Director, Vendor Management

About this role:

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Job Function & Responsibilities

Enterprise Vendor Management Strategy
• Develop and execute the enterprise strategy, operating model, and governance framework for third-party vendor management.
• Establish standards, policies, procedures, and controls governing the full vendor lifecycle.
• Align vendor strategy with organizational business objectives, healthcare operations priorities, financial goals, member experience, and quality outcomes.
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive vendor portfolio strategy, including segmentation based on strategic importance, financial impact, operational criticality, and risk.
• Provide executive leadership with recommendations regarding outsourcing, insourcing, vendor consolidation, strategic partnerships, and sourcing opportunities.
• Establish appropriate governance structures for strategic, critical, and high-risk vendors.

Executive Vendor Governance & Performance
• Provide executive oversight of strategic and critical vendor relationships.
• Establish enterprise standards for vendor KPIs, SLAs, quality measures, performance guarantees, scorecards, and reporting.
• Lead executive business reviews with key vendors and internal stakeholders.
• Evaluate vendor performance trends and translate data into actionable business recommendations.
• Ensure vendor performance is consistently aligned with contractual obligations and organizational expectations.
• Direct the development and execution of corrective action and performance improvement plans for underperforming vendors.
• Serve as the executive escalation point for significant or persistent vendor performance issues.

Managed Healthcare Operations
• Provide strategic oversight of vendors supporting critical healthcare functions, services, and operational processes. Ensure vendor operations align with applicable healthcare laws, regulations, contractual requirements, accreditation standards, and organizational policies.
• Ensure third-party services support quality, efficiency, regulatory compliance, member satisfaction, provider experience, and organizational performance.
• Partner with operational and clinical leaders to assess vendor capabilities, service models, capacity, scalability, and operational effectiveness. Monitor vendor compliance with applicable privacy, security, quality, and business-continuity requirements.
• Evaluate the impact of vendor performance on members, providers, clients, and other key stakeholders. Participate in audits, regulatory inquiries, risk assessments, and remediation activities involving third-party vendors.
• Ensure vendor oversight practices are appropriate for the organization's managed care and healthcare operating environment.

Risk, Compliance & Regulatory Oversight
• Establish an effective framework for identifying, assessing, monitoring, and mitigating third-party risk.
• Partner with Compliance, Legal, Risk, Information Security, Privacy, and Business Continuity functions to ensure appropriate vendor oversight.
• Ensure vendors comply with applicable healthcare laws, regulations, contractual requirements, accreditation standards, and organizational policies.
• Provide leadership during vendor-related audits, regulatory reviews, investigations, and remediation activities.
• Oversee risk mitigation and contingency planning for critical vendors and outsourced services.
• Ensure appropriate documentation and evidence of vendor oversight are maintained.

Contract & Financial Management
• Partner with Procurement, Legal, Finance, and business owners on strategic sourcing, contract negotiations, renewals, amendments, and terminations.
• Provide strategic input into contract terms, performance requirements, service levels, financial provisions, and performance guarantees.
• Oversee vendor financial performance, including spend, pricing, utilization, invoicing, savings opportunities, and value realization.
• Identify opportunities to reduce costs, improve productivity, consolidate vendors, and optimize the organization's third-party portfolio.
• Develop and present business cases and financial recommendations for significant vendor decisions.
• Ensure vendor relationships deliver measurable value relative to contractual and operational investments.

Vendor Lifecycle & Transformation
• Provide executive oversight of vendor selection, due diligence, implementation, transition, optimization, renewal, and termination.
• Lead complex vendor transitions and enterprise initiatives involving significant operational or member impact.
• Ensure implementation and transition plans appropriately address operational readiness, technology, staffing, communications, compliance, and business continuity.
• Establish exit strategies and contingency plans for critical third-party relationships.
• Drive transformation initiatives designed to improve the organization's vendor operating model and overall third-party performance.

Strategic Risk & Issue Management
• Monitor the organization's overall vendor risk profile and identify emerging operational, financial, regulatory, reputational, and business-continuity risks.
• Establish escalation frameworks for high-impact vendor incidents and recurring performance issues.
• Lead cross-functional executive response to critical vendor events.
• Ensure root-cause analysis, remediation, and preventive actions are completed for significant issues.
• Regularly communicate vendor risks, mitigation strategies, and emerging concerns to executive leadership.

