[Hiring] Director, Vendor Management @Advatix

Role Description

The Director, Vendor Management leads the end-to-end vendor strategy and day-to-day management of the supplier base powering a national 6,000-store remodel program. This is a high-volume, high-velocity role accountable for onboarding, contracting, performance, and cost control across hundreds of vendors — general contractors, fixture and millwork suppliers, signage, lighting, flooring, HVAC/MEP trades, logistics, and specialty installers — delivering remodels at a sustained pace of dozens of stores per week.

The Director owns the data backbone of the program. This is a heavily analytical, Excel-intensive position: the successful candidate builds and maintains the vendor scorecards, cost models, capacity plans, and rollout trackers that keep thousands of concurrent work orders on schedule and on budget. They translate a sprawling vendor landscape into a controlled, measurable, repeatable machine.

Key Responsibilities

• Vendor Strategy & Portfolio Management
  • Own the overall vendor management strategy for the remodel program, segmenting the supplier base by trade, region, spend, criticality, and risk.
  • Build and maintain a scaled, qualified vendor network capable of supporting a sustained remodel cadence across all regions and store formats.
  • Establish vendor tiering and capacity models to match supplier throughput to the weekly/monthly rollout schedule and prevent bottlenecks.
  • Lead sourcing events (RFPs/RFQs), negotiate master service agreements, rate cards, and volume-based pricing across high-spend categories.
• High-Volume Vendor Operations
  • Manage onboarding, qualification, insurance/compliance verification, and activation for hundreds of vendors at program scale.
  • Coordinate concurrent vendor activity across thousands of active and upcoming store work orders, ensuring no site is under- or over-resourced.
  • Stand up and enforce standardized vendor playbooks, scopes of work, and service-level agreements (SLAs) to drive consistency across 6,000 locations.
  • Serve as the senior escalation point for vendor performance, capacity, quality, and delivery issues that threaten the rollout schedule.
• Data, Analytics & Excel Modeling
  • Design and maintain advanced Excel models for vendor scorecards, cost-to-complete, capacity planning, rate-card analysis, and rollout forecasting.
  • Build dynamic dashboards and trackers (pivot tables, Power Query, XLOOKUP/INDEX-MATCH, complex nested logic, what-if scenario modeling) to manage thousands of concurrent work orders.
  • Consolidate disparate vendor, cost, and schedule data into a single source of truth; produce executive-ready reporting on spending, performance, and program health.
  • Run cost variance, budget-vs-actual, and savings-tracking analyses; identify and quantify cost-reduction and consolidation opportunities.
  • Partner with PMO/IT to graduate critical models into scalable systems (e.g., procurement/PM platforms, BI tools) as the program matures.
• Performance, Compliance & Risk
  • Define and govern vendor KPIs and SLAs; run regular business reviews (QBRs) and performance scorecarding across the supplier base.
  • Ensure vendor compliance with contractual, insurance, safety, licensing, and regulatory requirements across all jurisdictions.
  • Proactively manage supply, capacity, and single-source risk; build contingency and backup-vendor plans to protect the schedule.
• Cross-Functional Leadership
  • Partner closely with Construction, Facilities, Store Operations, Finance, Legal, and the PMO to align vendor activity with the master remodel schedule.
  • Lead, coach, and develop a team of vendor managers, analysts, and coordinators; set workload allocation and performance standards.
  • Communicate program status, risks, and recommendations to senior leadership with clear, data-driven narratives.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive vendor management, procurement, or supplier-program experience, with 5+ years leading teams.
• Proven experience managing a high-volume vendor portfolio (hundreds of suppliers) on a large, multi-site program — retail rollout, construction/remodel, facilities, or comparable.
• Expert-level Excel skills — advanced formulas, pivot tables, Power Query, scenario/what-if modeling, and large-dataset management. This will be assessed in the interview process.
• Demonstrated success negotiating MSAs, rate cards, and volume pricing across multiple trade/spend categories.
• Strong command of vendor KPIs, SLAs, scorecarding, and performance governance.
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, Business, Construction Management, Finance, or related field (or equivalent experience).

Preferred

• Direct experience supporting a national retail remodel, new-store rollout, or multi-site construction program at 1,000+ locations.
• Familiarity with construction/facilities trades (fixtures, millwork, signage, lighting, flooring, MEP/HVAC) and general-contractor management.
• Proficiency with procurement/PM platforms (e.g., Coupa, SAP Ariba, Procore, Service Channel) and BI tools (Power BI, Tableau).
• Professional certification: CPSM, CPM, PMP, or equivalent.
• Master's degree or MBA.
• Must be able to work on Pacific time.