Principal Specialist, Vendor Management

Why PayNet / Why Now

• Contribute to national critical infrastructure operating at increasing scale and complexity
• Do work with impact beyond a single organization as PayNet’s role in the ecosystem expands
• Join an organization focused on resilience, reliability, and stability as core operating standards
• Make decisions and contributions that matter at national scale.

TL; DR

• Manage PayNet’s vendor and contract lifecycle to ensure third-party engagements support operational, commercial, regulatory and governance requirements.
• Strengthen vendor governance, vendor relationships, contract discipline and renewal planning across assigned vendor and contract portfolios.
• Work closely with Procurement, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Technology and business stakeholders to help vendors deliver according to agreed terms while minimising operational and regulatory risks.
• Support continuous improvement in vendor management by improving performance visibility, managing risk exposure and identifying cost optimisation or contract improvement opportunities.

Why This Role Matters

• PayNet relies on third-party vendors and Critical Service Providers to support national payment infrastructure, operational continuity and service reliability.
• Strong vendor and contract management helps ensure vendors are properly onboarded, monitored, assessed and renewed based on performance, risk and business needs.
• This role helps reduce operational, commercial and regulatory exposure by ensuring vendor obligations, contract milestones and risk requirements are actively tracked.
• The role strengthens cross-functional governance by connecting Procurement with Legal, Risk, Compliance, Technology and business users throughout the vendor lifecycle.
• Better vendor visibility, contract discipline and performance tracking support more informed sourcing decisions, renewal strategies and cost optimization opportunities.

What You Will Actually Do

• Manage assigned vendor lifecycle activities, including onboarding, due diligence coordination, segmentation, risk classification, criticality assessment and vendor rationalisation support.
• Monitor vendor performance against agreed KPIs, SLAs, contractual obligations and service expectations, including coordinating review meetings and follow-up actions.
• Maintain accurate vendor master data and contract records, including key vendor information, documentation, repository updates and audit trail requirements.
• Review and support negotiation of procurement-related contracts, including Master Service Agreements, SaaS agreements, Statements of Work, amendments and renewal documents, in collaboration with Legal and business stakeholders.
• Prepare regular updates and reports on vendor performance, contract status, renewal pipeline, risk exposure and potential cost optimisation or contract improvement opportunities.

Examples of This Role in Practice

• Before a vendor is onboarded, you coordinate due diligence inputs, validate vendor classification, and refer criticality assessment requirements to the appropriate stakeholders for early review and alignment.
• When a key contract is nearing expiry, you alert stakeholders early, check performance history, review obligations, coordinate renewal actions and support negotiation of improved terms where possible.
• For CSPs or higher-risk vendors, you help ensure performance reviews, risk inputs, contractual obligations and service continuity considerations are properly captured and tracked.
• For management reporting, you consolidate vendor performance, contract status, renewal pipeline, risk exposure and cost optimisation opportunities into clear dashboards or update papers.
• During periodic vendor assessments, you work with business owners to document SLA or performance gaps, track recovery actions and escalate where service or regulatory risk is material.

What will make you successful?

Required

• Solid experience in vendor management, procurement, contract management or third-party governance, preferably in financial services, payments, technology or other regulated environments.
• Strong working knowledge of vendor lifecycle management, including onboarding, due diligence, vendor master data, segmentation, risk classification, criticality assessment and performance monitoring.
• Good contract management fundamentals, including contract review support, obligation tracking, renewal management, repository control and coordination with Legal, Risk, Compliance and Technology.
• Ability to independently manage multiple stakeholders, vendor relationships and contract matters, with strong follow-through, documentation discipline, issue tracking and timely escalation of risks or exceptions.
• Commercial and analytical acumen in spend analysis, cost optimization, contract savings, cost avoidance, vendor value tracking, and use of procurement or reporting tools such as CLM systems, SharePoint, Excel or Power BI.