Senior Manager - IT Vendor Management

Colonial Group; Markham; Hybrid; CAD 123,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Colonial Group is seeking a Senior Manager - IT Vendor Management to lead vendor relationships and optimize IT spend. Hybrid role based in Markham with remote work flexibility, reporting to the Director - Vendor Management.

You will manage procurement processes, review commercial documents, negotiate contracts, and track spend and performance with finance partners. The role blends strategic oversight with hands-on vendor management.

Qualifications

• Comfort with Finance as it applies to Procurement, Accounts Payable, Cash, Capital, and Projects.
• Clear communication whether written, verbal, or electronic
• Detail oriented, logical thinker with a high degree of organization
• Able to work closely with PMO, Finance and Legal
• Results driven with high accuracy and thoroughness
• Bachelor's Degree in a business or technical discipline or equivalent experience
• Minimum 5 years of experience in strategic procurement, contract, and vendor management
• Ability to build and manage strong internal and external relationships
• Working knowledge of SAP Purchasing Module
• Competency in analyzing budgets, invoices and vendor accounts
• Strong organizational and time management skills

Responsibilities

• Build, maintain and grow relationships with external vendors and suppliers.
• Baselining and modelling of offers, contract negotiation and risk management
• Process owner for vendor selection, onboarding, offboarding, and dispute management.
• Identifying opportunities for cost savings and managing third party spend to optimize financial outcomes
• Create flexibility where possible to manage risk and optimize rates while safeguarding volumes
• Review and comment on commercial documentation to guide business and legal on potential risks
• Monitor commercial landscape and identify future risk on supplier viability
• Support Finance during annual planning and ad-hoc tasks
• Track monthly and YTD spend relative to budget and inform CIO on burn rate
• Create artifacts on contracting and renewal opportunities for future reference
• New vendor setup and vendor maintenance in SAP and GERS
• Validate and process invoices for IT goods and services
• Ensure licenses, cloud agreements, SLA compliance and optimization
• Build manual systems and later automate vendor performance visibility
• Lead/support vendor performance management
• Advise on license strategy during acquisitions and audits
• Assist in estimating license costs during planning and coordinate remediation
• Position does not have direct reports but may in future

Skills

Finance awareness

Clear communication

Detail oriented

Results driven

Stakeholder management

Organizational skills

Collaboration with PMO/Finance/Legal

Education

Bachelor's degree in business or technical discipline

Tools

SAP Purchasing Module

Job description

Role: Senior Manager - IT Vendor Management

Status: Regular, Full-Time

Reports to: Director - Vendor Management

Department: IT Strategic Planning and Vendor Management

Location: Hybrid – Birchmount (Markham) & Remote
Compensation: $122,963 - $169,689

Please note that the compensation range listed includes base salary and potential incentive pay. Incentives such as bonuses are not guaranteed and depend on individual performance and company results. Actual compensation within the range will be determined based on skills, experience, and qualifications.

Summary: The role of the Sr. IT Vendor Manager is to establish, maintain and evaluate vendor relationships to refine scope, reduce risk, align stakeholders, create flexibility, and manage cost in support of IT technology and services. This person supports hands‑on vendor relationships, commercial document review, negotiations, accounts, invoices and performance management for suppliers and partners. Success in this role requires the individual to perform at both a strategic and operational level and is not afraid to roll up their sleeves to be a good partner, and get things done.

In addition, the Sr. IT Vendor Manager will be responsible and accountable for building the infrastructure/systems (manually at first but will consider automation/platform later) to track, baseline, and manage vendor commitments/service levels, performance management, financial risk, etc. Work with pillars to become informed, and revert back to them documentation that supports vendor performance/management.

The Vendor Management team is a small, highly interdependent team that is critical to the efficient use of capital, adherence to policy and controls, allocations to the correct company/cost centre, compliance, and the timely payment to partners.

Responsibilities:

• Build, maintain and grow relationships with external vendors and suppliers.
• Baselining and modelling of offers, contract negotiation and risk management
• Process owner for vendor selection, onboarding, offboarding, and dispute management.
• Identifying opportunities for cost savings and managing third party spend to optimize financial outcomes
• Create flexibility where possible to manage risk. Understand vendor commercial frameworks and optimize rates while being a responsible steward of volumes
• Review and comment on commercial documentation (such as MSA’s, TSA’s, SOW’s, order forms, quotes, etc) to provide guidance and direction to the business and legal on potential risks and proactive explaining of non‑risks
• Monitor commercial landscape and identify future risk on supplier viability, step function increases on price due to supplier ownership changes, strategy, etc.
• Support the team and Finance business partners with ad‑hoc support as required. This would include support to Pillar leads and Finance business partners during the annual planning process.
• Track monthly and YTD spend, relative to budget to inform CIO on permissible burn rate. Provide visibility on material changes in volumes or rates.
• Create artifacts on contracting and renewal opportunities for future reference. Provide support to business stakeholders to acquire hardware, software, and services
• New vendor set‑up and vendor maintenance in the financial systems (SAP and GERS).
• Validate and process invoices for all IT goods, services, and contractor spend. Process through Accounts Payable in a timely manner in accordance with delegation of authority policies, and month end deadlines.
• Ensure Enercare and its vendors comply with software and technology licenses, cloud agreements, SLA’s and warranty. Optimize as appropriate.
• Build and maintain manual systems to provide visibility into vendor commitments, vendor performance, service levels, etc. and share with IT leaders. Evolve to automated systems/platforms when the maturity level is right.
• Lead/support vendor performance management (PIP equivalent) as appropriate
• Recommend effective license strategy options during the acquisition of licenses and related agreements.
• Assist in estimating costs (license related) during the planning process; facilitate licensing audits, and coordinate remediation activities when necessary.
• Position does not have direct reports at the moment but may have in the future.

Qualifications:

• Comfort with Finance as it applies to Procurement, Accounts Payable, Cash, Capital, and Projects
• Understanding of IT Vendor Management and Procurement policies and processes
• Clear communication whether written, verbal, or electronic
• Detail oriented, logical thinker with a high degree of organization. Motivated, self-disciplined individual with an ability to operate with limited direction and supervision
• Able to work understand and work closely and collaboratively with the Project Management Office, Finance and Legal
• Results driven, high degree of accuracy, and thoroughness
• Bachelor's Degree in a business or technical discipline or equivalent experience
• Minimum 5 years of experience in a strategic procurement, contract, and vendor management environment
• Ability to build and manage strong internal and external relationships
• Working knowledge of SAP Purchasing Module
• Competency in analyzing and reconciling budgets, invoices and vendor accounts
• Strong organizational and time management skills; ability to balance and effectively prioritize a large set of diverse vendors simultaneously.