Principal IT Vendor Manager

Job Title: Principal IT Vendor Manager

Location: Oakland, CA, US, 94612 (Hybrid)

Job Type: Direct-hire / Full-time

Business Unit: Engineering, Planning & Strategy

Top Things:-

• Vendor relationship management and governance
• Oversight and accountability of System Integrators and consulting partners (e.g., PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, EY)
• Vendor performance management (QBRs, YBRs), change orders, issue resolution, and coordination
• The role serves as a liaison between internal implementation teams and external vendors.
• This is NOT a strategic sourcing or category management role. The team is not looking for profiles heavily focused on RFPs, sourcing events, or contract negotiations.

Department Overview

Enterprise Business & Technology Modernization is a cross-functional organization leadingthe company's Propel program, a major business and technology modernization initiative designed to unlock customer value by simplifying collaborative work processes. Propel will migrate the company to the new version of SAP, S/4HANA, presenting a unique opportunity for the company to standardize business processes, clean the technology core, and enable innovation for breakthrough change across Engineering, Operations, Finance, Supply Chain, Human Resources, and Information Technology. Through a phased approach, Propel will implement process standardization, operating model changes, data improvements, SAP, and other technology applications with a focus on incrementally improving business capabilities and delivering value.

Enterprise Business & Technology Modernization is comprised of multi-disciplinary coworkers with deep functional and industry expertise to design and implement end-to-end business processes and technology solutions following industry-leading practices. The team partners closely with IT and external partners to work collaboratively with many stakeholders to adopt standard processes and maximize the use of out-of-the-box proven technology solutions to meet business needs. Each role in this department offers immense career growth potential and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to accelerate the outcomes of our True North Strategy and deliver for our customers.

Position Summary

The IT Vendor Manager, Principal will play a pivotal role Propel program, overseeing the lifecycle of multiple strategic 3rd party contracts. This role is responsible for ensuring that all parties adhere to the agreed terms, tracking key milestones, and managing renewals or amendments. The ideal candidate will be responsible for monitoring, analysis, compliance & reporting while working with other departments to ensure consistent compliance practices are followed.

Reporting Relationship

The IT Vendor Manager, Principal will report directly to the Director of Supply Chain Propel.

This position is hybrid, working from your remote office and your assigned work location based on business need. The assigned work location will be Oakland General Office (OGO). General expectations for working days in OGO are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of each week.

Disclosure:

The company is providing the salary range that can reasonably be expected for this position at the time of the job posting. This salary range is specific to the locality of the job. The actual salary paid to an individual will be based on multiple factors, including, but not limited to, internal equity, specific skills, education, licenses or certifications, experience, market value, and geographic location. The decision will be made on a case-by-case basis related to these factors.? This job is also eligible to participate in discretionary incentive compensation programs.

Job Responsibilities

Leads supplier relationship management for critical system integration partners.

Advises senior leadership (internal and external) on contracting strategy and negotiations.

Negotiates complex contract issues independently.

Leads the effort to identify, analyze, improve existing business processes, or create new ones within the department to meet new goals and objectives.

Works closely with key stakeholders to ensure alignment.

Acts as a primary liaison for the contracts team to Legal Department and other compliance departments (i.e. Risk).

Provides active guidance, support, mentorship and training to less experienced contract management staff.

Develops and delivers contract management training to all stakeholders.

Keeps track of program contracts and their associated obligations

Analyzes contracts for potential compliance issues.

Identifies and resolves discrepancies or non-compliance issues.

Evaluates the effectiveness of compliance programs and procedures.

Conducts audits and inspections to verify compliance.

Communicates compliance requirements to all relevant stakeholders.

Provides training and guidance on compliance procedures.

Prepares reports on contract compliance activities and outcomes.

Qualifications

Minimum:

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

9 years of direct experience in a similar role with ability to navigate complex sourcing strategies and contract compliance for large scale digital transformations (e.g. managing system integrator services and software professional services) while managing sophisticated contracts to minimize value leakage.

Desired:

Master's degree in related discipline

Certification such as one of the following or related:

Project Management Professional (PMP)

Program Management Professional (PgMP)

Lean six sigma certification, green or black belt

Experience with quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) regarding contract documents.

Experience with process development, review, and continuous improvement.

Experience in transmission pipeline construction.

Utility industry experience.

Subject matter expertise with composition, management, administration, and negotiation of contracts and change orders

Ability to apply business knowledge, project management methodologies, and best practices.

Ability to manage conflict constructively with a win-win resolution in mind.

Knowledge of budget and resource allocation and formulation of contracts, bids, agreements, and RFPs.

Develops and delivers multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences.

Analytical, critical, and technical thinking skills. Making sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems.

Ability to develop reports, models, and simulations.

Prioritizes workload independently based on department priorities and goals.

Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook) and contract information systems and applications (e.g. SRM, Ariba, SAP, scheduling software).