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Job Title Manager of Vendor Management & Procurement - Central Services
Work Type Full Time - Permanent
Job Location Toronto
Practice Group/Department
Role Business Services
Description

Hybrid work schedule - Please note that this position can also be filled in any of our offices across Canada

Managing global and multi-regional suppliers is an essential factor in the success of Norton Rose Fulbright. The manager of vendor management & procurement will be required to lead the strategic sourcing and procurement across a total spend of approximately $150m, and growing.

You will be focusing on:

  • Work closely with the regional leads of the vendor management and/or procurement teams to ensure a consistent and standardized approach to all processes and policies implemented, and tools adopted
  • Innovate the direction of the function to ensure continued alignment to the strategic priorities of the firm and market standards (for example ESG)
  • Lead with vision in improving centralized procurement to be faster, more efficient and have an increased element of automation
  • Manage and maintain the structure of the function's processes and data including, but not limited to:
    • Contract Database
    • Benefits Tracker
    • Work In Progress Tracker
    • Methodologies, Policies & Processes
    • Vendor Categorisation & Governance Frameworks
  • Work closely with the C-suite management to highlight areas of improvement, business risk, and any performance issues with suppliers
  • Work closely with a variety of senior stakeholders, including finance, legal, data protection, security and IT to maintain adherence to standards in procuring goods and services for the firm
  • Improve general reporting from the function
  • Play an active role in the budgeting process both globally and across the five member firms
  • Build insights to key strategic vendors to build NRF intelligence and develop supplier strategies
  • Own the relationships for a mix of strategic and transactional suppliers, including their overall performance. Information must be collated in order to provide a holistic view of supplier performance to brief Norton Rose Fulbright stakeholders and as input to governance meetings
  • Adhere to agreed supplier governance / chair regular supplier relationship management governance meetings to ensure any supplier relationship, delivery, quality or commercial issues are highlighted and resolved
  • Manage against budget, including authorizing spend against that budget, tracking actual spend to provide good financial control over commercial performance
  • Understand the key cost drivers behind supplier invoices and review supplier invoices for accuracy (and approve / reject as appropriate) in order to ensure suppliers are billing accurately and in line with contract
  • Drive supplier innovation, cost reduction and performance improvement in order to maximize the value from supplier relationships over and above contractual commitments
  • Manage supplier commercial issues and negotiate their settlement to avoid escalation of such commercial issues into legal dispute
  • Own the negotiation of all contracts that are global and/or multi-regional
  • Be the firm's contact person for any client audit requests in regards to third-party contracts
  • Manage a team to:
    • Maintain supplier documentation, including ensuring contract changes, reports, notices and relevant supporting materials are stored with controlled access
    • Drive actions, minutes, management pack preparation and associated execution from the vendor and internal governance forums
    • Model contracted charges, including contract changes to provide accurate forecasts of spend, total cost of ownership, contract cost to complete, phasing of spend, build of detailed budgets
    • Manage end to end in-life contract changes for strategic suppliers in close collaboration with global and regional procurement teams as appropriate
    • Financial management of strategic suppliers managing indexation / foreign exchange variation, rate card validation and change

What you bring to the role:

  • 5+ years experience of management of multi-million dollar outsourced IT supplier relationships. Experience within legal services or professional services organizations preferable but not essential
  • A degree in commercial management or procurement would be beneficial
  • Ability to build strong trusting relationships with business partners and suppliers
  • Experience building collaborative environments, teaming cultures, and with engaging executives in the strategy development and financial management processes
  • Demonstrated experience in problem-solving, consensus building, and negotiation
  • Strong commercial awareness alongside risk management
  • Knowledge of contract law and IT Service Delivery Management (ITIL) preferred but not essential.
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite, in particular data manipulation in Excel and presentation build in PowerPoint
  • Experience of working in a global company and global capacity and the associated complexity on stakeholder management preferred but not essential

Ready to join a proactive and modern firm that provides an exceptional career experience in an inclusive and collaborative environment? Come join us!

As a global law firm, we embrace a culture of excellence and working hard, but always with a focus on flexibility, respect, diversity and openness. We strive to create an equitable, inclusive environment where everyone can bring their whole self to work and realize their career potential.

To find out more about how we integrate diversity, equity and inclusion in everything we do please click https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-ca/about/diversity-equity-and-inclusion.

If you are unable to apply for a position online or require any reasonable adjustments during the recruiting process, please contact TORHR_RH@nortonrosefulbright.com to further discuss your needs.

Please note that applicants who receive an employment offer may be required during their employment with Norton Rose Fulbright to provide proof of vaccinations recommended from time to time by government or public health authorities. Norton Rose Fulbright has a duty to accommodate those who are unable to get vaccinated due to protected grounds. For applicants who require an accommodation, please contact TORHR_RH@nortonrosefulbright.com to discuss further.

We thank all candidates for their applications, but please note that we will be contacting only those whom we invite for an interview.

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