Business Process Excellence Lead, Third Party Risk Management

Applied Materials; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 108,000 - 148,500; Full time

Job summary

Applied Materials in Austin, TX is seeking a Business Process Excellence Lead for TPRM who will own the end‑to‑end process architecture and design for third‑party risk management and its integration with contracting. You will prototype solutions with no‑code/low‑code/AI tools and partner with Technology, AI, and Analytics teams to deliver scalable improvements.

The role emphasizes governance, cross‑functional collaboration with Legal and Contract Management, and the ability to translate business

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Information Systems, Data Analytics, or a related field.
• 6+ years of process excellence, BPM, or equivalent experience with hands-on design and optimization.
• Experience owning process architecture and control optimization in complex environments.
• Hands-on process mining experience (Celonis, Signavio, SAP Process Intelligence, Power Automate).
• Ability to design new capabilities or operating models from concept through adoption.
• Proven ability to lead through influence in a matrixed environment with legal, technology, analytics, and business partners.
• Strong executive communication skills to translate complex process work into decision-ready narratives.
• Data literacy and use of process performance metrics for prioritization.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end TPRM process architecture and integration with Contracting.
• Design and standardize processes using BPMN, SIPOC, VSM, etc.
• Define ownership, hand-offs, and escalation across the lifecycle.
• Maintain a single source of truth for process artifacts and change history.
• Continuously optimize processes to reduce cycle time and manual effort.
• Design risk-appropriate, audit-ready controls and align with regulatory expectations.
• Partner with Legal and Contract Management to align contracting with risk processes.
• Prototype process solutions using no-code/low-code/AI tools within governance framework.

Skills

Process Architecture

Design & Standardization

Data-Driven Improvement

Technology Enablement

Cross-Functional Influence

Executive Communication

Process Mining

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business/Engineering/IS/Data Analytics

Tools

Celonis

Signavio

SAP Process Intelligence

Power Automate Process Mining

Job description

Role Summary

The Business Process Excellence Lead, TPRM owns the process architecture, design, and optimization for Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) and its integration with Contracting. The role defines and standardizes how work flows across the TPRM lifecycle, designs risk‑appropriate and audit‑ready controls, and drives measurable process improvements that expand the team's capacity through smart design and technology enablement.

As the process architect for TPRM, this role translates business needs into clear process requirements that guide technology, automation, and AI investment, and targets manual, effort‑intensive work for conversion into reusable capability designed once and reused across the portfolio. It partners with Legal and Contract Management to integrate contracting workflows with risk management processes.

This is an individual contributor role that leads through expertise, governance, and cross‑functional partnership. The ideal candidate is comfortable rapidly prototyping process solutions using no‑code, low‑code, or AI‑powered tools to validate design intent. Production build and scale are delivered in partnership with Technology, AI, and Analytics teams.

Key Responsibilities

Process Architecture & Standardization

• Own the end‑to‑end process architecture for TPRM and its integration with Contracting.

• Design, document, and standardize processes using industry‑standard modeling techniques (BPMN, SIPOC, VSM, etc.).

• Define process ownership, hand‑offs, decision rights, and escalation paths across the TPRM lifecycle and cross‑functional partners.

• Establish process design standards, taxonomy, and documentation conventions for the function.

• Maintain a single source of truth for process artifacts, versioning, and change history.

Process Optimization & Control Design

• Continuously optimize TPRM processes to reduce cycle time, remove manual effort, and improve quality and consistency.

• Design and refine risk‑appropriate, audit‑ready controls that balance assurance with efficiency.

• Identify simplification opportunities, redundant steps, and low‑value activities; propose and drive changes with stakeholders.

• Partner with internal audit and compliance partners to align control design with audit and regulatory expectations.

• Establish clear success criteria for every process change, including expected impact on cycle time, quality, and risk coverage.

Data‑Driven Improvement & Technology Enablement

• Apply process mining and other data‑driven techniques to discover, measure, and prioritize improvement opportunities across the TPRM and Contracting processes.

• Establish process performance baselines and improvement KPIs (cycle time, throughput, rework rate, compliance rate) and build a fact‑based improvement backlog prioritized by value, feasibility, and risk.

