The Opportunity
The Sourcing Manager - Energy Infrastructure manages supplier relationships that support the full after-sales service lifecycle for Energy Storage Systems (ESS). The role manages a broad portfolio that may include field service providers, warranty and repair services, spare parts and consumables, service logistics, warehousing, technical support, training, digital service tools, decommissioning, recycling, and other customer-support requirements. This position serves as a commercial advisor to cross-functional leadership, helping ensure that service solutions are scalable, cost-effective, compliant, and aligned with customer commitments and long-term business needs.
The ideal candidate will connect technical, operational, customer, and commercial requirements to build dependable after-sales supply networks for utility-scale, commercial, and industrial energy storage products.
About Ford Energy Ford Energy is a newly formed, wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company dedicated to accelerating US energy independence. Leveraging Ford's century of manufacturing excellence and world-class battery energy storage systems (BESS) technology, Ford Energy designs, manufactures, and services grid-scale and commercial DC battery energy storage systems (BESS). Ford Energy is uniquely positioned to capture the growing demand for reliable, US-built energy storage systems. We are not just building batteries; we are building the infrastructure for the next generation of the American grid.
Category Strategy & Sourcing Execution
- Category Strategy: Develop and maintain sourcing strategies for after-sales categories such as field service, warranty administration and repair, spare parts, consumables, logistics, technical support, training, digital service tools, decommissioning, recycling, and specialized equipment.
- Market Intelligence and RFx: Assess supplier markets, identify and qualify capable partners, and lead RFIs, RFPs, and RFQs from requirements definition through evaluation and award.
- Supplier Selection: Partner with After-Sales Services, Engineering, Quality, Operations, Finance, Legal, and EHS to evaluate technical capability, service coverage, capacity, safety, quality, cost, and commercial risk.
- Supply Network Development: Build scalable regional and national supply solutions that support installation, commissioning, preventive and corrective maintenance, warranty response, upgrades, and end-of-life requirements.
Contract Negotiation & Commercial Management
- Commercial Agreements: Lead negotiation and execution of Master Service Agreements, Statements of Work, Service Level Agreements, purchase agreements, rate cards, and other category-specific commercial documents in partnership with Legal and business stakeholders.
- Risk Allocation: Negotiate pricing, warranty obligations, service levels, response times, liability, indemnification, intellectual property, data protection, business continuity, and other terms appropriate to each after-sales category.
- Cost Management: Develop cost models and total-cost-of-ownership analyses; use competition, demand aggregation, should-cost insights, and structured pricing mechanisms to improve value.
- Purchase-to-Pay Support: Establish clear scopes, pricing controls, purchase-order requirements, invoice validation processes, and change-management mechanisms.
Supplier Performance, Risk & Continuous Improvement
- Performance Management: Establish and monitor category-appropriate KPIs, which may include service response, mean time to repair, first-time fix rate, parts availability, fill rate, logistics performance, quality, cost, and SLA compliance.
- Supplier Reviews: Lead periodic business reviews, recovery plans, cost-improvement initiatives, capacity reviews, and continuous-improvement activities with strategic suppliers.
- Issue Resolution: Act as the commercial escalation point for service failures, supply interruptions, warranty disputes, billing discrepancies, and contract-performance issues.
- Business Continuity: Identify single-source, capacity, geographic, financial, cybersecurity, and operational risks; develop mitigation and contingency plans with cross-functional partners.
Cross-Functional Collaboration & Compliance
- Requirements Alignment: Work with After-Sales Services, Engineering, Quality, Operations, Logistics, IT, and Product teams to translate customer and technical needs into clear sourcing requirements and supplier deliverables.
- Safety and Compliance: Ensure suppliers meet applicable environmental, health, safety, quality, cybersecurity, regulatory, and customer requirements.
- Program Support: Align sourcing milestones, supplier readiness, budgets, and contracts with product launches, customer commitments, warranty plans, and service-capacity requirements.
- Governance and Reporting: Maintain sourcing documentation, approvals, forecasts, savings and cost-avoidance tracking, supplier risk reporting, and executive updates.
Key Responsibilities
- Category Strategy & Sourcing Execution
- Category Strategy: Develop and maintain sourcing strategies for after-sales categories such as field service, warranty administration and repair, spare parts, consumables, logistics, technical support, training, digital service tools, decommissioning, recycling, and specialized equipment.
- Market Intelligence and RFx: Assess supplier markets, identify and qualify capable partners, and lead RFIs, RFPs, and RFQs from requirements definition through evaluation and award.
- Supplier Selection: Partner with After-Sales Services, Engineering, Quality, Operations, Finance, Legal, and EHS to evaluate technical capability, service coverage, capacity, safety, quality, cost, and commercial risk.
- Supply Network Development: Build scalable regional and national supply solutions that support installation, commissioning, preventive and corrective maintenance, warranty response, upgrades, and end-of-life requirements.
- Contract Negotiation & Commercial Management
- Commercial Agreements: Lead negotiation and execution of Master Service Agreements, Statements of Work, Service Level Agreements, purchase agreements, rate cards, and other category-specific commercial documents in partnership with Legal and business stakeholders.
- Risk Allocation: Negotiate pricing, warranty obligations, service levels, response times, liability, indemnification, intellectual property, data protection, business continuity, and other terms appropriate to each after-sales category.
- Cost Management: Develop cost models and total-cost-of-ownership analyses; use competition, demand aggregation, should-cost insights, and structured pricing mechanisms to improve value.
- Purchase-to-Pay Support: Establish clear scopes, pricing controls, purchase-order requirements, invoice validation processes, and change-management mechanisms.
- Supplier Performance, Risk & Continuous Improvement
- Performance Management: Establish and monitor category-appropriate KPIs, which may include service response, mean time to repair, first-time fix rate, parts availability, fill rate, logistics performance, quality, cost, and SLA compliance.
- Supplier Reviews: Lead periodic business reviews, recovery plans, cost-improvement initiatives, capacity reviews, and continuous-improvement activities with strategic suppliers.
- Issue Resolution: Act as the commercial escalation point for service failures, supply interruptions, warranty disputes, billing discrepancies, and contract-performance issues.
- Business Continuity: Identify single-source, capacity, geographic, financial, cybersecurity, and operational risks; develop mitigation and contingency plans with cross-functional partners.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration & Compliance
- Requirements Alignment: Work with After-Sales Services, Engineering, Quality, Operations, Logistics, IT, and Product teams to translate customer and technical needs into clear sourcing requirements and supplier deliverables.
- Safety and Compliance: Ensure suppliers meet applicable environmental, health, safety, quality, cybersecurity, regulatory, and customer requirements.
- Program Support: Align sourcing milestones, supplier readiness, budgets, and contracts with product launches, customer commitments, warranty plans, and service-capacity requirements.
- Governance and Reporting: Maintain sourcing documentation, approvals, forecasts, savings and cost-avoidance tracking, supplier risk reporting, and executive updates.