Vendor/Contract Manager

Vendor/ Contract Manager

Reporting to

: Head of Integration, Performance and Cost Management

Location: UK or Germany

Role Objectives

:

The Vendor / Contract Manager is responsible for governing the performance, commercial integrity, and contractual compliance of global technology vendors and managed service providers. The role works closely with the Head of Integration, Performance \& Cost Management and Global Procurement to ensure optimal vendor value, performance transparency, financial stewardship, and alignment with operational, architectural, and regulatory requirements. This includes managing vendor scorecards, contract lifecycle processes, service-level compliance, dispute resolution, and performance improvement actions.

Key Results / Areas

Core Responsibilities

• Act as the primary operational and commercial governance point for key global technology vendors and managed service providers.
• Manage full contract lifecycle: renewals, extensions, revisions, obligations tracking, commercial impact assessments.
• Ensure alignment between Technology Operations, Global Procurement, Legal, and Finance for contract negotiations, compliance, and financial approvals.
• Support RFPs, vendor evaluations, and strategic sourcing activities in partnership with Global Procurement.
• Maintain and govern vendor scorecards including performance KPIs, SLA adherence, quality, RCA quality, and documentation compliance.
• Oversee contract compliance including service obligations, regulatory requirements, architecture alignment, and security standards.
• Facilitate commercial escalations, dispute management, penalties, service credits, and corrective action plans.
• Support cost transparency, consumption analysis, and optimisation initiatives across infrastructure, cloud, telco, and platform services.
• Ensure continuity of operational delivery and vendor support during major incidents or crisis events.
• Maintain up-to-date vendor documentation, commercial records, change logs, and performance dashboards.
• Accountable for vendor performance and adherence to contracted SLAs, KPIs, and service obligations.
• Ensure contract terms are operationalised into measurable performance indicators and reporting frameworks.
• Drive quarterly business reviews (QBRs) with vendors, ensuring accuracy of reporting, actions, and follow-through.
• Monitor commercial risks, contract expirations, and renewal timelines; ensure timely preparation and approvals.
• Lead vendor performance investigations including quality audits, RCA reviews, and failure impact analysis.
• Ensure compliance with procurement, security, data privacy, and regulatory controls.
• Drive strong vendor relationships focused on continuous improvement, innovation, and service reliability.
• Support forecasting and cost governance including budget input, consumption modelling, and optimisation opportunities.
• Collaborate with EA to ensure vendor roadmaps align with strategic technology direction and architectural standards.

Global Delivery \& Collaboration

• Partner with Global Procurement to drive strategic sourcing, negotiations, and contract renewals.
• Collaborate with regional service managers to ensure consistent vendor delivery across Americas, APAC, UK\&I, and CEMEA.
• Engage with Security and Compliance teams to ensure vendors adhere to regulatory, risk, and audit requirements.
• Coordinate with Finance for budgeting, forecasting, invoicing validation, and cost-management controls.
• Work with PMO and operational teams to ensure vendor-delivered changes meet readiness criteria and governance standards.
• Ensure alignment with EA on vendor technology standards, roadmaps, integration models, and compliance requirements.
• Participate in global operational governance including service reviews, risk councils, and architecture forums.

Key Deliverable

• Vendor scorecards and monthly/quarterly performance dashboards.
• Contract lifecycle tracker with renewals, risks, obligations, and milestones.
• QBR/MBR documentation including actions, RCAs, performance insights, and commercial updates.
• Cost transparency reports and optimisation recommendations.
• Audit and compliance documentation across regulatory, security, and contractual domains.
• Operational governance artefacts including service risks, vendor improvement plans, and KPI reporting.

KPIs \& Success Measures

• Vendor SLA/KPI compliance rate.
• Contract renewal success and commercial optimisation achieved.
• Accuracy and timeliness of vendor scorecards and governance reporting.
• Reduction in vendor-related service issues and recurrence.
• Cost optimisation achieved across services (cloud, telco, infra, platforms).
• Audit readiness and regulatory compliance performance.
• Stakeholder satisfaction across Technology, Procurement, and Finance.

Knowledge, qualifications and experience

• Strong understanding of vendor governance, contract management, and commercial negotiation.
• Experience working with global procurement and legal teams in complex contract environments.
• Knowledge of IT service management, SLAs, performance frameworks, and operational governance.
• Familiarity with cloud, network, hosting, and platform service models (SaaS/IaaS/PaaS).
• Understanding of Enterprise Architecture standards, security requirements, and compliance frameworks.
• Strong analytical capability with experience in KPI dashboards, consumption modelling, and cost optimisation.
• Excellent communication, relationship management, and stakeholder coordination skills.
• Experience managing MSPs and global vendor ecosystems (e.g., Cognizant).

Skills and Competencies

• Builds customer loyalty:

Demonstrates an understanding of the customer (internal/external), builds productive customer relationships with integrity and takes responsibility for ensuring customer advocacy.

• Delivers against operational objectives:

Translates strategic priorities into medium-term operational reality for own part of the business, respecting and aligning with the values and managing interdependencies with other parts of Hays.

• Engaging Communication:

Engages and influences by using a wide range of communication methods and styles with the ability to present complex technical issues to varied populations. Facilitates understanding and encourages communication both within own team and more broadly.

• Builds collaborative relationships:

Establishes effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders inside and outside their immediate working environment, valuing the contribution from others and leveraging networks across Hays.

• Facilitates transformational change:

Facilitates the implementation of change and transformation within the workplace by guiding others and helping them adapt is a positive ambassador of change.

• Identifying and developing talent:

Identifies and appropriately deploys key knowledge, skills and experience required across their organisation. Uses Hays’ people process to attract, develop and engage and retain the appropriate talent.

• Demonstrates personal resilience:

Highly efficient, has the organisation skills to manage a diverse range of tasks and see work through to completion, in a timely manner, ensuring deadlines are met. Able to cope well with pressure, deals constructively with setbacks.

• Demonstrates continuous learning:

Demonstrates continuous interest in personal skills in development and learning, aiming to develop senior leadership capabilities and seeking continuous feedback to manage own impact and maintain self-awareness.

Situational Requirements

• Comfortable travelling– a dispersed geographic spread of countries.
• Able to work across multiple time zones.
• Fluency in written and oral English.

At Hays, we share a passion for creating a culture of opportunities for our people to flourish and succeed, whatever your background. We know that diversity of perspective and an inclusive approach, which encourages those experiences and views to be heard, is great for business and therefore your career.