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Volta is a vertically integrated AI infrastructure platform building the compute utility layer for the AI era. The company has secured $10B in strategic partnerships and $5B in dedicated infrastructure funding, with rapid growth from 100+ employees across London, Palo Alto, and New York.
You will serve as Procurement Category Manager for Volta's whitespace infrastructure category in the Americas region, reporting to the Regional Procurement Director. This is a foundational role shaping supply chain strategy and execution for a critical infrastructure category as Volta scales from first-of-fleet to multi-site operations.
Key responsibilities include:
- Develop and execute category and sourcing strategies for whitespace fit-out (remote power panels, coolant distribution units, rack PDUs, racks, aisle containment, overhead services, raised flooring, modular solutions, and data hall contractors) that secure resilient supply chains with depth, capacity, and geographic coverage for the project pipeline.
- Identify, develop, and manage strategic supplier partnerships at all organizational levels, serving as Volta's primary contact for category key suppliers.
- Establish master goods and services agreements and framework arrangements with pipeline, capacity reservation, manufacturing slot, and volume commitments.
- Make supply chains available to onsite teams with clear call-off routes, pricing, and contacts for rapid deployment.
- Run end-to-end procurement processes from market engagement and supplier pre-qualification through RFI, RFQ, RFP, evaluation, negotiation, and contract award.
- Engage cross-functional stakeholders (engineering, design, preconstruction, construction, commissioning, controls, operations, project controls, finance) to define requirements and facilitate joint provider selection.
- Negotiate commercial terms including pricing, lead times, delivery schedules, payment milestones, warranties, and service levels in collaboration with Project Controls and Procurement Legal.
- Serve as escalation point for supplier issues raised by onsite procurement teams, resolving delivery, quality, commercial, and performance problems.
- Plan and facilitate regular business reviews with key suppliers covering performance, KPIs, forward pipeline, capacity, risks, innovation, and continuous improvement.
- Identify and manage supply chain risk including single-source dependencies, capacity constraints, multi-supplier scenarios, price volatility, tariffs, supplier financial health, and ESG/compliance concerns; build in dual sourcing and contingency where needed.
- Maintain accurate supplier records, agreements, purchase orders, and spend data in collaboration with Global Procurement Operations; report category spend, savings, pipeline, and supplier performance to the Regional Procurement Director.
Requirements:
- 4–7 years of procurement, category management, or supplier relationship management experience, ideally in data centers, mission-critical facilities, energy, construction, or large-scale infrastructure.
- Direct experience buying whitespace equipment and services with understanding of supplier markets, equipment specification, manufacturing, and delivery.
- Track record of building strategic supplier partnerships and establishing master agreements, frameworks, or capacity arrangements supporting project pipelines.
- Strong relationship management skills with credibility to manage senior supplier contacts, handle escalations, and lead effective business reviews.
- Experience running structured procurement processes and working with stakeholders to define requirements and support decision-making.
- Working knowledge of commercial contract terms (liability, warranties, liquidated damages, payment terms, change control) and standard form contracts (NEC, JCT, FIDIC, GMP, AIA).
- Strong analytical and cost modeling skills including total cost of ownership analysis; comfort with ERP, AI-based systems, procurement platforms, and Excel.
- CIPS or CPSM qualification (or working toward it) is advantageous, as is experience across European and North American markets.
