Senior Vendor Strategy Lead, CARE — Dallas Onsite

Southwest Airlines Co.; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 153,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fly for free on open seats

401(k) company match up to 9.3%

Profit-sharing contributions

Health insurance for you and dependets

Job summary

Southwest Airlines Co. is seeking a Sr Manager of Customer CARE Vendor Strategy to lead the external partner strategy for Southwest's Customer CARE organization.

You will oversee the full lifecycle of vendor relationships, drive business cases, cost models, and governance, and partner across CARE Operations, Legal, Finance, Technology, and vendor leadership to balance cost, service, risk, and continuity. You will guide outsourcing decisions, implement supplier agreements, and monitor performance

Qualifications

• Knowledge of outsourced service delivery, vendor governance, and performance management practices.
• Experience with Master Services Agreements, Statements of Work, service levels, performance requirements, remedies, and amendments.
• Ability to develop and evaluate pricing models, fully loaded cost models, and total cost of ownership.
• Experience leading vendor implementations, readiness reviews, risk mitigation, and cross-functional execution from contract to stable operations.
• Ability to build relationships and partner across Operations, Supply Chain, Legal, Finance, Technology, and vendor leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead vendor strategy across the vendor lifecycle, including sourcing assessments, business case development, delivery-location strategy, implementation, governance, and performance management.
• Partner with Operations Leaders to evaluate functions and processes for outsourced delivery, identify internal candidates, and balance cost, service, risk, and continuity.
• Develop and evaluate business cases, pricing models, and fully loaded cost models to support sourcing decisions, transition investments, and benefits.
• Lead development of business requirements and commercial terms that support vendor agreements, including Master Services Agreements and SOWs.
• Lead new vendor implementations from contract execution through stable operations by coordinating plans, milestones, dependencies, and risk management.
• Establish and maintain vendor performance measures, scorecards, governance routines, and escalation processes to support accountability.
• Manage the vendor portfolio view: spend, locations, performance, risk, renewals, amendments, and recommendations to optimize.
• Provide leadership to direct reports by setting priorities, coaching performance, and developing capabilities.
• Monitor industry, labor market, delivery-location trends to identify opportunities and risks and inform portfolio recommendations.
• May perform other job duties as directed by Employee's Leaders

Skills

Vendor strategy

Cross-functional leadership

Contracting & terms

Pricing models

Vendor onboarding

Stakeholder management

Leadership & coaching

Education

High School Diploma or GED

Job description

Southwest Airlines Co. is seeking a Sr Manager of Customer CARE Vendor Strategy to lead the external partner strategy for Southwest's Customer CARE organization.

You will oversee the full lifecycle of vendor relationships, drive business cases, cost models, and governance, and partner across CARE Operations, Legal, Finance, Technology, and vendor leadership to balance cost, service, risk, and continuity. You will guide outsourcing decisions, implement supplier agreements, and monitor performance