Vendor Governance and Optimization Lead

Guardian Life Insurance•Holmdel Township, NJ

About The Position

The Vendor Governance and Optimization Lead will be responsible for driving the implementation of Digital and Technology (D&T) organization’s vendor governance framework and ongoing efforts to right-size technology 3rd party spend. As part of our strategic priority to optimize our vendor technology support at Guardian, this role will be responsible for the transition execution of 3rd party service providers into an optimized and consolidated provider footprint, delivering end-to-end managed services. This role will also help with the design and operationalization of a technology vendor governance framework, to ensure governance and ongoing successful of the supplier relationships.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Business Administration, Information Technology, or related fields.
10+ years experience working with large technology product/services providers and multi-tower managed services environments.
Experience in transitioning services in application development, quality assurance end user services, end user computing, data center operations, cloud, networks, DevOps and/or application support domains.
Certifications in ITIL, PMP, or supplier management.
Familiarity with AI, hybrid cloud, DevOps delivery, and global service management models.
Excellent project management and organizational skills.
Strong communication and stakeholder engagement abilities.
Analytical thinking and problem-solving mindset.
Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple priorities.
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

Establish structured governance frameworks with defined meeting cadences, including operational reviews, monthly performance reviews, QBRs, and transition checkpoints.
Develop governance documentation such as dashboards, vendor scorecards, and transition progress reports.
Manage vendor relationships across all service towers, maintaining a structured governance framework with defined meeting cadence
Conduct periodic performance reviews with vendors to assess performance, address risks, and track improvement initiatives, including operational reviews focusing on incident trends, SLA adherence, and service quality.
Facilitate quarterly business reviews (QBRs) to evaluate strategic alignment, contract performance, and innovation/transformation contributions.
Collaborate with internal IT stakeholders to consolidate cross-tower metrics and promote transparency in service outcomes.
Hold suppliers accountable to established business cases, transformation outcomes, and performance-linked commercials.
Manage to service penalties, as appropriate.
Ensure supplier compliance with organizational policies, data protection standards, and regulatory controls.
Provide program management oversight to transitions involving consolidation of multiple service providers into a single managed service partner, ensuring minimal disruption and seamless knowledge transfer.
Collaborate with suppliers and procurement, legal, and enterprise architecture teams, to ensure contract, tooling, and operational readiness for the new supplier operations.
Define and monitor transition milestones, exit criteria, and post-transition stabilization metrics.
Maintain visibility into all transition-related risks, dependencies, and escalations, driving proactive mitigation strategies.
Lead service improvement and optimization initiatives post-transition, ensuring process standardization and automation opportunities are identified.
Partner with suppliers to advance adoption of new technologies, optimize delivery and support approaches, and deliver advantage to our business teams.
Support Head of Third Party Strategy and Governance in driving ongoing optimization of 3rd party supplier costs through strategies such as demand rationalization, alternate commercial models, supplier consolidation etc., to meet defined savings targets
Work with supplier account management and operational leaders, to ensure speedy resolution of governance issues and concerns
Track delivery of key operational and transformational outcomes, and report on benefits/outcomes achieved
Build relationships with supplier executives and industry experts, to bring in perspectives around continuous improvement, innovation and transformation outcomes from key supplier relationships.