• Translate optimized process designs into clear business requirements that guide technology, automation, and AI investment, ensuring solutions are grounded in process design rather than tool preference.

• Prototype process solutions to validate design intent, using no‑code, low‑code, or AI‑powered tools within Applied's AI governance framework, with production build and scale delivered by Technology, AI, and Analytics teams.

• Serve as the process voice in solution design reviews, ensuring build outcomes match intended process behavior.

Contracts Partnership & Integration

• Partner with Legal and Contract Management to integrate contracting workflows with TPRM processes, ensuring risk decisions translate cleanly into contract terms, clauses, and post‑signature obligations.

• Design and govern end‑to‑end hand‑offs between TPRM and Contracting, including intake, risk assessment outcomes, clause requirements, and obligation tracking, to eliminate blind hand‑offs, duplicate data entry, and rework.

• Support the design and governance of a risk‑related standard clause framework in partnership with Legal and Contract Management, ensuring clause requirements are traceable to underlying risk assessments and controls.

• Partner on obligation and post‑signature management processes (e.g., SLA reviews, security attestations, insurance renewals, right‑to‑audit exercises) so contractual risk coverage is enforced, not just documented.

Governance & Continuous Improvement

• Establish a continuous‑improvement discipline (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma principles) within the TPRM function.

• Track and report process performance and improvement outcomes to leadership on a regular cadence.

• Capture lessons learned and build a reusable library of process patterns, templates, and playbooks that scale as the Risk & Compliance function matures.

• Coach process owners and business partners on process thinking, improvement techniques, and disciplined change adoption.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Information Systems, Data Analytics, or a related field.

• 6+ years of process excellence, business process management, or equivalent experience, including hands‑on process design and control optimization.

• Demonstrated process‑architecture ownership and control optimization in a complex and/or regulated environment.

• Hands‑on process mining experience (e.g., Celonis, Signavio, SAP Process Intelligence, or Power Automate Process Mining).

• Demonstrated ability to design new capabilities or operating models from concept through enterprise adoption.

• Proven ability to lead through influence in a matrixed, cross‑functional environment, partnering with legal, technology, analytics, and business stakeholders.

• Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to translate complex process work into clear, decision‑ready narratives.

• Data literacy and comfort using process performance metrics to drive prioritization and continuous improvement.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in procurement, TPRM, risk management, compliance, or supply chain process domains.

• Familiarity with contract lifecycle management (CLM) platforms and third‑party risk platforms.

• Lean Six Sigma certification (Green or Black Belt) or equivalent process discipline credential.

• Familiarity with automation (RPA, workflow, integrations) and/or AI‑powered solutions (e.g., agents, chatbots), including partnering with technology teams to bring solutions to enterprise scale.

• Familiarity with no‑code, low‑code, or AI‑powered tooling for prototyping and design validation.

Key Skills / Competencies

• Process Architecture & Design. Structured process modeling, standardization, and end‑to‑end ownership across complex, cross‑functional workflows.

• Control Design & Risk Discipline. Designs risk‑appropriate, audit‑ready controls that balance assurance with efficiency and align to audit and regulatory expectations.

• Data‑Driven Improvement. Applies process mining and performance metrics (cycle time, throughput, rework rate, compliance rate) to prioritize and drive measurable improvements.

• Technology & AI Enablement. Translates process design into clear business requirements for technology, automation, and AI, and prototypes solutions using no‑code, low‑code, or AI‑powered tools to validate design intent.

• Cross‑Functional Partnership & Influence. Leads through influence in a matrixed environment, partnering with Legal, Contract Management, Technology, AI, Analytics, and business stakeholders without direct authority.

• Executive Communication & Continuous Improvement. Translates complex process work into clear, decision‑ready narratives, and coaches process owners and business partners on process thinking and disciplined improvement.

Additional Information

Compensation

$108,000.00 - $148,500.00

Location

Austin, TX

Time Type

Full time

Employee Type

Assignee / Regular

Travel

Yes, 10% of the Time

Relocation Eligible

No

Applied Materials is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law.