The Vendor Lead is responsible for strengthening vendor performance, governance, risk management, and strategic relationships across an assigned portfolio of enterprise vendors. The role operates through a combination of center-led vendor governance and centralized vendor management, applying the appropriate level of oversight based on vendor segmentation, risk, business criticality, and enterprise requirements. Working collaboratively across Procurement, business stakeholders, Enterprise Risk Management, Compliance, Information Security, Finance, Legal, and suppliers, the Vendor Lead provides transparency into vendor performance and risk while strengthening accountability, governance discipline, service delivery, and long-term value realization.
Duties & Responsibilities
Vendor Governance and Portfolio Management
- Manage an assigned portfolio of vendors in accordance with enterprise vendor segmentation, risk-tiering, and vendor management standards.
- Apply differentiated governance requirements based on vendor risk, criticality, spend, performance, and strategic importance.
- Establish and maintain governance calendars defining required operational reviews, QBRs, executive reviews, scorecards, risk assessments, and other governance activities.
- For center-led vendors, oversee adherence to enterprise vendor management standards by confirming required governance activities are completed by accountable business and supplier stakeholders.
- For centrally managed vendors, directly coordinate vendor governance in partnership with business owners and suppliers, including performance reviews, scorecards, risk and issue management, and strategic account planning.
- Maintain appropriate governance documentation and escalate material performance, risk, relationship, or compliance issues through established channels.
Vendor Performance and Service Level Management
- Establish and maintain vendor performance scorecards in collaboration with business owners, Procurement, and suppliers.
- Ensure performance measures appropriately reflect contractual SLAs, KPIs, service quality, operational performance, risk indicators, and business outcomes.
- Monitor vendor performance against contractual commitments and identify trends, recurring issues, and emerging risks requiring management attention.
- Develop and track performance improvement and corrective action plans in partnership with business owners and suppliers.
- Escalate persistent or material performance deficiencies and ensure agreed remediation actions are completed within established timelines.
Business Reviews and Governance Meetings
- Establish vendor meeting and review cadences consistent with enterprise segmentation and risk-tier requirements.
- Facilitate QBRs, operational performance reviews, executive business reviews, and other governance forums for centrally managed vendors.
- For center-led vendors, monitor compliance with required meeting cadences and confirm business owners conduct governance reviews in accordance with enterprise standards.
- Ensure meeting agendas address performance, risk, contractual commitments, strategic initiatives, and continuous improvement opportunities.
- Ensure meeting minutes, decisions, commitments, risks, issues, and action items are documented, maintained in designated repositories, and tracked through closure.
Vendor Risk and Issue Management
- Partner with Enterprise Risk Management, Compliance, Information Security, Privacy, Business Continuity, and other risk stakeholders to support enterprise vendor risk requirements.
- Monitor vendor risks, issues, remediation activities, and mitigation plans across the assigned portfolio.
- Ensure required risk assessments and periodic reviews are completed in accordance with vendor segmentation and risk-tier requirements.
- Coordinate cross-functional remediation activities and track risk mitigation actions through resolution while preserving accountability with the appropriate risk or business owner.
- Escalate material vendor risks, unresolved issues, or deteriorating supplier performance to appropriate governance forums and leadership.
Strategic Vendor Relationship Management
- Develop and maintain strategic vendor account plans for assigned strategic and centrally managed vendors.
- Build effective working relationships with vendor leadership and internal business owners to strengthen accountability, collaboration, and transparency.
- Facilitate alignment between business objectives, vendor capabilities, performance expectations, and strategic priorities.
- Identify opportunities for supplier innovation, service improvement, automation, operational efficiency, and continuous value creation.
- Partner with Category Management to ensure vendor performance, relationship, and risk insights inform category strategies, sourcing decisions, renewals, and commercial negotiations.
Business Partnership, Reporting & Continuous Improvement
- Serve as the primary Vendor Management partner for assigned business functions and vendor relationships.
- Provide guidance and coaching to business vendor owners on enterprise vendor management standards, scorecards, templates, tools, and governance expectations.
- Maintain accurate vendor governance records, scorecards, meeting documentation, issue logs, risk actions, account plans, and performance information within designated enterprise systems and repositories.
- Partner with Procurement Intelligence and Digital Transformation resources to enhance vendor dashboards, automated scorecards, workflow notifications, action tracking, and performance reporting.
- Identify opportunities to strengthen vendor governance, stakeholder experience, supplier performance, and continuous value realization through data-driven insights and digital enablement.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Finance, Operations Management, Information Technology, or equivalent work experience listed below.
- Minimum 5 years of experience in vendor management, supplier relationship management, procurement, sourcing, operations, risk management, or a related discipline.
- Demonstrated experience managing supplier performance, service levels, scorecards, business reviews, or vendor governance.
- Experience working across business, procurement, risk, compliance, and supplier stakeholders to resolve performance, risk, or operational issues.
- Strong analytical, communication, facilitation, problem-solving, and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to work a hybrid schedule consisting of reporting to 100 Church Street, NYC every Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday.
Preferred Qualifications
- CPSM, CIPS, Certified Third Party Risk Professional (CTPRP), or equivalent professional certification.
- Healthcare payer, managed care, financial services, or other highly regulated industry experience.
- Experience managing strategic, high-risk, or business-critical vendors.
- Experience with supplier performance management, third-party risk management, SLA management, or vendor governance platforms.
- Experience using enterprise procurement, contract management, analytics, or vendor management technologies and facilitating QBRs, performance improvement initiatives, or cross-functional remediation activities.
WE ARE AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER. HF Management Services, LLC complies with all applicable laws and regulations. Applicants and employees are considered for positions and are evaluated without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, disability, genetic information, domestic violence victim status, gender and/or gender identity or expression, military status, veteran status, citizenship or immigration status, height and weight, familial status, marital status, or unemployment status, as well as any other legally protected basis. HF Management Services, LLC shall not discriminate against any disabled employee or applicant in regard to any position for which the employee or applicant is otherwise qualified.
If you have a disability under the Americans with Disability Act or a similar law and want a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, please contact us by sending an email to careers@Healthfirst.org or calling 212-519-1798 . In your email please include a description of the accommodation you are requesting and a description of the position for which you are applying. Only reasonable accommodation requests related to applying for a position within HF Management Services, LLC will be reviewed at the e-mail address and phone number supplied. Thank you for considering a career with HF Management Services, LLC.
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All hiring and recruitment at Healthfirst is transacted with a valid “@healthfirst.org” email address only or from a recruitment firm representing our Company. Any recruitment firm representing Healthfirst will readily provide you with the name and contact information of the recruiting professional representing the opportunity you are inquiring about. If you receive a communication from a sender whose domain is not @healthfirst.org, or not one of our recruitment partners, please be aware that those communications are not coming from or authorized by Healthfirst. Healthfirst will never ask you for money during the recruitment or onboarding process.
Hiring Range*:
Greater New York City Area (NY, NJ, CT residents): $83,100 - $120,360
All Other Locations (within approved locations): $73,400 - $109,225
As a candidate for this position, your salary and related elements of compensation will be contingent upon your work experience, education, licenses and certifications, and any other factors Healthfirst deems pertinent to the hiring decision.
In addition to your salary, Healthfirst offers employees a full range of benefits such as, medical, dental and vision coverage, incentive and recognition programs, life insurance, and 401k contributions (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). Healthfirst believes in providing a competitive compensation and benefits package wherever its employees work and live.
*The hiring range is defined as the lowest and highest salaries that Healthfirst in “good faith” would pay to a new hire, or for a job promotion, or transfer into this role.
