What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Strategic Sourcing & Procurement Lead, Compute position at Together AI?
Location: San Francisco, CA (Hybrid)
Role: As the first Compute Sourcing & Procurement Lead at a pioneering AI infrastructure company, you will own the backbone of our supplier and vendor strategy—securing GPUs, servers, and datacenter resources to power cutting-edge AI research and products. Your role is critical in ensuring Together AI has the right capacity at the right cost, with commercial terms that maximize flexibility and scale. You’ll have the opportunity to shape the future of AI infrastructure supply, negotiating directly with the world’s top hardware and datacenter vendors, driving repeatable procurement processes, and building the market intelligence engine that informs billion-dollar decisions.
Responsibilities
Together AI is a research-driven artificial intelligence company. We believe open and transparent AI systems will drive innovation and create the best outcomes for society, and together we are on a mission to significantly lower the cost of modern AI systems by co-designing software, hardware, algorithms, and models. We have contributed to leading open-source research, models, and datasets to advance the frontier of AI, and our team has been behind technological advancement such as FlashAttention, Hyena, FlexGen, and RedPajama. We invite you to join a passionate group of researchers in our journey in building the next generation AI infrastructure.
Compensation
We offer competitive compensation, startup equity, health insurance, and other benefits, as well as flexibility in terms of remote work. The US base salary range for this full-time position is: $150,000 - $200,000 equity benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by location, level and role. Individual compensation will be determined by experience, skills, and job-related knowledge.
Equal Opportunity
Together AI is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is proud to offer equal employment opportunity to everyone regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, veteran status, and more.
Please see our Privacy Policy at https://www.together.ai/privacy
Role: As the first Compute Sourcing & Procurement Lead at a pioneering AI infrastructure company, you will own the backbone of our supplier and vendor strategy—securing GPUs, servers, and datacenter resources to power cutting-edge AI research and products. Your role is critical in ensuring Together AI has the right capacity at the right cost, with commercial terms that maximize flexibility and scale. You’ll have the opportunity to shape the future of AI infrastructure supply, negotiating directly with the world’s top hardware and datacenter vendors, driving repeatable procurement processes, and building the market intelligence engine that informs billion-dollar decisions.
Responsibilities
- Lead sourcing and procurement of GPUs and related infrastructure (servers, storage, racks, networking) and datacenter services, negotiating pricing, terms, and SLAs with OEMs, colos, and component suppliers.
- Develop and maintain a rolling market intelligence program (GPU price books, vendor scorecards, competitive benchmarks) to inform purchasing and allocation strategy
- Lead the full procure-to-pay lifecycle (PR→PO→delivery→acceptance), including end-to-end RFP and vendor selection processes to ensure commercial, technical, and operational alignment. Oversee onboarding, compliance, and financial workflows to ensure accuracy, timeliness, and adherence to company standards.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with Strategic Finance (own vs. lease modeling, budget guardrails), Legal (contracts, SLA language), GTM/RevOps (competitor pricing intel)
- Drive continuous improvement in procurement operations, including automation of PO tracking, delivery dashboards, and supplier performance metrics
- Bachelor’s degree in business, supply chain management, engineering, or related fields
- At least 4–6 years of experience in sourcing, procurement, and/or supply chain management (preferably in cloud, semiconductors, or data center hardware)
- Experience with procurement processes, including building RFPs, turning purchase requests into orders, managing invoices and payments, ensuring policy compliance, and keeping financial records accurate and up to date
- Ability to synthesize market data into actionable price benchmarks, forecasts, and sourcing strategies
- Proven ability to work cross-functionally with engineering, finance, and legal teams to drive alignment on supply strategy
- Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with a track record of building durable supplier relationships
- Experience negotiating hardware or datacenter contracts with OEMs or hyperscale suppliers
- Strong attention to detail and ability to manage multiple, time-sensitive procurement activities simultaneously
- Familiarity with procurement tools and supplier management systems
- Background in category management, vendor risk analysis, and/or datacenter services procurement
- Prior experience at a hyperscaler, OEM, or AI infrastructure startup negotiating compute supply contracts
- Understanding of global semiconductor supply chains and datacenter market dynamics
Together AI is a research-driven artificial intelligence company. We believe open and transparent AI systems will drive innovation and create the best outcomes for society, and together we are on a mission to significantly lower the cost of modern AI systems by co-designing software, hardware, algorithms, and models. We have contributed to leading open-source research, models, and datasets to advance the frontier of AI, and our team has been behind technological advancement such as FlashAttention, Hyena, FlexGen, and RedPajama. We invite you to join a passionate group of researchers in our journey in building the next generation AI infrastructure.
Compensation
We offer competitive compensation, startup equity, health insurance, and other benefits, as well as flexibility in terms of remote work. The US base salary range for this full-time position is: $150,000 - $200,000 equity benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by location, level and role. Individual compensation will be determined by experience, skills, and job-related knowledge.
Equal Opportunity
Together AI is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is proud to offer equal employment opportunity to everyone regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, veteran status, and more.
Please see our Privacy Policy at https://www.together.ai/privacy
Salary : $150,000 - $200,000
