Senior Product Manager - Vendor Relations

KPI Solutions•Kansas City, MO

About The Position

The Senior Product Manager – Vendor Relations owns the product strategy and roadmap for a portfolio of material handling and warehouse automation solutions, with a primary emphasis on managing and growing OEM, technology, and equipment vendor relationships. The role also owns software integration requirements that enable vendor hardware and software to work reliably within company and customer systems, including API contracts, data exchange standards, and technical acceptance criteria. This position serves as the strategic and technical bridge between Engineering, IT, Sales, Operations, and external partners such as robotics and automation OEMs, WMS/WES/WCS providers, and equipment and parts suppliers. It ensures product commitments align with vendor capabilities, integration feasibility, contract terms, and long-term partnership health. The role combines product management and vendor ecosystem leadership with sufficient technical fluency in APIs, data interfaces, and middleware to evaluate vendor claims and reduce integration risk.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Supply Chain, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
7+ years of product management experience, including at least 3 years focused on vendor/partner or supplier relationship management.
Demonstrated experience in material handling, warehouse automation, robotics, or the broader supply chain/logistics industry.
Proven track record negotiating vendor contracts, SLAs, and commercial terms.
Working knowledge of WMS, WES, WCS, and/or PLC/controls ecosystems, and hands-on familiarity with their integration with material handling equipment through APIs, data interfaces, and middleware.
Demonstrated experience defining or evaluating software integration requirements between third-party/vendor systems and internal or customer platforms.
Excellent negotiation, stakeholder management, and executive communication skills.
Ability to manage multiple concurrent vendor relationships and competing priorities in a fast-paced, client-facing environment.

Nice To Haves

MBA or advanced degree in a related field.
Product management certification, such as Pragmatic Institute or AIPMM.
Direct experience partnering with automation OEMs such as AutoStore, Geek+, Hai Robotics, or similar technology providers.
Experience at a systems integrator, equipment OEM, or software provider serving the MHI space.
Familiarity with contract/vendor management tooling and CRM/PLM systems.
Experience with integration platforms (iPaaS), API testing/documentation tools such as Postman or Swagger/OpenAPI, or a systems integration certification.

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary product-side contact for OEM and technology vendors throughout the partnership lifecycle.
Lead vendor evaluation, onboarding, and tiering; negotiate commercial terms, SLAs, and roadmap commitments with Procurement and Legal.
Own vendor scorecards tracking reliability, cost, lead time, quality, and roadmap alignment, and drive corrective action plans with underperforming partners.
Build executive-level relationships with key suppliers and technology partners to secure preferential pricing, priority allocation, and early access to new capabilities.
Coordinate joint go-to-market activities, co-development initiatives, and technology roadmap alignment sessions with strategic vendors.
Manage vendor contract renewals, escalations, and dispute resolution with Legal and Finance, protecting margin and delivery commitments.
Represent the company at vendor summits, industry trade shows, and partner advisory boards.
Own technical requirements and acceptance criteria for integrating vendor-supplied software and hardware with internal platforms and customer environments, in partnership with Engineering and IT.
Define and document API contracts, data exchange formats, and middleware requirements for interoperability between vendor systems and company and customer software stacks.
Lead technical due diligence during vendor evaluation and onboarding, assessing integration complexity, data ownership, security posture, and architectural compatibility.
Oversee vendor integration testing, user acceptance testing, and go-live certification before customer deployments, ensuring interface and data-mapping issues are identified and resolved.
Ensure the vendor integration playbook is accurate, current, and effective at reducing integration risk and rework across projects.
Review the Technical Product Owner's assessment of standard-interface versus custom-integration requirements and validate it before effort and cost estimates inform build-vs-buy-vs-partner decisions.
Define and maintain the product roadmap for assigned material handling and automation solution lines, balancing customer needs, vendor capabilities, and competitive positioning.
Translate vendor technology capabilities and constraints into product requirements, specifications, and release plans.
Conduct market and competitive analysis across material handling equipment, robotics, and warehouse software segments to inform build-vs-buy-vs-partner decisions.
Prioritize the backlog with Engineering and Solutions Design, accounting for vendor lead times and integration complexity.
Partner with Sales and Solutions Engineering on proposals, RFP responses, and client presentations involving vendor-supplied technology.
Work with Implementation and Field Service teams to resolve vendor-related product issues affecting live customer deployments.
Partner with IT and Engineering to define integration architecture standards and reusable connectors across the vendor ecosystem.
Provide vendor and product roadmap input to Finance for cost modeling, pricing, and margin analysis.
Train internal sales, service, and support teams on new vendor technologies, product updates, and positioning.