Procurement Category and Contracts Manager, Infrastructure Planning and Sourcing

Amazon; Dublin; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading cloud services provider in Dublin is seeking a Procurement Category Manager to oversee third-party services necessary for Data Center operations. The ideal candidate will have over 8 years of experience in procurement, particularly in vendor management and contract negotiation. Responsibilities include managing sourcing strategies, leading supplier selection, and ensuring compliance with contract terms. This role emphasizes cost savings while driving service reliability and operational continuity.

Benefits

Work-life balance initiatives

Diverse and inclusive culture

Career growth through mentorship

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in procurement with vendor management and complex purchases.
• Experience in contract management and drafting key contract terms.
• Proven ability in driving category strategies.

Responsibilities

• Manage critical category within Environment, Health, and Safety domain.
• Lead supplier selection process and create supplier scorecards.
• Draft key commercial contract terms and communicate across teams.

Skills

Analytical skills

Project management

Negotiation

Supplier performance management

Education

Bachelor’s Degree

Job description

Overview

AWS Infrastructure Services owns the design, planning, delivery, and operation of all AWS global infrastructure. In other words, we’re the people who keep the cloud running. We support all AWS data centers and all of the servers, storage, networking, power, and cooling equipment that ensure our customers have continual access to the innovation they rely on. We work on the most challenging problems, with thousands of variables impacting the supply chain — and we’re looking for talented people who want to help.

You’ll join a diverse team of software, hardware, and network engineers, supply chain specialists, security experts, operations managers, and other vital roles. You’ll collaborate with people across AWS to help us deliver the highest standards for safety and security while providing seemingly infinite capacity at the lowest possible cost for our customers. And you’ll experience an inclusive culture that welcomes bold ideas and empowers you to own them to completion.

Amazon Web Services provides a highly reliable, scalable, and low-cost cloud platform that powers thousands of businesses in over 190 countries. AWS’ Infrastructure Supply Chain & Procurement organization works to deliver solutions to source, build and maintain our socially responsible data center supply chains. We are a team of highly-motivated, engaged, and responsive professionals who enable the core sustainable infrastructure of AWS. Come join our team and be a part of history as we deliver results for the largest cloud services company on Earth!

The IPS Procurement Category Management Org is responsible for the procurement of all third party provided services required for the operation of our Data Center infrastructure globally, including Colo and Edge facilities for externally delivered services not provided by the facility owner. The team is responsible for the identification, onboarding and performance management of suppliers as well as developing category strategies, conducting competitive tendering processes, supplier negotiations and the preparation of associated Work Orders.

The team is structured into three regions, each led by a regional manager, with each regional team composed of category managers with responsibility for the management of specific areas of spend within the region and a cohort of procurement specialists who support the category managers. The category management approach facilitates a strategic approach to procurement by facilitating in depth market analysis coupled with a cross functional approach to identify supplier and associated contracting options which are focused on meeting the particular needs of the business. Category management moves beyond traditional transactional based purchasing negotiations to provide a strategic approach to longer term, sustainable cost reductions, reducing risk and increasing resiliency in the supply base and facilitating innovation from within the supply base that the business can leverage.

This is a regional role within the IPS: Procurement -Category Management team responsible for contract negotiations and managing sourcing of third party provided services required for the operations of our Data Center infrastructure. The role specifically manages the category scope of sourcing within the Environment Health & Safety domain. The role is also responsible for working with the multiple AWS teams (including EHS program teams, legal teams and Professional Services team) to ensure SOWs and contracting terms are in compliance with legal requirements.

While cost reduction will always be a key focus of the team, the principle cynosure of the team is the delivery of services that are keenly focused on increasing reliability and supporting enhanced availability through robust relationships which support continuity of operations. As service and quality levels can vary greatly, principally based on the skill set within a supplier local organization, the regional structure facilitates tailoring of category strategies to meet local market considerations and closely monitor supplier performance at the local level.

