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Guardian Life · 2 days ago

Vendor Governance and Optimization Lead

Holmdel

Full-time

Hybrid

Senior Level, Lead/Staff

$132K/yr - $218K/yr

10+ years exp

Guardian Life is a leading insurance company seeking a Vendor Governance and Optimization Lead. This role is responsible for implementing a vendor governance framework and optimizing technology spending through effective management of third-party service providers.

DentalFinancial ServicesHardwareInsuranceLife Insurance

No H1B

U.S. Citizen Only

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

Qualification

Vendor governance frameworkProgram managementTransition managementITIL certificationPMP certificationSupplier managementCloud technologiesAnalytical thinkingStakeholder engagementCommunication skillsProblem-solvingOrganizational skills

Required

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