Vendor manager

About the role

As a Vendor Manager you'll lead the management of strategic supplier relationships that are critical to the performance of Transformation and Technology (T&T) in supporting our business. By building strong and long-lasting relationships with our strategic suppliers, you’ll be able to influence supplier performance, collaboration, drive innovation, cost efficiency and long-term value. You will play a key role in developing and managing our relationships with the most important T&T suppliers, you will work cross-functionally, manage multiple stakeholders up to Executive level and will be integral to defining and implementing supplier strategies that drive value. You will need to ensure contractual commitments are executed, meet the needs of the business and that stakeholders are aligned. This role would suit someone who thrives on establishing and leading supplier relationships, is comfortable challenging the ‘status quo’ and can successfully influence stakeholders at all levels.

At a glance

Contract type - Permanent (multiple vacancies).

Working Pattern - This is a hybrid working role, therefore your time will primarily be split between working from home and the London/ Head Office. However, there will also be an expectation to visit other locations including the suppliers UK offices as the need arises.

Our Vendor management team currently works from the office once a week to connect and on a more ad-hoc basis to attend key meetings, but again the frequency is dependent on the business needs. Otherwise the expectation is that you engage with your stakeholders in the frequency and location that optimises the working relationship, and engagement to successfully enable you to do your role most effectively.

Key Responsibilities

• You will be a key contributor to the sourcing strategy and the Vendor Management strategy for Transformation & Technology. You will also create individual strategies for the vendors for which you have responsibility.

• You will understand all touch points (established and potential) that your portfolio of vendors have across the Partnership, the stakeholders they work with and their level of performance. You will make connections between those areas and for an overall view of the relationship health and future direction to support the accountable vendor relationship owner.

• Using these strategies to influence the approach from Partners at all levels within Transformation & Technology , confidently directing and challenging behaviour as required.

• Support the procurement team in commercial discussions with strategic vendors in your portfolio on behalf of the vendor relationship owner.

• Manage Change control and Statements of Work in collaboration with the procurement team for your strategic suppliers.

• Work with Risk Management and provide updates to them as part of the ongoing management of risk.

• Implement and run service and commercial governance boards.

• Work with the delivery team to support a smooth exit when moving services to another vendor.

• Facilitate sharing of knowledge and best practices within the field of commercial vendor management.

• Work with Chief Transformation & Technology Officer (CTTO) Performance teams to ensure appropriate vendor billing and charge-back to John Lewis Partnership Business Units.

• Support dispute management and major incident assurance.

Essential skills / experience you’ll need

• Experience in Senior stakeholder influence, both internally and externally.

• You must be proactive, a self-starter and highly motivated to drive value and improvement from your assigned suppliers.

• Exposure of working with large scale outsource operations

• An understanding of delivery (including management of change) to complex contracts and the different approaches in an outsource environment

• Involvement in delivering value from large scale contracts

• Excellent organisation, project management, prioritising, presentation and influencing skills.

Desirable skills / experience you may have

• Relationship management skills.

• Negotiation experience/skills.

• Experience of working in an IT function would be an advantageous

• Presentation and communication skills.

Next Steps

• The application form consists of a CV upload, followed by application questions. Please save the application questions to Google docs before entering on Workday.

• Once you've submitted an application the next steps of the process, if successful, will include 2 levels of Interviews.

• You'll be asked about any adjustments you might need to support the recruitment process. Please let us know, and we'll be sure to discuss it with you.

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About The Partnership

We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect.

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective.

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.

Important points to note:

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.

We occasionally close vacancies early in the event we receive a high volume of applications, and therefore, we recommend you apply early. If you require a reasonable adjustment due to a disability which means you may need longer to complete your application please contact us as soon as possible.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.