Manager, Vendor Management and Expert Network Innovation, External Talent Function

Bain & Company; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Bain & Company is seeking a Manager, Vendor Management for its Primary Research capability in London. You will oversee the external vendor ecosystem, including expert networks and third-party partners, ensuring quality and efficient operations across complex programs.

You will drive performance tracking, support negotiations, onboarding/renewals, and offboarding, and translate priorities into clear plans with defined owners and timelines, collaborating with Legal, Risk, and Finance teams.

Qualifications

• Manager-level experience in vendor management, operations, procurement, or related field.
• Ability to manage multiple complex workstreams simultaneously.
• Strong project management and organizational skills, with ability to translate ambiguous problems into clear plans, owners, and next steps.
• Strong written communication skills, with ability to prepare concise, structured, senior-ready materials.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, including ability to coordinate across teams with different priorities and incentives.
• Analytical mindset with vendor performance, spend, usage, metrics and issue tracking.
• Commercial judgment and comfort supporting vendor negotiations, contract tracking, and performance discussions.
• High attention to detail and strong follow-through.

Responsibilities

• Manage Bain's external research vendor portfolio, including expert networks and third-party partners.
• Oversee vendor management activities: reviews, performance check-ins, issue-resolution, and follow-ups.
• Track vendor performance against service, quality, compliance, operational, and commercial expectations.
• Support vendor selection, onboarding, renewal, amendment, and offboarding with internal stakeholders.
• Support innovation initiatives to improve quality, consistency, efficiency, and scalability of Primary Research operations.
• Translate priorities into structured workplans with owners, timelines, risks, dependencies, and decisions.
• Prepare updates summarizing progress, risks, decisions, and next steps.
• Build trusted relationships across business, research, Legal, Risk & Compliance, Finance, technology, and client-service teams.
• Support communications with external vendors, including meeting prep and follow-up notes.

Skills

Vendor management

Operations

Procurement

Project management

Stakeholder management

Analytical skills

Executive communication

Job description

Bain & Company is recognized as one of the top international management consultancy firms. We assist major corporations worldwide with strategy, acquisitions, organizational design and performance improvement.

We are proud to be consistently recognized as one of the world's best places to work, a champion of diversity and a model of social responsibility. We believe that diversity, inclusion, and collaboration is key to building extraordinary teams. We hire people with exceptional talents, abilities, and potential, then create an environment where you can become the best version of yourself and thrive both professionally and personally.

Position overview

Bain's Primary Research capability supports high-quality insight generation for client teams through a broad ecosystem of external research partners, including expert networks, survey providers, specialist research vendors, and other third-party partners. The Manager, Vendor Management, will support category management, quality and risk-related initiatives, commercial and performance tracking, stakeholder communications, and operational improvement efforts.

Why this role matters

Primary Research is an important capability for Bain, helping teams develop distinctive market, customer, and expert perspectives. As research channels become more complex, Bain's ability to manage a high-performing vendor ecosystem, maintain quality standards, and support efficient research operations is increasingly important to delivering client impact.

Key responsibilities

• Support the ongoing management of Bain's external research vendor portfolio, including expert networks, specialist research vendors, and other third-party partners.
• Oversee recurring vendor management activities, including business reviews, performance check-ins, issue-resolution meetings, and commercial follow-ups.
• Track vendor performance against agreed service, quality, compliance, operational, and commercial expectations.
• Support vendor selection, onboarding, renewal, amendment, and offboarding processes in partnership with relevant internal stakeholders.
• Support innovation initiatives that improve the quality, consistency, efficiency, and scalability of Primary Research operations.
• Translate priorities into structured workplans with clear owners, timelines, risks, dependencies, and decision points.
• Prepare clear updates that summarize progress, key risks, decisions required and recommended next steps.
• Build trusted working relationships with internal stakeholders across business, research, Legal, Risk & Compliance, Finance, technology, and client-service teams.
• Support communications with external vendors, including meeting preparation, follow-up notes, action tracking, and issue escalation.

Required qualifications

• Manager-level experience in vendor management, operations, procurement, professional services, consulting operations, external talent management, product operations, or a related field.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple complex workstreams simultaneously.
• Strong project management and organizational skills, with ability to translate ambiguous problems into clear plans, owners, and next steps.
• Strong written communication skills, with ability to prepare concise, structured, senior-ready materials.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, including ability to coordinate across teams with different priorities and incentives.
• Analytical comfort with vendor performance, spend, usage, operational metrics, and issue tracking.
• Commercial judgment and comfort supporting vendor negotiations, contract tracking, and performance discussions.
• High attention to detail and strong follow-through.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with expert networks, primary research, survey vendors, external talent providers, professional services vendors, or knowledge/research operations.
• Experience supporting risk, compliance, fraud prevention, vendor quality, or third-party management initiatives.
• Experience working with product, data, or technology teams on business requirements, tool adoption, or operational enablement.
• Experience in consulting, private equity support, diligence operations, or other client-service environments.
• Experience preparing leadership-level updates or executive communications.
• Comfort working globally across time zones and stakeholder groups.

ABOUT US

Bain & Company is a global consultancy that helps the world's most ambitious change makers define the future. Across 63 offices in 38 countries, we work alongside our clients as one team with a shared ambition to achieve extraordinary results, outperform the competition, and redefine industries. We complement our tailored, integrated expertise with a vibrant ecosystem of digital innovators to deliver better, faster, and more enduring outcomes. Our 10-year commitment to invest more than $1 billion in pro bono services brings our talent, expertise, and insight to organizations tackling today's urgent challenges in education, racial equity, social justice, economic development, and the environment. We earned a gold rating from EcoVadis, the leading platform for environmental, social, and ethical performance ratings for global supply chains, putting us in the top 2% among other consulting firms. Since our founding in 1973, we have measured our success by the success of our clients, and we proudly maintain the highest level of client advocacy in the industry.