Vendor Relationship Manager

Overview

Basic

Purpose:

To manage vendor life cycle activities including selection, contract, performance and enforcement at the business unit level. To develop and maintain vendor relationships and contracts in support of business unit goals and strategies. Develop, monitor and enforce service level agreements (SLA’s) as well as terms and conditions of contracted vendor support. Contribute to a culture of collaboration by actively working across business lines, ensuring enterprise alignment.

Employ vendor relationship management best practices to ensure contract compliance and risk mitigation. Provide line of sight to enterprise Procurement and Vendor Management (PVM), collaborating on contracts as required. Solve complex contract-related problems, consistent with established policies and procedures. Serve as Subject Matter Expert and mentor to team members.

• Collaborate with business unit partners to define business needs, requirements and priorities for vendor selection and facilitate the process of identifying vendors who can work within the requirements, priorities and constraints.
• Identify compliance and risk related constraints with each contract.
• Evaluate performance metrics and consequence matrices metrics to ensure well-defined, measurable metrics support adherence to Service Level Agreements and expectations.
• Coordinate with PVM to ensure adherence to enterprise level vendor management activities and requirements including but not limited Request for Information (RFIs)/Request for Proposal (RFPs), performance management and enforcement activities.
• Recommend a vendor for selection and communicate contracting details with stakeholders including critical decision points through execution.
• Establish risk mitigation activities appropriate to each contract and in adherence to enterprise requirements.
• Mentor and guide team in properly identifying, communicating, escalating, and resolving contract issues and risks to branch/division management.
• Coordinate Statements of Work (SOW) and purchase orders in support of stakeholders.
• Collaborate with PVM to develop pre-negotiation positions for contract or statement of work terms and conditions (including price, quality, and schedule).
• Stay abreast of industry best practices and trends and provide recommendations for enhancements to policies, processes and procedures to management; develop implementation strategies for approved recommendations.
• Build and manage relationships with vendors, monitors quality assurance, budget, and cost mechanisms; provide input to annual financial plan.
• Monitor vendor performance on all established priorities within a contract; identify and recommend resolutions for performance that falls below agreed upon services levels.
• Partner with PVM on poor performing vendors to identify opportunities to not renew or terminate vendors for performance that cannot be resolved.
• Conduct periodic questionnaire and interpret results; hold periodic review meetings or conduct onsite audits as necessary.
• Mentor and guide team members in solutioning for vendor performance improvement; assist in the implementation of approved strategies to facilitate vendor issue resolution.
• Liaise with business unit, enterprise risk groups and OGC to develop appropriate mitigation strategies for identified risk and compliance concerns.
• Solve complex contract-related issues, consistent with established policies and procedures; guide team members in resolving contract-related issues, aligning employed strategies with established standards and guidelines.
• Mentor and train new team members; assist with coaching and growth opportunities.
• Serve as business unit level Subject Matter Expert on cross departmental and enterprise-wide projects.
• Evaluate Enterprise and Business Unit strategies to provide recommendations to maximize vendor utilization in support of strategic needs.
• Collaborate with Procurement and Vendor Management to ensure contract activities and new policy guidelines are executed timely, accurate and are in compliance with regulations and policies.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business,…