Strategic Vendor Manager

About Northern Trust

As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.

Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.

With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

About The Role:

We are seeking a Strategic Global vendor manager to join our team. Reporting to the Head of Global Strategic Vendor Management, this role will be responsible for overseeing and developing our Global Strategic vendor relationships.

As a dedicated Strategic vendor manager, you will play an integral part in the management and oversight of our Enterprise Global Strategic Vendors, helping our organisation build strong partnerships and achieve business success, across all of our enterprise functions.

The Strategic Vendor Manager will play a pivotal role in driving the strategic management of provider relationships, ensuring robust risk management practices, and leading the commercial strategy with external partners. The position requires providing leadership, shaping global strategic partnerships supporting both the business needs and the bank’s long-term strategic objectives.
As part of the Strategic Vendor Management Team, this is a high-profile role offering the opportunity to make a meaningful long term impact on Northern Trust’s global vendor partnership strategy.

The successful candidate will contribute to strengthening relationships globally, fostering strong resiliency, governance oversight and commercial productivity
The Key Responsibilities Of The Role Include:
Own and lead Relationship Management and Communication

• Develop and maintain strong, collaborative relationships with the Global Strategic vendors to achieve mutually beneficial goals and build trust - acting as the primary point of contact for high-level communication, strategic roadmaps, commercial oversight and issue resolution.
• Drive joint business planning sessions, Executive Service reviews, and continuous improvement initiatives
• Chair periodic Executive Strategic product and change management reviews, fostering a culture of partnership and mutual growth, identifying opportunities for innovation and partnership opportunities
• Facilitate effective communication and problem-solving between the business and Strategic Vendors

Effective Contractual and Agreements

• Drive and support the negotiation of legal documentation, contracts and commercials with procurement and legal
• Support procurement and drive structuring of clear vendor agreements to ensure both parties understand roles and responsibilities and rationalising MSAs where possible
• Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for the specific product lines, regularly reporting on their performance against agreed-upon metrics.
• Monitor contract terms and obligations ensuring adherence by both parties.
• Identify and drive cost reduction opportunities, value initiatives, and balance of trade opportunities
• Proactive vendor and contract global management, including negotiation and competitive RFIs to drive scale, pricing flexibility, and market competitiveness.
• Managing performance, creating a culture of accountability through clearly defined and meaningful SLA’s, KPI’s and scorecards.

Risk and Resiliency

• Proactively identify and assess supply chain risks, developing mitigation strategies to ensure business continuity.
• Monitor economic, and industry trends that could impact the Strategic Supplier performance, availability and vendor roadmaps

• Develop contingency plans for any critical components or services, providing deep business and vendor knowledge into NT resiliency planning and drive vendor outcomes against NT regulatory impacts

• Perform onsite visits to maintain core risk management, resiliency oversight and governance.
• Meet with clients regularly explaining our Third Party oversight policy and specific vendor impacts.
• Lead supplier due diligence and onboarding…