Global IT Vendor Manager Strategic Vendor & Service Management

Location: Bengaluru

Experience: 12-23 Years

Function: IT Vendor / Service Management

Employment Type: Full-time

Role Overview:

We are looking for a seasoned Global IT Vendor Manager to manage strategic technology supplier relationships and drive vendor performance, contractual compliance, commercial value, service quality, and continuous improvement across a global technology environment. The role will act as a key interface between the organisation and its strategic service providers, partnering closely with business and technology stakeholders to ensure strong service outcomes, governance, and value realization.

Key Responsibilities:

- Own day-to-day relationships with strategic and external technology vendors.

- Lead regular vendor governance and performance review meetings covering service performance, risks, financials, and improvement initiatives.

- Ensure vendor compliance with contractual, regulatory, information security, audit, and internal governance requirements.

- Support the complete vendor lifecycle, including vendor selection, onboarding, contract renewals, performance management, and offboarding.

- Monitor vendor spend, budgets, forecasts, invoices, and commercial commitments.

- Review and challenge invoices, pricing structures, rate cards, and commercial terms.

- Drive value-for-money, cost optimisation, efficiency improvements, and commercial benefits across supplier relationships.

- Identify opportunities for vendor-led innovation and service improvement.

- Act as a trusted partner to business and technology stakeholders and provide accountability for service outcomes.

- Facilitate service governance forums, steering committees, and executive-level vendor reviews.

- Identify, assess, and manage vendor and service-related risks.

- Ensure adherence to organisational policies, regulatory requirements, contractual obligations, and audit standards.

- Drive improvements in service quality, operational maturity, resilience, and supplier performance.

Required Experience & Skills:

- 12-23 years of overall experience in IT Vendor Management, Supplier Management, IT Service Management, Procurement, Managed Services, or related areas.

- Strong understanding of outsourcing and managed services models.

- Experience managing strategic technology vendors in complex, global, multi-vendor environments.

- Strong understanding of commercial contracts, negotiations, pricing, rate cards, and vendor lifecycle management.

- Strong knowledge of ITIL / ITSM frameworks; COBIT knowledge is an advantage.

- Experience managing vendor performance through KPIs, SLAs, dashboards, reporting, and data-driven decision-making.

- Proven stakeholder management skills with experience working across business, technology, procurement, finance, risk, and other functions.

- Strong analytical and structured problem-solving capabilities.

- Ability to operate effectively within matrixed and multi-vendor environments.

- Comfortable working in fast-paced and ambiguous environments while managing changing priorities.

- Strong planning, communication, presentation, influencing, and negotiation skills.

- Highly organised, self-driven, and detail-oriented with strong ownership of outcomes.

Commercial & Financial Management:

The ideal candidate should have experience in:

- Vendor commercial management and contract governance

- Spend, budget, and forecast management

- Invoice and rate-card validation

- Cost optimisation and efficiency initiatives

- Commercial negotiations and value realization

- Supplier performance management and governance

Risk, Compliance & Governance:

- Experience managing vendor-related operational, contractual, regulatory, and service risks.

- Understanding of information security and compliance obligations within supplier relationships.

- Experience supporting audits, governance reviews, and remediation activities.

- Ability to establish strong governance mechanisms across strategic suppliers.

Preferred Certifications:

Candidates with one or more of the following certifications will be preferred:

- ITIL Foundation / ITIL Managing Professional

- COBIT

- PMP / PRINCE2 / Agile certifications

- CIPS / CPSM or related Procurement / Supplier Management certification

- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt / Black Belt

Education:

Bachelors degree in Business Administration, Information Technology, Engineering, Finance, or a related discipline.

Core Competencies:

Vendor & Service Management | Commercial & Financial Acumen | Risk & Compliance | Contract Management | Continuous Improvement | Value Realization | Stakeholder Management | Supplier Governance | Analytical & Problem Solving | Communication & Leadership

Ideal Candidate:

The ideal candidate will be a senior vendor-management professional with strong experience in global IT outsourcing, managed services, supplier governance, commercial management, and stakeholder engagement. Candidates who have managed large strategic technology suppliers, complex contractual relationships, and multi-vendor environments within global organisations will be preferred. Interested candidates can apply with their updated resume.