Director of Commercial & Vendor Management in London

One of the UK’s leading insurance groups requires a Director of Vendor Management and BPO. This is a hugely ambitious insurance company that has grown through acquisition to become a leader in the industry.

The position owns the end-to-end commercial relationship across captive and outsourced operations portfolio. This is a hands-on, senior role combining procurement/contract governance with day-to-day provider relationship management. The postholder provides the commercial authority and credibility needed to hold our outsource provider to the terms of their agreements and to escalate effectively when performance falls short.

This is the single point of commercial accountability for the company's multi-provider outsource portfolio. It is the most critical retained hire in the vendor management office structure. This role acts globally to manage existing relationships and ensure a clear articulation of the scope and quality of the service. The role owns the offshore strategy and works with the regions/providers to ensure global adoption, business process improvement, and technology innovation across the broker value chain.

• Own all commercial contracts with providers end-to-end.
• Lead contract negotiations/renewals, rate renegotiations, and SLA amendments; ensure the company is never in a position of auto-renewing on unfavourable terms.
• Key individual on any due diligence activities.
• Manage the contract register; maintain current, executed versions of all agreements including IDTAs.
• Instruct external legal advisers on contract matters; review and approve legal advice before escalation to COO.
• Drive MSA/contract renegotiations from input-based to outcome-based/step-down FTE provisions as automation matures.
• Act as the primary relationship owner with all three providers at account director/board level.
• Chair quarterly business reviews (QBRs) with each provider; ensure QBR outputs feed into the performance dashboard.
• Manage the escalation path for all P1/P2 incidents across the outsource portfolio.
• Maintain constructive but commercially robust relationships.
• Oversee onboarding of any future providers within the multi-provider model.
• Accountable for SLA compliance across all three providers; review the weekly performance pack produced by the Performance Analyst.
• Approve the monthly and quarterly performance reporting presented to the Group Operations Committee.
• Monitor benefits realisation against the Harley business case; escalate material variances to the COO and CFO.
• Oversee the VMO tooling suite (vendor management platform, SLA dashboards, contract repository); approve tooling changes.

The role reports directly to the COO and attends the Group Operations Committee. It is the most commercially exposed position in the retained VMO structure and requires an individual capable of holding captives and three provider relationships simultaneously while maintaining regulatory compliance and delivering a programme of continuous improvement.

This is a wonderful opportunity to join a hugely ambitious organisation on a growth trajectory reporting directly into the board COO. The role can be based out of the London or regional offices and is 2/3 days in the office with the rest remote. The package is based in the region of £150K with a total package in excess of £200K.