Key job responsibilities

• Category Management
  • The ideal candidate thinks long term, drives multiple initiatives, and communicates appropriately and influences internal partner teams and suppliers at all levels. You must be collaborative, but also work with significant autonomy. To be successful in this role you must be highly analytical; think strategically and globally; have a sense of urgency to meet customer timelines; exhibit curiosity and learning drive; succeed in a fast-paced environment; engage and influence key stakeholders; and have a high level of customer focus and business judgement. Also, you must have a demonstrated track record of managing multiple projects and driving them to completion to meet business objectives. It will be critical to embrace and model Amazon’s Leadership Principles and have an entrepreneurial spirit with a “get it done” mentality.
  • Manage a critical category within the Environment, Health and Safety Domain.
  • Achieve cost savings through bidding and negotiations, drive collaboration to achieve long term value delivery.
  • Obtain market intelligence, analyze category data and metrics to drive Procurement category strategies.
  • Understand trends in customers’ needs and concerns, across categories and regions, to influence customers’ priorities.
  • Lead supplier selection process across multiple sub-categories, internal teams, and regions, and create longer-term supplier selection strategies for management.
  • Ensure you are knowledgeable about the supply market, new innovations and supplier capabilities, technically and geographically.
  • Ensure you are knowledgeable about sustainability, diversity, in-country value and have experience developing category strategies to incorporate same.
  • Develop mechanisms and metrics to track supplier performance related to delivery, quality, and cost.
  • Create supplier scorecards to measure and track supplier performance.
  • Lead business reviews to discuss best practices and issues and to ultimately improve supplier performance and strengthen business partnerships.
  • Innovate within the procurement space, automating and/or improving tools or processes to better support the Procurement Lifecycle.
  • Provide support throughout the contracting process, as well as SRM and management of contracts post-execution.
• Contract Management
  • Drafting key commercial contract terms within an AWS statement of work, work orders and work order amendments
  • Communicate daily with cross functional teams including peers within the IPS -CM team, Legal, Infra-Operations and Security & EHS program.
  • Proactively identify and implement operational improvements and enhancements that meet business requirements
  • Participate in continuous process improvement projects such as creating and maintaining standard operating procedures
  • Become the SOW creation subject matter expert

About the team

Diverse Experiences

Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.

Why AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.

Work/Life Balance

We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve.

Inclusive Team Culture

AWS values curiosity and connection. Our employee-led and company-sponsored affinity groups promote inclusion and empower our people to take pride in what makes us unique. Our inclusion events foster stronger, more collaborative teams. Our continual innovation is fueled by the bold ideas, fresh perspectives, and passionate voices our teams bring to everything we do.

Mentorship and Career Growth

We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

Basic Qualifications

1. Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited university or equivalent combination of education and experience
2. 8+ years’ experience in a Procurement organization performing vendor management, contract management, negotiating complex purchases and bidding.
3. Experience with driving category strategies, developing pricing models, and having influence across all levels of an organization.
4. Experience as a Project Manager who can prioritize workload and manage complex projects within cost and schedule.
5. Experience in drafting key contract terms for statement of works, contract amendments and work orders or a broad range of standard commercial contracts.
6. Irish Citizenship to work on UK and Germany Goverment Cloud sites

Preferred Qualifications

1. Ability to Experience to communicate and report on market intelligence data, including commodity trends and labor indexes.
2. Demonstrated success Experience in driving strategies and analyzing market trends.
3. Experience in data centers, engineering, an infrastructure service provider or similar technology company.
4. Experience with creating Procurement systems and tools.
5. Proven ability to Experience in implement category strategies globally and Proven ability to deep dive and develop innovative ideas for process challenges.

Amazon is an equal opportunities employer. We believe passionately that employing a diverse workforce is central to our success. We make recruiting decisions based on your experience and skills. We value your passion to discover, invent, simplify and build. Protecting your privacy and the security of your data is a longstanding top priority for Amazon. Please consult our Privacy Notice ( https://www.amazon.jobs/en/privacy_page ) to know more about how we collect, use and transfer the personal data of our candidates.

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.