Position Summary: The Vendor Manager is responsible for the strategic oversight, governance, risk management, and performance management of third-party vendors supporting automotive finance servicing and default operations. This position ensures vendors comply with contractual obligations, service level agreements (SLAs), key performance indicators (KPIs), regulatory requirements, and company policies while delivering high-quality customer outcomes. The role serves as the primary liaison between Operations, Compliance, Risk Management, Legal, Procurement, Accounting, and vendor partners to drive operational excellence, mitigate risk, protect company assets, and support business objectives throughout the loan servicing lifecycle. The Vendor Manager also leads and develops team members, oversees vendor governance activities, and drives continuous improvement initiatives across vendor-supported functions.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities: - Manage and oversee third-party vendors supporting automotive finance servicing and default operations, ensuring compliance with contractual obligations, service standards, regulatory requirements, and company policies.
- Develop, monitor, and report on vendor performance through SLAs, KPIs, quality metrics, scorecards, and governance reviews.
- Conduct vendor business reviews, identify performance gaps and operational risks, and lead corrective action plans to improve results and service delivery.
- Perform vendor due diligence, risk assessments, ongoing monitoring, and remediation activities in support of the company's third-party risk management program.
- Partner with Compliance, Risk Management, Legal, Procurement, Accounting, and Internal Audit to support vendor onboarding, contract administration, audits, regulatory examinations, and governance activities.
- Analyze operational reports, customer complaints, audit findings, and performance data to identify trends, root causes, risks, and process improvement opportunities.
- Prepare and present vendor performance results, risk assessments, operational trends, and recommendations to leadership while supporting budget, expense, and cost-management initiatives.
- Lead, coach, and develop assigned team members, including performance management, goal setting, training, workforce planning, and achievement of departmental objectives.
- Additional duties may be assigned as needed to support business objectives.
Qualifications and Competencies Required To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Required Experience: - Minimum of 3 years of experience in automotive finance, loan servicing, collections, recovery, repossession, default servicing, vendor management, or related financial services operations.
- Minimum of 1 years• experience of managing vendor relationships and third-party service provider performance.
- Experience managing vendors within a regulated financial services environment.
- Experience developing, monitoring, and reporting SLAs, KPIs, quality metrics, compliance metrics, and operational performance measures.
- Experience supporting vendor audits, risk assessments, regulatory reviews, and corrective action initiatives.
- Experience presenting operational results, vendor performance metrics, and recommendations to senior leadership.
- Strong understanding of automotive finance servicing operations, customer experience management, operational controls, vendor governance, and third-party risk management.
Education: - Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, Management, Risk Management, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
Skills Required: - Strong knowledge of vendor governance, third-party risk management, contract administration, and vendor performance management practices.
- Working knowledge of automotive finance servicing operations and applicable consumer finance regulations and compliance requirements.
- Ability to analyze operational reports, scorecards, dashboards, and performance metrics to support business decision-making.
- Strong problem-solving, negotiation, organizational, project management, and decision-making skills.
- Ability to build relationships, influence stakeholders, and collaborate effectively across all organizational levels and external partners.
- Excellent verbal, written, presentation, and communication skills, with proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook..
Additional Requirements - Overtime required • required on an as needed basis.
- Travel 0-10% - as required on an as needed basis.
- Must have reliable transportation and live within a commutable distance to one of the following cities: Dallas, TX, Atlanta, GA, Auburn Hills, MI
Qualifications Preferred: - Experience managing vendors supporting repossession, recovery, bankruptcy, skip tracing, SCRA, deceased accounts, ancillary products, GAP, total loss, or other automotive finance servicing functions.
- Experience supporting third-party risk management programs within a regulated financial services environment.
- Knowledge of CFPB expectations, vendor oversight requirements, and consumer finance compliance frameworks.
- Experience leading cross-functional process improvement or operational efficiency initiatives.
- Professional certifications such as Certified Third-Party Risk Professional (CTPRP), Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma, or comparable certifications.
Physical Demands The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to sit for long periods of time, use hands and arms to operate office equipment including but not limited to a keyboard, mouse and phone, will occasionally need to reach, stoop, stand or walk. The employee must be able to see (close vision), hear, speak, and communicate verbally. The employee may occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 pounds.
Work Environment The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
Work Schedule This position requires the ability to work various shifts to accommodate business needs. Typically, between the hours of 8AM-6PM Monday through Friday and on weekends as needed. Travel is required 10% of the time.
An applicant must be authorized to work in the United States to be eligible for this position. Stellantis Financial Services, Inc. will not sponsor applicants for work visas of any type for this position.