Senior Vendor Management Leader (Hybrid/Remote)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona; Phoenix (AZ); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona seeks a seasoned Vendor Management leader to own the enterprise operating model for third-party governance across Operations and Service Delivery. You will oversee vendor segmentation, lifecycle controls, and performance, ensuring risk is mitigated and value realized for members and the organization.

You will direct governance for strategic vendors from onboarding to renewal or exit, establish clear decision rights, and drive evidence-based oversight with senior

Qualifications

• 8 years of progressive experience in vendor management, supplier relationship management, third-party risk, contract governance, sourcing, or outsourced-service oversight.
• 5 years of people leadership experience, including establishing team priorities, performance expectations, and professional development plans.
• 5 years of direct accountability for complex vendor portfolios, including performance governance, contractual obligations, escalations, and executive business reviews.
• 3 years of experience applying vendor tiering, due diligence, risk assessment, issue remediation, and renewal or exit decision processes.
• Experience interpreting contracts, statements of work, service-level agreements, performance remedies, and financial commitments.

Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain the vendor governance operating model for assigned Operations and Service Delivery vendors, including vendor tiering, decision rights, governance cadence, required records, and escalation thresholds.
• Maintain a portfolio view of strategic and critical vendors, including services provided, accountable business owners, contract milestones, dependencies, material risks, and current performance status.
• Define governance requirements by vendor criticality and ensure appropriate oversight from onboarding through renewal, transition, or exit.
• Translate contracts and statements of work into an obligation register that identifies deliverables, service levels, reporting requirements, remedies, renewal dates, and accountable owners.
• Direct vendor performance reviews using agreed service, quality, financial, risk, and customer-impact measures; validate that reported results are supported by reliable evidence.
• Chair executive business reviews and formal governance forums focused on vendor commitments, decisions, risks, corrective actions, and value delivery.
• Require and oversee corrective action plans when performance, quality, control, or service commitments are not met; confirm root-cause analysis, accountable owners, due dates, and sustained resolution.
• Establish escalation and service-recovery protocols for vendor incidents, missed commitments, recurring defects, or emerging operational risks.
• Coordinate with business continuity, information security, compliance, privacy, legal, and operational leaders to assess vendor risk and track mitigation activities to closure.
• Monitor vendor concentration, subcontractor, dependency, financial viability, capacity, continuity, and reputational risks and elevate material exposure through the appropriate governance channel.
• Provide the vendor-governance assessment for sourcing, renewal, expansion, consolidation, remediation, and termination decisions without assuming ownership of enterprise strategic planning or executive-office communications.
• Partner with Procurement and Legal on contract language, performance protections, audit rights, remedies, transition assistance, and exit provisions.
• Partner with Finance and business owners to validate vendor charges, credits, penalties, cost commitments, and documented value realization.
• Lead transition and exit governance, including knowledge transfer, data disposition, continuity controls, open-obligation closure, and post-transition review.
• Maintain auditable vendor-governance records, including decisions, approvals, scorecards, issues, risk acceptances, remediation evidence, and contract-related actions.

Skills

Vendor governance

Supplier relationship management

Contract administration

Service-level management

Third-party risk

Performance remediation

Executive communication

Leadership in governance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, Finance, Information Systems, or related field

Tools

Microsoft Office 365

Data visualization tools

Contract repositories

Job description

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona seeks a seasoned Vendor Management leader to own the enterprise operating model for third-party governance across Operations and Service Delivery. You will oversee vendor segmentation, lifecycle controls, and performance, ensuring risk is mitigated and value realized for members and the organization.

You will direct governance for strategic vendors from onboarding to renewal or exit, establish clear decision rights, and drive evidence-based oversight with senior