Director of Vendor Management

Director of Vendor Management

Director, Vendor Management – North America Reports to: Vice President, North America Location: New Jersey

About the Role:

Climb is seeking a strategic, sales-driven Director of Vendor Management to lead our North American Vendor Management organization and accelerate growth across our vendor portfolio. This role owns the strategy, execution, and performance of Climb’s vendor business in North America. You will lead and develop a team of Vendor Managers, establish go-to-market strategies for each vendor line, strengthen executive-level vendor relationships, and ensure the team delivers against the revenue, gross margin, and growth objectives outlined in Climb’s corporate business plan. Success will center around three primary growth initiatives: reseller recruitment, reseller enablement, and demand generation. You will work closely with Climb’s Sales and Marketing organizations, as well as vendor sales and marketing teams, to turn those strategies into measurable results.

What You’ll Do:

Lead, Coach & Develop the Vendor Management Team

• Lead and develop a high-performing team of Vendor Managers across the US, including both remote and in-office employees.
• Establish clear expectations, KPIs, and accountability across the team, ensuring individual goals align with Climb’s overall growth strategy.
• Coach team members on partner recruitment, opportunity identification, pipeline development, sales execution, vendor management, and complex business conversations.
• Conduct regular performance and development discussions, identifying opportunities for continued growth and career progression.
• Build a culture centered on ownership, accountability, collaboration, urgency, and continuous improvement.
• Own the performance of Climb’s North American vendor management portfolio, driving consistent year-over-year sales and gross profit growth.
• Develop and oversee strategic growth plans for each vendor, with measurable goals tied to revenue, gross margin, pipeline, reseller recruitment, reseller productivity, and customer profitability.
• Partner with Vendor Managers to identify gaps, opportunities, and corrective actions when performance is not tracking to plan.
• Ensure vendor marketing strategies and demand-generation initiatives are aligned with sales objectives and executed effectively.
• Oversee quarterly business reviews, ensuring Vendor Managers communicate results, opportunities, challenges, and forward-looking strategies effectively.
• Identify new programs, sales motions, partner initiatives, and tools that create incremental growth and improve execution.
• Own year-over-year sales growth across the North American vendor portfolio, with clear growth expectations established for each vendor line.
• Partner with each Vendor Manager to develop an annual growth plan outlining revenue targets, key initiatives, reseller recruitment goals, and pipeline requirements.
• Establish quarterly milestones to ensure each vendor is pacing appropriately against its annual sales and gross profit targets.
• Use historical performance, pipeline, reseller productivity, and market opportunity to identify where additional investment or corrective action is needed.
• Identify underperforming vendor lines early and develop actionable plans to close performance gaps.
• Drive incremental revenue through a balanced focus on new reseller recruitment, growth within existing partners, reactivation of dormant partners, and demand generation.
• Hold Vendor Managers accountable for understanding their business, including YoY performance, forecast, pipeline coverage, partner productivity, and the specific actions required to achieve their growth targets.
• Regularly communicate portfolio performance, growth opportunities, risks, and recovery plans to senior leadership.

Build Strategic Vendor & Partner Relationships

• Develop strong executive-level relationships across Climb’s vendor portfolio, positioning Climb as a strategic growth partner.
• Support Vendor Managers in navigating complex vendor and reseller situations and removing barriers to growth.
• Partner closely with Climb Sales leadership to ensure vendor strategies translate into actionable opportunities for the sales organization.
• Strengthen communication and alignment across Vendor Management, Sales, Marketing, Operations, and other internal teams.
• Champion strategies that help Climb recruit new resellers, grow existing relationships, retain key partners, and win back inactive business.

Shape the North American Vendor Strategy

• Monitor technology, channel, competitive, and market trends to identify new growth opportunities.
• Maintain a strong understanding of the IT security landscape and other high-growth technology segments relevant to Climb’s portfolio.
• Evaluate potential new vendor relationships based on strategic fit, market opportunity, partner demand, and growth potential.
• Provide senior leadership with clear, data-driven recommendations on vendor investments, strategic priorities, opportunities, and risks.
• Help shape the longer-term direction and composition of Climb’s North American vendor portfolio.

What You Bring

• 8+ years of progressive sales, channel, vendor management, or business development experience within IT distribution, a technology vendor, or the reseller/channel ecosystem.
• 5+ years of leadership experience, including experience managing and developing both remote and in-office employees.
• Demonstrated success growing revenue and profitability against measurable business objectives.
• Strong knowledge of the two-tier IT distribution model and reseller/channel go-to-market strategies.
• Experience building and executing vendor business plans, sales strategies, and partner-development initiatives.
• Knowledge of cybersecurity and the broader IT security market is strongly preferred.
• Proven ability to build credibility and influence with senior and executive-level stakeholders.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, with the ability to translate data into action.
• Experience managing a business through CRM, pipeline, forecasting, KPI dashboards, and performance reporting.
• Strong communication, presentation, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.

What Success Looks Like

The successful Director will create an organization where Vendor Managers operate as business owners, not simply relationship managers. The team will understand its numbers, maintain actionable growth plans for each vendor, build strong relationships across the reseller community, and consistently turn vendor strategies into measurable revenue and profitability.

Success will be reflected in:

• Consistent year-over-year vendor growth
• Increased gross profit and market share
• Stronger and more productive reseller relationships
• Growth in active and newly recruited partners
• Healthy, measurable pipeline development
• Strong executive alignment with Climb’s vendor partners
• Clear accountability and execution across the Vendor Management team

Why Climb

At Climb, you’ll have the opportunity to lead a key part of our North American growth strategy while helping shape the next phase of our vendor portfolio. You’ll work in an entrepreneurial, sales-focused environment where strong ideas, accountability, collaboration, and measurable results are valued.