Recruiting on behalf of our client, a leading financial services firm undergoing a period of significant transformation to their business. Seeking an experienced Head of IT Third Party Management, leading a department that executes the comprehensive management of supplier throughout the procurement process, including sourcing, contracts, vendor management and risk assessments for third party suppliers globally.

The company:

An organisation that provides a wide-range of different financial services that include (but not limited to) assets management, investments advisory and insurance.

The Job:

• The Interim Head of IT Third Party Management reports to the Group Technology Executive and Senior Business Stakeholders to deliver strategic sourcing, procurement, contract and vendor management services across the enterprise.
• The person appointed is responsible for pro-actively and transparently managing supplier risk and relationships through applying and embedding the principles, disciplines, policies, standards and procedures to deliver and manage an annual IT procurement portfolio of c£450m.
• You will have an outstanding track record of managing existing IT Procurement / Supplier Management functions and a company background that includes working for financial services organisations, or those with highly-regulated procurement management functions.

Key Responsibilities and Role Scope:

Working closely with relevant functional areas within the organisation, instrumental in defining, leading and implementing the sourcing strategy:

• Accountable for delivering sourcing strategy of services and products enabling the delivery of org strategy and future market innovations.
• Leads continual external review of market innovations, intelligence and insightful supplier information, making recommendations as to the application of and incorporation to company sourcing strategies.
• Facilitates the translation of Business and IT Strategies and targets into category sourcing strategies.
• Accountable for the regular review and amendment to sourcing strategies enabling business targets to be reached.

Leading Contract and Vendor Management services across the enterprise

• Sourcing of services and products and whole lifecycle supplier management.
• Contract and commercial negotiations and ongoing management of contracts and sourced services.
• Leads delivery of consistent and appropriate supplier relationships, delivering value, quality and innovation.
• Cultivates, strong trust based relationships with senior stakeholders, helping to articulate business need, benefits and desired outcomes through robust category planning, business case development and execution.

Responsible for driving Third Party Management

• Accountable for shaping and embedding a third party management framework across the business.
• Maintain governance and controls to ensure audit and regulatory requirements are met efficiently and sufficiently
• Working collaboratively, assess, define and mandate consistent methods, tools, standards and operational and supplier performance metrics.

Required Knowledge, Skills & Experience:

• Senior, extensive and relevant IT Third Party Management experience including both sourcing and post contract management.
• Quickly establishes credibility with peers and stakeholders.
• Strong influencing, negotiation, communication and stakeholder management skills across complex, matrix-structured organisations.
• Leading and transforming performance of IT Procurement / Third Party Management teams.
• Extensive and relevant experience in Financial Services or highly-regulated organisations.
• Experience of managing supply relationships an outsourced, off-shored delivery model in a complex environment.
• Commercial awareness of developing strategies, category plans and delivering results to improve performance within risk appetites.
• Strategic mind-set - able to grasp bigger picture and communicate this comprehensively at all levels.
• Experience of developing and implementing strategic priorities - can provide evidence of previous strategic decisions and their outcomes (including customer impact, value and risk mitigation).
• Business and Financial acumen - Has proven experience of managing budgets and delivering business cases.