Yamaha has an excellent opportunity for a Vendor Managerto join our team in our Kennesaw, GA location.The IT Vendor Management Leader performs and/or manages a combination of contract, performance, relationship, and risk management roles with IT vendors. He or she owns and must understand contractual, commercial, and operational working relationships with vendors to ensure that contractual commitments are delivered across IT.

What you'll be doing:

• Establish internal and external policies, standards, processes, and templates for working with vendors.
• Understand IT vendor spending by category, cost center, region, and vendor and identify and execute value opportunities with key vendor relationships.
• Classify, rationalize, and optimize the vendor portfolio, and concentrate efforts on managing the most strategic vendors.
• Manage regular senior-level collaborative meetings between the vendor and the client.
• Create contract, performance, relationship, and risk management procedures.
• Ensure there are clear metrics across all key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure strong performance management.
• Manage the team whose activities are related to vendor relationships, contract and commercial terms and conditions, and product or service performance. Perform this function related to information systems, external software sources, and externally sourced IT services.
• Analyze problem areas and help resolve issues and disputes.
• Collect, consolidate, and communicate detailed reports and key vendor data to stakeholders on vendor performance, risk, and relationships. Foster analytics-driven decisions based on this data.
• Inform IT vendor managers/procurement and business operations about information gleaned from market investigation reports on sourcing methods, products, and potential vendors, and while conducting vendor analysis.
• Establish process and partner effectively across the organization with vendor evaluation and selection criteria, procedures, and best-practice tools and templates.
• Manage relationships with vendors for cost effectiveness, build a main vendor repository to ensure effective contract management and vendor relationships, and plan for major software upgrades, ensuring that change management procedures/methodologies are used.

What you need to be successful:

• Strong ability to interact with vendors, business analysts, and managers, and communicate effectively with executives across the organization.
• Interface with finance, corporate counsel, accounts payable, procurement/purchasing, and technical teams.
• Customer-focused approach to delivering contract management services to internal customers.

• Knowledge of best practices for IT contract negotiation tactics and strategies.
• Minimum of ten years' experience with negotiating and managing contract life cycles, with an emphasis on technology or IT service agreements.

• Strong relationship and interpersonal skills to be applied when working with vendors across the entire contract life cycle.
• Ability to distinguish what is required versus what is "nice to have," and ability to manage conflicting stakeholder needs and wants.
• Build and develop the team to work effectively and consistently on a global basis
• Bridge communications between the IT and business organizations, with a focus on developing an understanding of how to structure contracts to deliver against business needs and goals.
• Leverage interpersonal relationship strengths to manage disputes and drive change in vendor behaviors, and create a working environment where vendors receive incentives to change behaviors and meet performance goals.
• Manage multiple complex contracting initiatives across organizational boundaries.
• Make decisions efficiently that add value and are achieved in what can be tight time frames.
• Communicate with clarity to internal and external stakeholders and with vendors.
• Create a customer-focused, service-based approach to working with stakeholders and vendors that emphasizes the creation and cultivation of cross-organizational relationships.
• Analyze and evaluate change to drive continuous improvement in the process of contract management, and incorporate contract management trends.

Don't meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and underrepresented minorities are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Yamaha, we understand that talent comes in various forms, as such we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles!

Yamaha intends to offer the selected candidate base pay dependent on job-related experience. Base pay is part of Yamaha's Total Reward program, our Talent Acquisition Team will share more details as candidates progress.

What's in it for you:

• 401(k) and Profit Sharing
• Fertility Benefits
• 37.5 work week
• Medical, Dental, Vision
• Life and AD&D Insurance
• Wellness Program
• Short-Term Disability Coverage (for hourly roles)
• Long-Term Disability
• Student Debt Repayment Benefits
• Ability to borrow Yamaha product

Reports to: Director of IT Effectiveness

Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identify, national origin, veteran or disability or any other status protected by federal, state, or local law. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.