Director, IT Vendor Management Office (VMO)
Job Summary
Foundever is one of the worlds leading customer experience (CX) companies delivering outsourced sales technical support customer service and other business processes for many of the worlds largest brands. Foundever securely connects brands with their customers millions of times each day in more than 60 languages supported by approximately 150000 associates across 45 delivery countries.
The Director of the IT Vendor Management Office (VMO) is a strategic commercial leader who both sets the direction of Foundevers global IT vendor management capability and personally drives its execution. As the single point of accountability between IT and its external suppliers this leader owns the end-to-end commercial performance and governance relationship across the global IT vendor portfolio software cloud telecommunications hardware infrastructure and technology services with the deepest hands-on ownership in infrastructure and telecom.
The Director will stand up the operating model and get hands on the work: leading major negotiations running renewals as deliberate leverage events enforcing service levels and holding vendors accountable for outcomes. Partnering with IT Finance Procurement Legal Information Security and business stakeholders this leader optimizes technology spending improves vendor performance reduces commercial and operational risk and ensures every third-party investment delivers measurable business value translating it all into clear executive recommendations tied to P&L impact.
VMO Operating Model & Governance
Own the model. Design stand up and run Foundevers global IT VMO operating model decision rights policies approval workflows governance forums and executive escalation paths then drive adoption across IT.
Set the standards. Establish consistent standards for vendor selection onboarding contracting performance management renewal risk and offboarding including commercial technical security and redundancy reviews.
Tiered governance. Run a tiered vendor-management framework executive business reviews for strategic partners operational reviews for the rest with clear governance for strategic preferred and transactional vendors.
Build the team. Develop a high-performing VMO team and strengthen vendor-management capability across IT building cost transparency by vendor category technology function region and cost center.
Technology Spend & Portfolio Optimization
Full visibility. Establish comprehensive visibility into global third-party IT spend contractual commitments consumption utilization and total cost of ownership.
Hunt waste. Assess the portfolio to eliminate overlapping technologies duplicate licenses unused subscriptions shelfware fragmented purchasing and unfavorable terms.
Rationalize. Develop and execute multi-year vendor and technology rationalization plans that reduce cost while protecting service performance and business continuity.
Prove it. Track negotiated savings cost avoidance realized benefits and forward commitments in partnership with IT Finance and feed clear vendor-spend analysis into annual planning budgeting forecasting and cost-transformation.
Infrastructure & Telecommunications Cost Management
Own the estate. Provide commercial oversight and hands-on management across telecom and infrastructure connectivity voice carrier agreements colocation hosting hardware maintenance and site-level services.
Optimize consumption. Run portfolio reviews to surface underutilized services redundant circuits aging contracts fragmented spend and rate-optimization opportunities; partner with Network Telecom Cloud and Infrastructure leaders to consolidate demand.
Lead the deals. Lead carrier and service-provider negotiations using market benchmarks competitive alternatives and Foundevers global purchasing scale.
No surprises. Maintain forward-looking visibility into contract expirations notice periods minimum commitments and renewals to prevent unplanned auto-renewals.
Vendor Commercial & Contract Management
Drive negotiations. Lead commercial management of major IT vendor relationships sourcing renewals pricing negotiations benchmarking contract restructuring and competitive evaluations.
Contract lifecycle. Establish a contract lifecycle-management process and centralized inventory covering intake approval execution obligations pricing commitments renewals notice periods risks and termination.
Every renewal is a decision. Treat major renewals as deliberate leverage-driven events reassessing requirements consumption vendor performance competitive alternatives and commercial structure. No autorenewals no lapses.
Playbooks. Develop commercial standards and negotiation playbooks covering pricing volume flexibility product substitutions service levels termination rights price protections renewal caps and exit requirements.
Partner to close. Work with Procurement and Legal to negotiate competitive agreements that address security privacy compliance resilience data ownership business continuity and transition.
