[Hiring] Senior Technology Vendor Manager @Philo

Role Description

Philo is hiring its first dedicated Senior Technology Vendor Manager to own how we choose, contract, and get value from the technology vendors and partners that power our product and platform. Today, vendor relationships are spread across teams. You'll bring them under one clear owner, with a sharp eye on cost and a strong point of view on which tools and partners we should be using.

Technology is our largest and most complex area of spend, so it's where you'll spend most of your time: AWS, video transcoding, CDN, billing, and business intelligence. You'll be comfortable digging into AWS billing, Savings Plans, and usage data alongside our infrastructure engineers, and turning that into concrete cost recommendations. You’ll also be the go-to vendor partner for our Engineering and Data teams, helping them evaluate new tools and take promising products through a proof of concept before we commit.

This role suits someone who is organized, proactive, and research-driven. You'll know the vendor landscape well, form recommendations backed by analysis, and have a grounded sense of what's realistic for a company of our size and budget.

What you'll do

• You’ll own vendor management for Philo’s Engineering and Data teams, with cloud and infrastructure costs as the top priority.
• Cloud and infrastructure cost management:
  • Partner with our infrastructure engineers to understand AWS usage, billing, and commitments, and model the savings from Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, and other commercial options.
  • Manage and optimize spend with AWS, our CDN partners, and our transcoding providers to lower unit costs and improve ROI.
  • Track usage against commitments and flag risks or opportunities before they show up on the invoice.
• Engineering and Data vendor support:
  • Act as the vendor partner for Engineering and Data teams, helping them find, evaluate, and contract the tools, platforms, and services they need.
  • Build a simple intake process so Engineering and Data teams can request a new vendor and know what happens next.
  • Partner with IT and Legal on vendor security and risk reviews before new tools are onboarded.
  • Set and share vendor management best practices so engineers know how to engage vendors on their own.
• Vendor evaluation and recommendations:
  • Research the vendor landscape for new projects and recommend the options that best fit our product needs, quality bar, and budget.
  • Own the evaluation and selection criteria for new vendors, and run structured comparisons when we're choosing between them.
  • Support "build vs. buy" decisions by laying out the cost, effort, and tradeoffs of each path.
  • Run proofs of concept with Engineering and Data teams before we commit to a new product.
• Negotiation and contracts:
  • Lead negotiations on pricing, business terms, and SLAs for new agreements and renewals.
  • Manage the full contracting lifecycle with Legal, including NDAs, MSAs, SOWs, and purchase orders, through renewal or termination.
  • Keep a central record of every technology vendor’s owner, contract terms, cost, and renewal date, and start renewal conversations early enough to negotiate.
• Budget and financial partnership:
  • Work with Finance to model the cost of vendor contracts and forecast committed spend.
  • Give leadership a clear view of where our vendor dollars go, where we're overlapping, and where we can save.
  • Identify tools to consolidate or retire as our needs change.
• Relationship management:
  • Serve as Philo's main point of contact for key vendors and escalate issues internally when needed.
  • Run quarterly business reviews with strategic vendors, measuring performance against SLAs.
  • Coordinate vendor meetings at CES and other industry events.

Qualifications

• 8–10+ years in vendor management, technology procurement, or a closely related role, with most of that time spent on technology and cloud vendors.
• Hands-on experience managing a relationship with a major cloud provider (AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure), including reading usage and billing data and recommending commitment or pricing changes.
• Strong knowledge of technology products and categories, enough to compare vendors on substance and make a confident recommendation.
• A track record of negotiating pricing, terms, and SLAs that produced measurable savings or better terms.
• Experience running contracts through legal review, including NDAs, MSAs, and SOWs.
• Financial fluency. You've owned or managed vendor budgets, can build a cost model, and know what's realistic to spend.
• Strong research and analysis skills, with the judgment to turn findings into a clear recommendation.
• Highly organized and proactive. You plan ahead, keep many workstreams moving, and spot problems before they're urgent.
• Clear communicator who works well with engineers, finance, legal, and non-technical teams, in person and remotely.
• Comfortable working independently in a lean, fast-moving team.

Nice to have

• Experience at a streaming or media company, or familiarity with video technology such as transcoding, stream acquisition, and CDNs.
• An engineering or technical background that helps you find creative ways to lower AWS and CDN costs.
• Familiarity with FinOps practices and cloud cost tools (for example, AWS Cost Explorer).
• Experience with billing, payments, or BI and analytics platforms.
• Experience standing up a vendor management or procurement function from scratch.

Benefits

• Full health, dental and vision coverage for you and your family.
• 401(k) plan with employer contributions (we match 100% of deferrals up to 3% of pay and 50% of the next 2% of pay).
• Flexible working hours.
• Up to 20 weeks of fully paid parental leave.
• Unlimited paid time off for vacation and sick leave.
• $2,000 annual vacation bonus (we pay you to take a two week vacation).
• $5,250 annually for professional development and educational assistance.
• $1,250 annual home office + TV stipend during first year of employment ($250 annually thereafter).
• $500/month ($6,000/year) bonus for employees who commit to working at least 3 days per week in our offices, plus generous commuter benefits ($315/month towards transit, rideshare, bike rental, or parking at our HQ office in San Francisco).
• Free Gympass subscription — an all-in-one corporate benefit that gives employees the largest selection of gyms, studios, classes, training and wellness apps.
• Dog-friendly office.
• And much more!