Role Purpose

The VP of Technical Vendor Management & Due Diligence is responsible for the end-to-end lifecycle of external technology partnerships. This leader will drive the strategic engagement with third-party technology companies, ensuring that all external solutions align with the organizations technical standards, scalability requirements, and long-term product roadmaps. You will be the primary technical authority for evaluating vendor capabilities, conducting rigorous due diligence, and negotiating complex Statements of Work (SOWs) to ensure operational excellence and risk mitigation.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Vendor Engagement & Evaluation

*   External Partnership Strategy:** Define and execute the strategy for engaging with external technology vendors, ensuring alignment with the internal engineering roadmap.

*   Technical Due Diligence:** Lead the technical evaluation of potential partners, focusing on codebase quality, architectural integrity, security protocols, and technical debt.

*   Functional Assessment:** Evaluate vendor product roadmaps to ensure long-term compatibility with internal business goals and emerging industry trends.

2. Technical Architecture & Scalability

*  Dimensioning & Scalability:** Conduct deep-dive evaluations of vendor systems to ensure they can meet the organizations performance, volume, and growth requirements.

*   Deployment Models:** Analyze and define optimal deployment models (SaaS, On-prem, Hybrid, Cloud-native) for integrated third-party solutions.

*  Interoperability:** Ensure external technologies integrate seamlessly with internal APIs, data structures, and security frameworks.

 3. Governance & Operational Excellence

*   SLA Definition:** Define and establish rigorous Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that protect the organizations operational integrity.

*   Performance Monitoring:** Implement frameworks for continuous monitoring of vendor performance against technical and operational benchmarks.

*   Risk Management:** Identify and mitigate technical risks associated with third-party dependencies, including business continuity and disaster recovery planning.

4. Negotiation & Contract Management

*   SOW Negotiation:** Lead the negotiation of technical Statements of Work (SOWs), ensuring clear definitions of deliverables, milestones, and acceptance criteria.

*   Commercial Alignment:** Partner with Procurement and Legal teams to ensure technical requirements are accurately reflected in Master Service Agreements (MSAs) and commercial terms.

*   Vendor Lifecycle Management:** Manage the full lifecycle of the relationship, from initial RFI/RFP through to offboarding or contract renewal.

Required Qualifications & Skills

Technical Expertise

*   Engineering Background:** 7+ years of experience in software engineering, systems architecture, or technical product management, with at least 5 years in a leadership role.

*   Due Diligence Mastery:** Proven experience conducting technical due diligence for M&A or large-scale vendor integrations.

*   Infrastructure Knowledge:** Deep understanding of cloud infrastructure (AWS/Azure/GCP), microservices architecture, and modern CI/CD pipelines.

Leadership & Strategy

*   **Negotiation Skills:** Exceptional ability to negotiate complex technical contracts and SOWs with global technology providers.

*   Stakeholder Management:** Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical executive leadership and cross-functional partners (Legal, Finance, Procurement).

*   **Analytical Rigor:** Strong data-driven approach to evaluating vendor performance and system scalability.

Education

*   Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field. MBA or equivalent business experience is a plus.