Leadership & Organizational Development
• Lead, develop, and retain a high-performing vendor management team.
• Establish clear organizational goals, performance expectations, accountability structures, and professional development opportunities.
• Manage, select, evaluate, train, lead and direct staff in support of strategic and business efforts. Build an effective team and ensure appropriate staffing and staff development
• Lead staff by fostering teamwork and collaboration, driving employee engagement as well as leveraging diversity and inclusion. Carry out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with company's policies and regulatory requirements
• Build a scalable vendor management operating model appropriate for the organization's size, complexity, and growth.
• Foster strong partnerships across Operations, Clinical, Finance, Procurement, Legal, Compliance, IT, Risk, and other enterprise functions.
• Influence senior leaders and stakeholders across a matrixed organization to achieve shared business objectives.
• Represent Vendor Management in senior leadership forums, enterprise initiatives, and strategic planning activities.
• Establish a culture focused on proactive risk management, data-driven decision making, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.

Executive Reporting & Analytics
• Develop executive-level reporting that provides visibility into vendor performance, financial impact, risk, compliance, service quality, and strategic opportunities.
• Establish dashboards and reporting mechanisms that enable proactive identification of trends and emerging risks.
• Present vendor portfolio performance and strategic recommendations to senior and executive leadership.
• Use data and analytics to inform vendor strategy, investment decisions, performance interventions, and resource allocation.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, or a related field.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in vendor management, healthcare operations, outsourcing, procurement, third-party management, or a related discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in a leadership capacity, including responsibility for teams, enterprise programs, strategic vendor relationships, or complex cross-functional initiatives.
• Demonstrated knowledge of managed healthcare operations and the complexities of working within a highly regulated healthcare environment.
• Proven ability to develop and execute enterprise-level strategies and operating models.
• Strong knowledge of vendor governance, contract management, SLA/KPI development, performance management, financial oversight, and third-party risk management.
• Demonstrated experience managing strategic or complex third-party vendor relationships.
• Demonstrated executive presence and ability to communicate effectively with senior and executive leadership.
• Exceptional negotiation, analytical, strategic planning, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Demonstrated ability to influence across organizational boundaries and lead through complex, matrixed environments.
• Strong written and verbal communication and executive presentation skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills including coaching staff and handling conflict resolution, implementing initiatives or projects, and collaborating with other professional and non-clinical staff.
• Demonstrated ability to select, motivate, and evaluate staff, and provide for their training and professional development.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced, diverse organization that is performance oriented.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and experience with vendor-management, contract-management, GRC, business-intelligence, or reporting platforms.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, Supply Chain, or a related field.

• Experience overseeing vendors supporting claims, utilization management, care management, member services, provider operations, network management, pharmacy, clinical services, or other delegated healthcare functions.

• Experience with Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, commercial health plans, or other managed care programs.

• Experience with delegated vendor oversight and healthcare regulatory/accreditation requirements.

• Experience leading enterprise-wide vendor rationalization, strategic sourcing, or cost-optimization initiatives.

• Experience presenting vendor portfolio performance, risk, and financial recommendations to executive leadership or a board-level committee.

• Professional certification in vendor management, procurement, supply chain, project management, risk management, or healthcare administration.

Candidates should demonstrate significant experience in the following areas:
• Enterprise vendor management: Developing or leading a vendor management program, operating model, governance framework, or strategic vendor portfolio.
• Managed healthcare: Experience within a health plan, managed care organization, third-party administrator, healthcare services organization, healthcare technology company, or comparable healthcare environment.
• Strategic vendor relationships: Managing complex, high-value, high-volume, strategically important, or high-risk third-party relationships.
• Executive governance: Leading executive business reviews, vendor governance committees, strategic partnership discussions, and senior-level escalations.
• Performance management: Establishing and managing SLAs, KPIs, scorecards, quality metrics, performance guarantees, and corrective action programs.
• Contract and financial management: Experience with contract negotiations, renewals, pricing, financial analysis, vendor spend, savings initiatives, and value realization.
• Third-party risk: Experience managing vendor operational risk, regulatory requirements, compliance, privacy, security, business continuity, and audit activities.
• Transformation: Leading vendor implementations, transitions, consolidations, outsourcing/insourcing initiatives, operating-model transformations, or other enterprise-scale change initiatives.
• Cross-functional leadership: Demonstrated success partnering with Operations, Clinical, Finance, Procurement, Legal, Compliance, Risk, IT, and executive stakeholders.
• People leadership: Experience hiring, developing, coaching, and leading high-performing teams and establishing organizational capabilities.
• Data-driven management: Experience using financial, operational, quality, and performance data to identify trends, make strategic decisions, and communicate recommendations to executive leadership.

Technology & Software Skills: Advanced computer skills in MS Office products.

Certifications & Licenses: A valid and current Driver's License, Auto Insurance, and professional licensure(s)

Competency Statements

• Management Skills - Ability to organize and direct oneself and effectively supervise others.

• Business Acumen - Ability to grasp and understand business concepts and issues.

• Decisio