Senior Manager Vendor Relationship Management

Senior Manager, Vendor Management is responsible for assessing, onboarding, and overseeing the health and performance of vendors involved in clinical trial execution. This role ensures that vendors meet the necessary qualifications and compliance standards, manage relationships, and oversee delivery to time, cost, and quality. The position leads vendor segments and handles technical aspects such as quality, compliance, business continuity, and inspection readiness.

The Senior Manager may also play a critical role in advancing digital transformation and AI adoption within the vendor ecosystem, integrating emerging technologies and data‑driven insights to elevate vendor governance, improve operational efficiency, and enable predictive risk management across the clinical trial portfolio.

This position is expected to have the ability to execute a variety of roles to meet the expectations of effective relationship management and driving compliance and high‑quality delivery.

• Oversee the performance and health of vendors within assigned segment to ensure delivery to plan – time, budget, quality.
• Develop and enhance vendor performance scorecards that drive identification of mitigations and contingencies against performance risks/issues.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key vendors.
• Act as the primary point of contact for relationship‑level vendor‑related issues and escalations.
• Assess portfolio resource demand and shortfall/mitigations for current and potential future portfolio with key vendors.
• Lead the integration of new vendors into the strategy and operating model(s) to strengthen success probability with new collaborations, including alignment to digital infrastructure, data standards, and AI‑enabled tooling requirements as part of onboarding.

• Mentor and develop team members, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to ensure cohesive vendor management practices.
• Engage with the DSOE’s Change Management function to facilitate process change, stakeholder readiness, and communication strategy as required.
• May have direct supervision over support staff.

• Ensure vendors comply with regulatory requirements and organizational standards, including proper documentation of partnerships.
• Conduct regular quality and compliance assessments of vendors.
• Develop and implement corrective action plans for any identified issues.
• Lead relevant governance meetings, including agendas, minutes, and timely follow‑up of action items.

• Develop and manage business continuity plans involving vendors.
• Conduct regular reviews and updates of business continuity plans.
• Ensure minimal disruption in clinical trial operations through effective continuity planning.
• Contribute to the qualification process, focusing on continuous improvement and stakeholder management.

• Ensure vendors are prepared for regulatory inspections and applicable audits.
• Coordinate and support inspection activities, including pre‑inspection preparation and post‑inspection follow‑up.
• Maintain inspection readiness documentation and records.

• Lead and facilitate internal governance bodies related to sourcing strategy and operating models.
• Accountable for continuous assessment of capacity management for external resources.
• Lead integration of new processes and changes to process across applicable vendors, emphasizing digital enablement, AI‑assisted workflow automation, and system interoperability.
• Oversee vendor training curriculum assignments and training compliance.
• Champion AI and digital transformation initiatives within vendor management, identifying opportunities to leverage automation, predictive analytics, and intelligent tooling.
• Drive technology and systems integration across vendor interfaces, ensuring alignment with data governance standards and clinical technology platforms (e.g., eTMF, CTMS, EDC) and emerging AI‑enabled capabilities.

• Strong…