D&IT Vendor Relationship Manager

Black & Veatch Family of Companies•Olathe, KS

6d•Onsite

About The Position

As the D&IT Vendor Relationship Manager, you will have the opportunity to manage assigned technology vendor relationships and support commercial negotiations, governance, performance management, and contract value realization activities. You will partner with sourcing, legal, finance, cybersecurity, and business stakeholders to support approved vendor strategies and commercial objectives.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree (in any discipline) or equivalent experience.
2+ years of experience facilitating the development and implementation of business initiatives and projects, based on management objectives.
All applicants must be able to complete pre-employment onboarding requirements (if selected) which may include any/all of the following: criminal/civil background check, drug screen, and motor vehicle records search, in compliance with any applicable laws and regulations.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, Information Systems, Engineering, Law, or a related field preferred. Equivalent directly relevant experience may be considered.
Typically 7 or more years of progressive experience in technology sourcing, strategic vendor management, commercial contracting, vendor management, software asset or licensing management, or a related discipline.
Demonstrated experience supporting complex, high-value technology negotiations and presenting commercial recommendations.
Experience with enterprise software, SaaS, cloud, engineering technology, managed services, professional services, or outsourcing agreements.
Experience working in cross-functional teams in a matrixed organization and operating within formal governance and delegated-authority frameworks.
Demonstrated financial and analytical capability, including scenario modeling, total cost of ownership, benchmarking, forecasting, and value measurement.
Experience negotiating with major global technology providers or comparable dominant vendors, such as Microsoft, Oracle, Autodesk, Bentley, Octave, ServiceNow, Adobe, ESRI, SAP, Salesforce, AWS, or Google.
Deep understanding of enterprise licensing, SaaS subscriptions, cloud consumption, maintenance and support, enterprise agreements, managed services, professional services, audits, true-ups, and renewal economics.
Experience with contract restructuring, audit defense, compliance negotiations, commercial dispute resolution, service remediation, or vendor transition planning.
Experience using ServiceNow Vendor Management Workspace, contract lifecycle management, sourcing, procurement, spend analytics, or comparable platforms.
Professional certification such as CPSM, CIPS, WorldCC, NCMA, PMP, or relevant negotiation training is desirable.

Responsibilities

Manage assigned technology vendor relationships and supports commercial negotiations, governance, performance management, and contract value realization activities
Partner with sourcing, legal, finance, cybersecurity, and business stakeholders to support approved vendor strategies and commercial objectives
Support and lead negotiations for assigned technology vendors within approved negotiation strategies.
Prepare negotiation plans defining objectives, opening positions, target outcomes, walk-away recommendations, trade variables, concession strategies, approval boundaries, and escalation paths.
Support or lead negotiations for new agreements, renewals, expansions, amendments, restructurings, disputes, audits, transitions, and exits for assigned vendors.
Negotiate pricing, discount structures, price protections, renewal caps, enterprise metrics, audit provisions, licensing rights, cloud commitments, service levels, remedies, benchmarking rights, change controls, termination rights, and transition assistance.
Navigate negotiations with dominant vendors where alternatives are constrained, balancing relationship continuity with disciplined commercial advocacy.
Present proposed positions, tradeoffs, negotiated outcomes, residual risks, and decisions required to approval authorities.
Support development and execution of vendor relationship and governance plans for assigned vendors within assigned portfolios consistent with the enterprise vendor-management framework.
Coordinate and facilitate quarterly business reviews, operational reviews, risk reviews, and commercial governance meetings for strategic vendors.
Build productive multi-level vendor relationships while preserving commercial independence, accountability, and appropriate channels of communication.
Align vendor roadmaps, innovation opportunities, service capabilities, and improvement commitments with approved D&IT and business priorities.
Drive vendor accountability through contractual obligations, scorecards, action plans, decision logs, and escalation protocols.
Recommend vendor segmentation, governance intensity, relationship objectives, and remediation actions.
Evaluate assigned agreements and consumption patterns to identify opportunities to improve economics, flexibility, service, and risk allocation.
Support contract optimization and restructuring efforts in partnership with leadership and stakeholders involving licensing models, subscription metrics, cloud commitments, support structures, entitlements, service scope, or agreement consolidation.
Develop sourcing and commercial alternatives that improve leverage and reduce lock-in, excess capacity, unused entitlements, or unfavorable long-term commitments.
Quantify and pursue savings, cost avoidance, credits, rebates, service remedies, productivity improvements, and other negotiated value.
Partner with technical and business owners to ensure commercial structures align with architecture, operational requirements, and forecast demand.
Translate contract terms into actionable governance plans covering obligations, entitlements, milestones, notice dates, service levels, credits, reporting, and internal ownership.
Monitor utilization, consumption, true-ups, minimum commitments, renewals, price changes, and potential commercial leakage for assigned agreements.
Validate that negotiated benefits and protections are implemented and sustained after signature.
Provide concise contract summaries and decision-ready reporting on commercial value, obligations, risks, and required actions.
Maintain reliable contract, vendor, performance, risk, and value-realization data in ServiceNow or other designated systems.
Establish and monitor vendor scorecards, service levels, key performance indicators, business outcomes, risk indicators, and improvement commitments.
Lead corrective action plans, cure activities, service-credit recovery, and approved commercial remediation for assigned vendors.
Partner with Legal, Information Security, Privacy, Risk, Finance, Architecture, operations, and business owners to assess contractual, financial, cybersecurity, privacy, compliance, concentration, continuity, and transition risks.
Quantify vendor risks in financial and business terms and recommend mitigation, continuity, remediation, transition, or exit actions.
Support fact-based resolution of commercial disputes, performance failures, contractual disagreements, and escalations within delegated authority.
Support or lead assigned vendor audit responses, licensing true-up negotiations, compliance reviews, and settlement discussions under Legal and leadership guidance.
Assist in development of financial analyses, benchmarks, financial models, and business-case support materials.
Assess the financial and operational impact of vendor proposals, licensing changes, consumption commitments, pricing adjustments, contract modifications, and audit positions.
Use independent market intelligence and vendor data to challenge assumptions, test competitiveness, and anticipate changes in licensing or monetization models.
Track spend, negotiated value, forecast exposure, credits, rebates, and variance to approved plans in partnership with Finance and portfolio owners.
Provide transparent analysis that distinguishes recurring savings, cost avoidance, recovered value, risk reduction, and nonfinancial benefits.
Participate in cross-functional deal and governance teams and align stakeholders around an approved negotiation mandate, roles, decision rights, and escalation process.
Collaborate with stakeholders and provide recommendations to support vendor-management decisions.
Demonstrates strategic thinking, executive communication, sound judgment, people development, and enterprise perspective when leading vendor and commercial initiatives.