Commodity Sourcing Manager – AI Infrastructure

About the Position

Commodity Sourcing Manager – AI Infrastructure

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

If you'd like to build the world's best AI cloud, join us.

Note: This position requires presence in our San Jose, San Francisco or Bellevue office location 4 days per week; Lambda’s designated work from home day is currently Tuesday.

Responsibilities

Commodity Sourcing Strategy

• Own and execute sourcing strategy for assigned commodities within the AI infrastructure stack, which may include custom silicon, GPUs/CPUs, network hardware, power/cooling infrastructure, memory/storage, or other hardware categories that go into a GPU rack.
• Develop category strategies aligned to roadmap requirements, capacity forecasts, and long-term infrastructure growth, regardless of the specific technology domain.
• Identify and drive supply diversification, second-source development, and risk mitigation plans for constrained or fast-scaling categories.
• Build and maintain market intelligence across assigned commodities, including supply/demand dynamics, capacity constraints, technology roadmaps, and competitive landscape.
• Quickly ramp technical and market fluency in new commodity areas as business needs and assignments evolve.

Commercial Negotiation & Contracting

• Lead commercial negotiations with hardware and component suppliers, including:
  • Master supply and purchase agreements
  • Capacity commitments and allocation frameworks
  • Pricing, cost-downs, and cost structures
  • Non-recurring engineering (NRE) and design/tooling agreements
  • Service, quality, and performance terms
• Build and execute negotiation strategies that balance cost, supply security, and flexibility, applying consistent commercial rigor across different commodity types.
• Partner with Legal and Finance to structure and finalize contracts and commercial terms.

Supplier Management

• Manage day-to-day and executive-level relationships with strategic suppliers across assigned commodities.
• Lead supplier business reviews, scorecards, escalation management, and performance improvement plans.
• Partner with suppliers on capacity planning, allocation, roadmap alignment, and supply readiness.
• Serve as the primary point of contact and escalation owner for assigned commodities.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner with Engineering and Hardware teams to translate technical and roadmap requirements into sourcing and commercial strategies, regardless of the underlying technology.
• Work with Supply Chain Planning to align supplier capacity and lead times with demand forecasts.
• Support new product introductions, qualification timelines, and capacity ramps across GPU rack-level hardware.
• Provide commodity market insight and recommendations to leadership on sourcing risk, cost trends, and supply strategy.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in Commodity Management, Strategic Sourcing, Procurement, or Supply Chain roles, with experience across one or more hardware or component categories relevant to data center or compute infrastructure (e.g., semiconductors, networking, power/cooling, memory/storage, mechanical/electrical systems).
• Demonstrated experience negotiating and managing supply agreements with hardware component manufacturers, OEMs, or ODMs.
• Ability to quickly build technical fluency in new commodity or technology areas.
• Proven track record leading complex commercial negotiations and delivering measurable cost and supply outcomes.
• Strong analytical, financial, and business acumen.
• Experience operating in constrained, long-lead-time, high-growth supply environments.
• Ability to build effective relationships with senior supplier stakeholders and internal cross-functional partners.

Nice to Have

• Experience sourcing across multiple commodity types within AI/ML or hyperscale data center infrastructure (e.g., silicon, networking, power/cooling, memory/storage).
• Demonstrated versatility moving between commodity domains over the course of a career, rather than deep specialization in a single technology.
• Experience supporting hyperscale data center or AI infrastructure programs.
• Background partnering with hardware/systems engineering teams on NRE, qualification, or co-development agreements.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Business, or related field; advanced degree a plus.

We Offer

• Competitive salary range: $203K - $271K
• 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

About the Company

Founded in 2012, with 500+ employees, and growing fast, Lambda is an Equal Opportunity employer. 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: Lambda Careers.

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.