Vendor Performance & Relationship Management
Single point of accountability. Serve as the primary escalation point and relationship owner between internal IT/infrastructure teams and external providers.
Enforce SLAs. Define baseline and enforce service levels operational KPIs risk indicators and service credits; run quarterly business reviews executive scorecards and continuous-improvement plans.
Hold vendors accountable. Hold vendors to contractual commitments service performance remediation innovation and expected business outcomes; partner with IT Operations SRE and Problem Management to fix recurring vendor-related incidents at root cause.
Act on underperformance. Drive corrective action plans and where performance doesnt improve recommend renegotiation competitive sourcing or transition.
Vendor Risk Compliance & Business Continuity
Lead IT TPRM (Third-Party Risk Management). Partner with Information Security Enterprise Risk Legal Compliance and IT Operations to assess and manage third-party technology risk.
Ensure compliance. Ensure vendors meet Foundevers security privacy resilience regulatory financial and contractual requirements.
Watch concentration. Maintain visibility into vendor concentration financial stability operational dependencies geographic exposure subcontractor risk and end-of-life technology.
Guarantee resilience. Ensure critical vendors maintain business-continuity disaster-recovery redundancy and service-restoration capabilities and establish remediation monitoring and escalation for material risks.
Business Integration M&A & Executive Reporting
Integrate transactions. Build a repeatable framework for assessing and rationalizing technology contracts and vendor obligations arising from acquisitions divestitures and business integrations; partner with Finance Legal Procurement and IT Architecture to identify liabilities integration costs termination exposure and consolidation opportunities.
Advise leadership. Serve as a trusted advisor to IT leadership on vendor strategy technology economics sourcing alternatives and commercial risk.
Report on health. Report regularly on portfolio health savings delivered renewal pipeline vendor performance contractual exposure and rationalization progress.
Connect to value. Translate complex commercial information into clear executive recommendations connected to business value and P&L impact positioning the VMO as a strategic enabler.
REQUIRED
At least 12 years in IT vendor management technology sourcing procurement IT finance or contract management including at least five years leading in a global or complex enterprise.
Demonstrated experience establishing transforming or maturing a VMO or comparable technology-governance capability across multiple functions or geographies and personally running it not just directing it.
Proven record of delivering measurable savings cost avoidance and portfolio rationalization across software cloud telecommunications infrastructure hardware or technology services.
Extensive experience negotiating complex enterprise technology agreements MSAs and SLAs at scale with strong command of strategic sourcing contract lifecycle management TCO analysis commercial benchmarking and vendor performance management.
Direct ownership of infrastructure vendors networking telecom/carrier services compute/systems storage and data center/colocation with working knowledge of those domains.
Strong financial acumen executive presence and communication skills across technical and executive audiences with experience supporting M&A activity.
PREFERRED
Experience with contract lifecycle-management platforms (e.g. Coupa) and exposure to IT Asset Management / Software Asset Management tools.
Familiarity with Technology Business Management FinOps or other IT cost-transparency and optimization frameworks.
Experience managing cloud and hybrid infrastructure vendors alongside traditional data center providers in a global distributed technology-intensive or business-services organization.
Knowledge of telecommunications pricing network service commercial structures carrier agreements and colocation markets.
Relevant certifications (e.g. CTPRM ITIL PMP CIPS) and a Bachelors degree in Business Finance IT or Supply Chain; an MBA or advanced degree is preferred.
Impactful work. Opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI technologies that will be game-changers for our business.
Professional growth. Continuous learning and development opportunities in a dynamic remote work environment.
Competitive compensation. Attractive salary and benefits package.
Collaborative environment.A supportive team culture with opportunities for occasional travel for training and industry events.
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Required Experience:
Director
About Company
Foundever is a global leader in customer-experience (CX) outsourcing, combining human expertise and AI-driven capabilities to support over 9 million customer interactions daily across 60+ languages in 45 countries.