A Vendor Manager manages relationships with a company's vendors and oversees vendor procurements or sales performance. Manages vendor contracts. Tracks and reports on vendor sales performance. Manages procurement records and inventories. May assist with training provided to vendors to support product sales or services.
Vendor Contract Manager Oakland, California - Hybrid/2-3 days per week 12
Months Reports To:
Senior Manager, IT Contracts and Vendor Management Office Position Summary The Technology Vendor Manager serves as a strategic partner and trusted advisor in managing the organization's technology vendor ecosystem. This role bridges business strategy, IT leadership, and vendor relationships to ensure technology investments deliver maximum value, are cost-optimized, and align with long-term capital and operating plans. The Technology Vendor Manager has a genuine passion for operational excellence and vendor management, possesses robust communication and interpersonal skills, demonstrates high analytical capabilities, is vendor-focused, team-oriented and highly capable of working independently and cross functionally to meet client operational and business objectives. The Technology Vendor Manager will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including Operations, Architecture, and Sourcing, to define vendor-specific requirements, and oversee performance through KPIs and SLAs. Success in this role requires agility in communication, with the ability to engage confidently with executives while working closely with technical teams and individual contributors. The Technology Vendor Manager plays a critical role in aligning vendor strategy with the organization's technology and business objectives. This position works across operations, enterprise architecture, sourcing, and IT leadership to manage vendor and support program reporting to executives to enable strategic decision-making. The role ensures technology purchases are optimized, integrated, and aligned with the company's multi-year capital and expense investment plans. Key Responsibilities Through strong partnerships with internal stakeholders - including sourcing, IT, architecture, finance, legal and business teams - ensures vendor relationships contribute measurable results to Client performance objectives Partner with Operations, Architecture, IT Leadership, and other stakeholders to align and document vendor capabilities Develop and deliver innovative commercial models that contributes to the CIO financial savings target Establish and enhance Tier-1 and Tier-2 strategic supplier relationships, engage with suppliers and their leadership regularly Conduct periodic supplier reviews to discuss performance, document product roadmaps and business needs. Seek out disruptive technologies, establish relationships, discover opportunities to POC and partner with IT stakeholders to rationalize the existing technology footprint. Leverage internal and external data to provide insights and recommendations that enhance supplier performance and operational efficiency Translate technology requirements into vendor-specific solutions that integrate with multi-year capital and expense investment plans. Manage the full lifecycle of vendor relationships, including onboarding, governance, performance reviews, and contract compliance. As a senior individual contributor within the Vendor Management function, this role ensures suppliers deliver consistently against contractual commitment, service level agreements, and compliance requirements while driving operational excellence and innovation Proactively identify and resolve operational challenges, contributing to continuous improvement initiatives Develop quantitative analysis and reporting on supplier performance by tracking and reporting performance using KPIs and SLAs, driving accountability, and continuous improvement. Collaborate with the Sourcing department to develop negotiation strategies, optimize costs, and ensure favorable contract terms. Provide strategic insight and recommendations to executives while also engaging at a detailed level with technical and operational contributors. Identify risks, opportunities, and innovations within the vendor portfolio to strengthen business outcomes. Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders—including Operations, Architecture, and IT Leadership—to develop vendor-related technology strategies and requirements. Manage vendor relationships across the lifecycle, ensuring alignment with business objectives and technology roadmap Engage as required in market analysis, trending, value assessment, and business requirements for alternative approach strategies Conduct Total Cost of Ownership analysis for vendor relationships, evaluating both direct and indirect costs to inform decision-making and optimize cost efficiency.
Financial:
understanding of vendor-driven spend forecasts segmented into Capital and Expense. Ability to present forecasts to Finance and IT Leadership. Ensure technology investments are integrated with capital and operating expense plans while supporting enterprise strategy and priorities. Represent vendor strategy at both executive and operational levels, adapting communication style to engage with senior leaders and individual contributors. Proactively identify risk
