Technology Vendor Manager (IT)

Overview

The Technology Vendor Manager, a hands-on manager, will manage vendor relations and establish the governance framework that will provide visibility on vendor risk, vendor performance and overall financial benefit of the vendor to the University. This will include governing strategic third-party relationships and ensuring suppliers deliver measurable business value, operational performance, and contractual outcomes aligned to University objectives. The Technology Vendor Manager will collaborate with business partners across multiple functional areas to support the vendor technology strategy across the organization.

Responsibilities

Vendor Governance & Strategy

• Lead strategic oversight and performance governance of enterprise IT vendors, ensuring alignment with business objectives
• Serve as the primary interface between vendor leadership, IT service owners, and stakeholders

Performance & Service Delivery

• Define and monitor vendor performance expectations and KPIs
• Drive accountability, service improvement, and cross-functional remediation of performance gaps
• Ensure vendor delivery supports reliability, user experience, and business continuity objectives

Risk, Compliance & Contracts

• Assess and manage vendor cyber operational, financial, and reputational risk
• Enforce contractual obligations and ensure alignment between delivery execution and agreed terms

Insights, Reporting & Financial Oversight

• Develop and maintain dashboards/scorecards to track performance and inform decisions
• Translate analytics into actionable insights; identify systemic risks, root causes and improvement opportunities
• Partner with Finance and Procurement to manage vendor financial performance and discipline

Stakeholder Engagement

• Lead vendor business reviews and maintain strong cross-functional partnerships
• Collaborate with business partners to support vendor technology strategy across the organization

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in vendor management, outsourcing governance, IT service management, or related professional work experience.
• Working knowledge of commercial agreements and contractual governance.
• Experience with structured renewal processes to align strategy and cost-saving goals.
• Strong financial acumen including cost analysis and value tracking.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and influence skills
• Education: Bachelor’s Degree in business, technology, supply chain, or related field

Preferred:

• Experience with data visualization tools like Tableau or Power BI
• Advanced degree