Strategic IT Vendor Manager — Cost, Risk & Partnerships

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

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.