Vendor Management Lead

RELX INC; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

A global information and analytics company is looking for a Vendor Management Lead in Greater London. This role will focus on vendor management strategy, leading contract negotiations, and optimizing vendor relationships to drive business success. Ideal candidates should have extensive experience in IT sourcing and vendor strategy, along with strong leadership skills. This position promotes a healthy work/life balance and offers flexible working hours.

Benefits

Comprehensive Pension Plan

Home, office, or commuting allowance

Generous vacation entitlement

Flexible working hours

Employee Assistance Program

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in IT sourcing, vendor strategy, technology vendor management, and transformation.
• Strong leadership experience in managing RFPs and vendor selections.
• Deep understanding of the IT services landscape including cloud and managed services.

Responsibilities

• Defining and owning the vendor selection and governance strategy.
• Developing vendor location strategy to optimize cost and talent quality.
• Collaborating with Global Procurement & Legal for vendor selection and negotiations.

Skills

IT sourcing

Vendor strategy

Technology vendor management

Contract negotiations

Stakeholder engagement

Job description

Vendor M anagement Lead

Are you enthusiastic about building strong partnerships? Do you thrive on negotiating deals and driving value through vendor relationships?

About the team:

The SAM and Sourcing team leads our technology & tooling purchasing with a focus on value for money, compliance and technology selection processes. The team is geographically dispersed across multiple time zones with hubs in the UK, US and Philippines to support our customer base and end users during their working day. The team works closely with Legal, Finance, Architecture, Global Procurement and our Technology Leadership.

About the role:

You will join a broader team focused on software and service management, taking ownership of Elsevier’s technology services vendor management strategy. Your mission is to ensure third‑party providers are selected, governed, and optimised to deliver maximum value, mitigate risk, and support long‑term business objectives.

This role centres on outsourcing, staff augmentation, and black‑box service contracts, requiring strong leadership and strategic thinking to manage complex vendor relationships effectively.

Key responsibilities:

• Defining and owning the vendor selection and governance strategy across staff augmentation, external development, and managed/black box staffing services in Technology.
• Developing vendor location strategy (e.g., onshore/offshore/nearshore balance) to optimise cost, time zones, and talent quality; in synergy with our Technology location strategy and our broader RELX sister companies’ vendor strategy.
• Partnering with Global Procurement and Legal to establish and maintain a vendor shortlist, including standardised contracts and compliance checks.
• Collaborating with Global Procurement & Legal to lead the full RFP lifecycle—from requirements and evaluation through to vendor selection and tough negotiations.
• Building and running governance processes for ongoing performance management, financial oversight, and risk control.
• Leading regular strategic and operational vendor reviews to confirm contractual compliance and performance, identify and track improvement actions and opportunities to deliver additional value from the relationship.
• Engaging with relevant IT stakeholders, ensuring a level of due diligence and governance is in place for the onboarding, service introduction and ongoing management of vendors.
• Partnering with senior IT leaders to design bold sourcing strategies and identify/lead vendor consolidation initiatives to reduce fragmentation and cost inefficiencies.
• Engaging with vendors to drive and invite thought leadership, innovation, and specialist added value by leveraging a strong working relationship.
• Driving measurable value through proposed renegotiations, rationalisation, and innovative sourcing models (multi‑vendor, offshoring, managed services) in partnership with Global Procurement and Legal.
• Providing transparency and communication across the technology organisation regarding approved vendors, processes, and guidelines.
• Benchmarking and introducing best practices from leading technology organisations.
• Establishing reporting metrics (cost savings, vendor performance, risk reduction, and satisfaction).
• Partnering with Business Continuity, ISDP and Technical Resilience to ensure vendor compliance with our risk and security management standards and policies, and Architecture to ensure compliance with our Technology standards.

Requirements:

• Extensive experience in IT sourcing, vendor strategy, technology vendor management and transformation—ideally from a top‑tier firm.
• Strong leadership experience running RFPs, vendor selections, and high‑stakes contract negotiations.
• Deep understanding of the IT services landscape (cloud, infrastructure, A W S, managed services).
• Proven results in driving cost savings, vendor rationalisation, and performance uplift.
• Experience managing large‑scale external supplier portfolios (>$100M spend).
• Excellent stakeholder engagement across technology, procurement, and executive leadership.
• Understanding of financial governance, compliance, and risk management in vendor engagements.

Why join us?

Join our team and contribute to a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence. If you are ready to advance your career and make a significant impact, we encourage you to apply.

Work in a way that works for you

We promote a healthy work/life balance across the organisation. We offer an appealing working prospect for our people. With numerous wellbeing initiatives, shared parental leave, study assistance and sabbaticals, we will help you meet your immediate responsibilities and your long‑term goals.

Working flexible hours - flexing the times when you work in the day to help you fit everything in and work when you are the most productive.

Working for you

• Comprehensive Pension Plan
• Home, office, or commuting allowance.
• Generous vacation entitlement and option for sabbatical leave
• Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Family Care leave
• Flexible working hours
• Personal Choice budget
• Internal communities and networks
• Various employee discounts
• Recruitment introduction reward
• Employee Assistance Program (global)

About the business –

A global leader in information and analytics, we help researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. Building on our publishing heritage, we combine quality information and vast data sets with analytics to support visionary science and research, health education and interactive learning, as well as exceptional healthcare and clinical practice. At Elsevier, your work contributes to the world’s grand challenges and a more sustainable future. We harness innovative technologies to support science and healthcare to partner for a better world.

USA Job Seekers:

EEO Know Your Rights .

RELX is a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers, enabling them to make better decisions, get better results and be more productive.

Our purpose is to benefit society by developing products that help researchers advance scientific knowledge; doctors and nurses improve the lives of patients; lawyers promote the rule of law and achieve justice and fair results for their clients; businesses and governments prevent fraud; consumers access financial services and get fair prices on insurance; and customers learn about markets and complete transactions.

Our purpose guides our actions beyond the products that we develop. It defines us as a company. Every day across RELX our employees are inspired to undertake initiatives that make unique contributions to society and the communities in which we operate.

We are committed to providing a fair and accessible hiring process. If you have a disability or other need that requires accommodation or adjustment, please let us know by completing our Applicant Request Support Form or please contact 1‑855‑833‑5120.

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We are an equal opportunity employer: qualified applicants are considered for and treated during employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship status, disability status, protected veteran status, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.