Senior Manager, Strategic Category Management - Data Center Supply Chain Data Center Projects Redwood , CA; San

Data Center Projects

New

Do you want to work with high-caliber professionals in a dynamic and growing company? Are you entrepreneurial, hard-working, and collegial? Join us at SB Energy, a leading infrastructure company backed by Soft Bank Group and Ares Infrastructure, pairing cutting-edge innovation with best-in-class execution. Our mission is to deliver reliable and secure data center and power infrastructure to strengthen America's future.

Founded in 2019, SB Energy is a Soft Bank Group company headquartered in Redwood City, California. In 2026, Soft Bank Group and OpenAI announced a $1 billion investment to support SB Energy as their leading development and execution partner for data center campuses, while Ares Infrastructure continues its long-standing support of the company's growth. SB Energy develops, builds, owns, and operates some of the largest and most technically advanced energy and data center infrastructure projects in the United States.

Since its founding, the company has rapidly grown into a top-tier integrated platform with more than 3 gigawatts (GW) in operation and a multi-GW pipeline of energy and data center infrastructure nationwide.

SB Energy also leverages a strong culture of innovation to identify and integrate new technologies into its projects, including its AI-based digital platform, delivering energy infrastructure that is local, reliable, and matched to load. We are building the energy and infrastructure future—today.

Come join us in accelerating the energy and infrastructure transition!

Basic Function

The Senior Strategic Category Manager drives the global end-to-end category strategy, strategic sourcing, and supplier development for hyper-scale data center mechanical infrastructure. In this role, you will manage a multi-hundred-million-dollar annual spend across key thermal & mechanical cooling management systems, including Chillers, Cooling Towers & Dry Coolers, CRAC/ CRAH, Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling & Cooling Distribution units.

You will act as the primary commercial authority for critical thermal & mechanical cooling suppliers, aligning engineering roadmaps, securing manufacturing capacity, and establishing resilient, cost-optimized supply chains to support rapid global data center deployment.

Responsibilities

• Category Strategy & Execution - Define and execute multi-year category strategies for Thermal & Mechanical cooling infrastructure equipment including market analysis, supplier segmentation, and sourcing roadmaps aligned to data center capacity growth
• Commercial Negotiations & Contracting - Lead competitive sourcing events, contract negotiations, and supplier selection processes for Thermal & Mechanical Cooling equipment categories
• Risk Management & Supply Resiliency - Assess and mitigate supply chain risks associated with categories, including geopolitical exposure, single-source dependencies, long-lead-time components, and commodity price volatility
• Cross-Functional Partnerships - Partner with data center engineering, construction, and capacity planning teams to align sourcing strategies with technology roadmaps and infrastructure deployment schedules. Collaborate with legal, finance, and sustainability teams to structure contracts that reflects commercial, compliance, and environmental requirements
• Category Execution - Act as the day-to-day procurement lead for assigned equipment packages and the primary commercial contact for suppliers. Maintain an integrated action list covering technical submissions, production, quality, delivery, and field support. Establish and track supplier capacity commitments to…