Vendor Management Specialist

Centific; Penang; Hybrid; MYR 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading AI data solutions company seeks a Vendor Management Specialist in Penang, Malaysia. The role involves managing vendor recruitment, maintaining the pool of language service providers, and driving talent attraction campaigns. The ideal candidate has a university degree, exceptional communication skills, and 3+ years of relevant experience in localization or AI recruitment. This position may require working overtime and can be remote, hybrid, or office-based depending on specific needs.

Qualifications

• University degree focusing on languages or HR.
• 3+ years of experience in localization or AI recruitment.
• Fluent in English and exceptional communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and grow the pool of language service providers.
• Drive end-to-end recruitment cycles and candidate screening.
• Build strong relationships with language service providers.

Skills

Written/oral communication skills

Social media knowledge

Organizational skills

Negotiation skills

Problem-solving

Team player

Education

University degree (preferably language or HR focus)

Tools

Microsoft Office 365

Job description

Centific is a frontier AI data foundry that curates diverse, high-quality data, using our purpose-built technology platforms to empower the Magnificent Seven and our enterprise clients with safe, scalable AI deployment. Our team includes more than 150 PhDs and data scientists, along with more than 4,000 AI practitioners and engineers. We harness the power of an integrated solution ecosystem—comprising industry-leading partnerships and 1.8 million vertical domain experts in more than 230 markets—to create contextual, multilingual, pre-trained datasets; fine-tuned, industry-specific LLMs; and RAG pipelines supported by vector databases. Our zero-distance innovation™ solutions for GenAI can reduce GenAI costs by up to 80% and bring solutions to market 50% faster.

Our mission is to bridge the gap between AI creators and industry leaders by bringing best practices in GenAI to unicorn innovators and enterprise customers. We aim to help these organizations unlock significant business value by deploying GenAI at scale, helping to ensure they stay at the forefront of technological advancement and maintain a competitive edge in their respective markets.

Overview

The Vendor Management Specialist is responsible for working with the pool of vendors. They drive vendor recruitment and run talent attraction campaigns. The Vendor Management Specialist runs tests with eligible vendors to determine suitability to particular projects. Some management experience required.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Maintaining and increasing the pool of global language service providers, both freelance individuals and agencies.
• Looking for suitable collaborators to cover the whole range of language and AI data services including but not limited to translation, editing, proofreading, machine translation post‑editing, language quality assessment, annotation, labeling, LLM authoring etc.
• Driving end‑to‑end recruitment cycle: sourcing, screening, negotiation, and onboarding.
• Running innovative talent attraction campaigns and maximizing all channels with a special focus on social media.
• Processing candidates’ information and assessing their suitability according to our requirements and the specifics of the given accounts.
• Managing translation tests with eligible candidates.
• Managing the negotiation of vendor contracts and rate cards in line with Centific’s scheme and specific projects or accounts.
• Processing and archiving NDAs, MSAs, and other collaboration agreements.
• Recording approved candidates in the vendor database.
• Supporting delivery teams in the communication with resources such as checking availability or chasing for responses.
• Building up language teams for new projects, languages and/or new accounts.
• Negotiating additional rates and discounts when required.
• Building strong relationships with language service providers to keep them engaged and committed to the company.
• Keeping the resource database updated.
• Acting as a point of escalation for collaboration issues or conflicts with vendors.
• Consistently working towards improving tools, technologies, and processes.
• Additional duties as required.

Requirements

• University degree, preferably with a language or HR focus.
• Has exceptional written/oral communication skills.
• Fluent in English.
• Basic familiarity with Microsoft Office 365 including Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Advanced knowledge of social media and online communities. Up to date on all the new trends in networking, social media tools, applications, and channels.
• 3+ years of relevant experience in localization or AI recruitment in an international environment.
• Familiar with localization community, knowing where to find top talents and how to attract them.
• Willingness to work overtime if necessary.
• Remote, office, or hybrid work environment depending on specific position.
• Very organized and able to work under pressure in a professional environment.
• Problem‑solver with a strong sense of initiative.
• Great team player that loves working with people and sharing experience with a positive attitude.
• Creative person with a deep understanding of sourcing strategies and strong negotiation skills.
• Active on social media networking.

Centific is an equal‑opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, mental or physical disability, medical condition, sex (including pregnancy), gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, familial status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.

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