Associate Director - Vendor Management

Associate director - Vendor Management

Job Overview: The Senior Manager, Vendor Management serves as the S & T organization's point of contact for vendor partners and is responsible for developing and maintaining vendor contract management processes, standards, and metric tracking. This role reports to the Senior Director, Business of S & T and leads a team accountable for all activities associated with managing relationships with technology, software asset management (SAM), and vendor management partners. The Senior Manager and team are also responsible for measuring vendor Service Level Agreements (SLA) against contract terms for key vendors. The team serves as the primary liaison between legal, spend management, S & T leadership, and other key stakeholders in the contract negotiation process.

Responsibilities:

Establish, document, and manage policies, standards, and processes for vendor-related activities within the S & T organization, with a focus on continuous improvement.

Manage the approval and execution of contractual agreements, including software and hardware renewals, statements of work, change requests, work orders, and work order amendments.

Ensure that all S & T contractual agreements are negotiated, executed, and managed according to contract management lifecycle process.

Collaborate with S & T management to ensure vendor partners are effectively managed and contracts are fully leveraged.

Ensure that managed service provider operations are conducted in a manner consistent with the terms and conditions of the agreements.

Manage the communication process with vendors, including the delivery of vendor performance feedback.

Oversee the timely and accurate performance of all customer contractual obligations, including the review, approval, and payment of all monthly fixed and variable-based charges, as well as project and staff augmentation-based charges.

Serve as a point of escalation for vendor issues and disputes, working with both internal and vendor leadership teams to resolve any conflicts. Ensure that incidents are thoroughly documented and align with contractual requirements.

Collaborate with internal stakeholders, including S & T and Spend Management, to develop best practices for vendor selection and strategic sourcing strategies.

Lead benchmarking activities to ensure pricing remains competitive and aligned with the market.

Lead the negotiations of minor or routine changes, additions, and deletions to agreements.

Support large negotiation activities by conducting contract reviews, financial and operational analysis, and documenting negotiation issues and positions as needed.

Provide consolidated monthly vendor financial reporting to the S & T leadership team.

Oversee the collection and calculation of all managed service provider Critical Performance Indicator (CPI) and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) data.

Develop online dashboards and reporting to track the ongoing performance of managed service providers and work proactively to mitigate performance risks before service credits or penalties occur.

Maintain a repository of all S & T agreements.

Partner with Legal, Security, and Compliance teams to maintain vendor risk assessments.

Provide oversight and support for vendor audits.

Qualifications:

15+ years of experience managing corporate S & T vendor management services

Prior experience working with a vendor-managed service provider (MSP)

Prior oversight responsibility for provider service agreements

Demonstrated ability to build and lead teams

Highly adaptable, strong collaborator and influencer with the ability to drive change

Excellent communicator with the ability to build strong relationships within the organization

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

Exceptional negotiation, organizational, and planning skills

Financial acumen, primarily in budgeting/forecasting and project accounting

Advanced proficiency with MS Office

4-year degree preferred