Language Access Partnerships Program Manager

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Language Access Partnerships Program Manager based in United States. This role leads the enterprise vendor strategy supporting language access and interpreter services across a large healthcare environment. You will manage strategic relationships with interpreter agencies and translation providers, ensuring quality, reliability, compliance, and appropriate coverage. The position combines vendor management, strategic sourcing, contract negotiation, financial analysis, and performance improvement. You will work closely with operations, legal, procurement, compliance, and leadership teams to strengthen vendor partnerships and manage risk. Your work will directly influence cost efficiency, service quality, and equitable access to interpretation services for patients and clinicians. The role offers significant enterprise-level ownership, with opportunities to optimize vendor portfolios and introduce new capabilities and technologies. Success requires strong commercial judgment, analytical skills, negotiation ability, and a collaborative approach to stakeholder management. Accountabilities - Lead the enterprise vendor management strategy and program for language services, establishing standards for vendor selection, performance, quality, compliance, and relationship management. - Oversee the selection, qualification, onboarding, contracting, credentialing, and ongoing compliance of interpreter agencies and translation vendors. - Manage strategic relationships with third-party vendors, ensuring service reliability, quality, coverage, and alignment with contractual requirements. - Monitor vendor performance against service-level agreements, quality standards, and established KPIs through scorecards, dashboards, and regular business reviews. - Drive cost optimization through strategic negotiations, volume management, rate analysis, sourcing strategies, and vendor portfolio optimization.

- Analyze vendor economics, including cost per encounter, utilization, financial impact, and return on investment, and provide recommendations to leadership. - Negotiate vendor contracts, amendments, and service-level agreements in partnership with legal, procurement, compliance, and operational stakeholders. - Coordinate with centralized operations teams on vendor utilization, escalation protocols, and coverage gaps. - Establish and manage vendor risk, compliance, and business continuity processes to protect service continuity and organizational interests. - Develop structured performance improvement plans and feedback mechanisms to continuously strengthen vendor quality. - Report vendor performance, cost trends, risks, and program effectiveness to senior leadership. - Evaluate emerging vendor capabilities, technologies, and market developments that could improve language access delivery and operational efficiency. - Ensure vendor performance supports consistent, high-quality interpretation services and equitable access across diverse languages and patient populations. Requirements - Bachelor’s degree in business, supply chain management, healthcare administration, or a related field. - 7+ years of progressive experience in vendor management, procurement, or healthcare contract management. - Demonstrated expertise in vendor selection, contracting, performance management, relationship management, and strategic sourcing. - Strong contract negotiation skills, including experience managing service-level agreements and complex vendor relationships. - Proven ability to analyze vendor costs, utilization, rates, financial performance, and ROI to identify optimization opportunities. - Experience developing vendor scorecards, performance dashboards, KPIs, and structured business review processes.