[Hiring] Associate Director, Vendor Management @NTT DATA Services

Role Description

The Senior Hardware Procurement & Vendor Management Lead is responsible for overseeing end-to-end procurement, sourcing, vendor management, and hardware lifecycle activities for enterprise clients. The role will manage procurement operations across PC and end-user computing hardware, working closely with OEMs, distributors, resellers, Procurement, Commercial, Finance, Service Management, and client stakeholders.

This position combines strategic procurement, supplier management, hardware lifecycle planning, financial oversight, and client engagement. The successful candidate will ensure hardware requirements are met efficiently and cost-effectively while balancing client demand, inventory levels, supply chain considerations, service quality, and long-term technology roadmaps.

The role requires a strong understanding of B2B indirect procurement, hardware sourcing, vendor negotiations, managed services environments, and enterprise client management.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 8–12 years of progressive procurement, sourcing, vendor management, or supply chain experience, preferably within B2B indirect procurement.
• Strong experience managing procurement operations, suppliers, and vendors within an enterprise or managed services environment.
• Experience with SAP Ariba and ServiceNow.
• Experience managing hardware procurement and lifecycle activities, preferably within an enterprise IT or end-user computing environment.
• Experience working directly with enterprise clients and senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience managing challenging client situations, negotiations, escalations, and conflict resolution.
• Experience leading and coordinating matrixed or geographically distributed teams, including overseas resources.
• Strong experience with PC hardware manufacturers and suppliers such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, and global resellers/distributors is preferred.
• Direct, client-facing experience is strongly preferred.

Requirements

• Manage and oversee day-to-day procurement activities, including requisitions, purchase orders, order fulfillment, and vendor coordination with OEMs and suppliers.
• Lead the sourcing and quoting process for PC and end-user computing equipment, ensuring clients receive the best combination of price, quality, availability, and value.
• Partner with Procurement leadership to manage the end-to-end procurement process and ensure compliance with established policies, controls, and commercial agreements.
• Review supplier pricing, catalogue pricing, invoices, and payment requirements to ensure accuracy and alignment with contracted services and agreed pricing.
• Identify opportunities for cost optimization, process improvement, and procurement efficiency.
• Support the development and evaluation of RFPs, RFQs, supplier agreements, and procurement strategies.
• Establish and manage hardware roadmaps for Health Authorities (HAs) and provincial environments, including timelines for device transitions, refreshes, last buys, and retirement.
• Coordinate the transition to new hardware platforms and retirement of legacy devices while minimizing operational disruption.
• Ensure new hardware standards and associated knowledge base articles (KBAs) are established and maintained to support efficient service delivery.
• Gather key hardware decision points and recommendations from HA stakeholders and communicate financial impacts, risks, and trade-offs.
• Evaluate options such as hardware specifications, pricing models, purchase versus leasing, warranty coverage, and lifecycle strategies.
• Develop and maintain provincial hardware standards and ensure alignment between HA requirements, OEM capabilities, Commercial teams, and suppliers.
• Identify opportunities to standardize hardware and reduce complexity, cost, and support requirements.
• Manage hardware budgets established by HA clients and monitor spending against approved forecasts and financial targets.
• Identify, investigate, and address budget variances and unexpected procurement costs.
• Analyze financial impacts associated with hardware decisions and provide recommendations to stakeholders.
• Balance inventory investment, supply chain requirements, and client demand to minimize the cost of capital while maintaining appropriate availability.
• Identify opportunities to reduce total cost of ownership through improved sourcing, lifecycle planning, warranty strategies, and supplier management.
• Manage strategic relationships with major PC manufacturers, OEMs, distributors, and third-party suppliers.
• Lead regular meetings with OEMs and third-party vendors to review demand, supply, pricing, service performance, issues, and upcoming requirements.
• Establish clear expectations for vendor performance and proactively address service, supply, pricing, and quality issues.
• Develop and maintain supplier performance metrics and balanced scorecards in partnership with Commercial.
• Escalate vendor issues where appropriate and drive corrective actions through to resolution.
• Leverage supplier relationships and market knowledge to identify opportunities for improved pricing, service levels, supply continuity, and operational efficiency.
• Lead weekly meetings with HA clients and cross-functional teams to review hardware demand, forecasts, procurement requirements, and upcoming lifecycle activities.
• Work closely with client stakeholders to understand changing business requirements and translate them into actionable procurement and hardware strategies.
• Present recommendations, financial impacts, risks, and trade-offs to senior stakeholders.
• Build strong relationships with client teams and effectively manage challenging situations, competing priorities, and conflict resolution.
• Act as a key point of contact between clients, Procurement, Commercial, OEMs, vendors, and operational teams.
• Meet regularly with frontline service and support teams to identify recurring hardware issues, operational challenges, and opportunities for improvement.
• Analyze ServiceNow incident and service data to identify trends and problem hardware and develop proactive strategies to reduce end-user and HA impact.
• Evaluate warranty programs, parts availability, parts lockers, break/fix models, and other support strategies to improve service quality and optimize costs.
• Identify opportunities to improve sourcing processes, procurement tools, reporting, operational efficiency, and cost savings.
• Develop proactive strategies for managing hardware supply, product discontinuations, quality issues, and other potential impacts to end users.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across the hardware procurement and lifecycle management process.
• Develop and maintain balanced scorecards, procurement dashboards, forecasts, and management reporting in partnership with Commercial.
• Provide regular reporting on hardware demand, procurement activity, supplier performance, budgets, inventory, lifecycle milestones, and risks.
• Ensure accurate and timely reporting to support client and internal decision-making.
• Maintain appropriate procurement documentation, records, and governance controls.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with an employer contribution.
• Flexible spending or health savings account.
• Life and AD&D insurance.
• Short- and long-term disability coverage.
• Paid time off.
• Employee assistance program.
• Participation in a 401k program with company match.
• Additional voluntary or legally-required benefits.