodologies to ensure they ar