Strategic Sourcing Leader, Professional Services

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment organization working to ensure advanced AI systems benefit humanity. The Finance team supports the company's mission by enabling responsible, rapid growth through strong financial stewardship and strategic partnerships.

Strategic Sourcing Leader, Professional Services

You'll lead Finance's Professional Services sourcing team, managing a diverse portfolio spanning strategic advisory relationships, enterprise programs and high-volume statements of work. This hybrid role in San Francisco combines people leadership with hands-on category management, requiring you to set team direction, translate business priorities into sourcing strategies and remain engaged in complex negotiations.

What you'll do

• Build and develop your sourcing team with clear objectives, appropriate decision authority and regular performance feedback. Create development plans that strengthen capability across the team and reduce over-reliance on individual experts.

• Define and execute the Professional Services sourcing strategy and roadmap, connecting business objectives, spending patterns, supplier market dynamics and organizational risk. Guide category decisions on where to consolidate, compete or change service delivery models.

• Manage the team's pipeline and capacity across strategic negotiations, supplier governance and recurring work. Allocate complex work appropriately, surface resource constraints and dependencies, and establish realistic priorities before commitments become unachievable.

• Lead selected critical negotiations personally while setting commercial standards across the team. Challenge scope, resource mix, pricing and terms using comparable market data and credible alternatives.

• Design intake processes, tiering models and preferred-partner frameworks with Procurement Operations and Contract Management. Ensure repeatable work moves efficiently while material exceptions receive appropriate attention.

• Strengthen supplier relationships through segmentation, performance reviews and improvement plans. Assess supplier productivity proposals against staffing, fee and delivery risk impacts.

• Partner with Finance and Accounting on spend visibility, demand forecasting and alignment between invoices and contracts. Model fee structures and total economics, establishing clear baselines for savings and realized value.

• Collaborate with Legal, People and Extended Workforce to select appropriate service models and manage intellectual property, confidentiality and workforce-related risk.

• Lead adoption of AI tools and improved sourcing workflows across the team, from supplier research and proposal analysis to negotiation preparation and reporting.

What you'll bring

• 10+ years of progressive strategic sourcing, procurement or category management experience with substantial depth across multiple Professional Services categories from strategy through supplier performance.

• 5+ years of formal people leadership experience with demonstrated success building team capability, delegating effectively and delivering sustained results.

• Strong commercial judgment and stakeholder management skills. Ability to resolve competing priorities constructively, challenge assumptions and escalate decisions clearly.

• Experience translating business needs into practical, economically sound solutions across complex, multi-stakeholder environments.

• Comfort with ambiguity and proven ability to create clarity and establish decision authority in rapidly evolving conditions.

What we offer

• Hybrid work model: three days per week in our San Francisco office.

• Relocation assistance available for new employees.