Vendor Management Operations Manager

The Vendor Management Office (VMO) is a brand-new function designed to provide oversight of vendors by managing key relationships, ensuring optimal performance, ensuring compliance with contracts, and aligning with AXA XL's strategic goals.

This role is critical in ensuring that AXA maintains a resilient vendor ecosystem while strategically leveraging vendor partnerships to drive innovation and operational excellence.

Whatyou’ll be doing

What will your essential responsibilities include?

Business Review Planning and Governance

• Own and maintain the integrated calendar of Business Reviews across the VMO vendor portfolio, aligning review frequency and scope with vendor segmentation, criticality and governance requirements.
• Coordinate with Vendor Managers to confirm objectives, agenda, participants, timelines, inputs and expected outcomes for each review.
• Apply standard governance, templates, roles and quality criteria while allowing proportionate tailoring to the vendor relationship and review type.

Review Preparation and Delivery

• Manage the end-to-end preparation cycle, including invitations, workplans, data requests, content deadlines, pre-reads and review packs.
• Consolidate inputs from Vendor Managers, Procurement, Contract Management, Finance, TPRM, Operational Resilience and business stakeholders into a coherent, decision-oriented narrative.
• Validate the completeness and consistency of performance, financial, contractual, risk, service, innovation and relationship information before each review.
• Facilitate preparation checkpoints and rehearsals with Vendor Managers, highlighting gaps, dependencies, decisions required and matters for escalation.

• Support the effective delivery of Business Reviews by coordinating logistics, materials, attendance and meeting records.

Actions, Reporting and Management Information

• Document decisions, actions, owners and due dates, and maintain a consolidated action log with clear escalation paths for overdue or high-impact items.
• Partner with Vendor Managers to monitor commitments through completion and ensure outcomes are reflected in vendor plans and subsequent reviews.
• Produce management information on review completion, attendance, action closure, recurring themes, escalations and portfolio-level trends for VMO leadership.

Contract Management Operations

• Maintain an accurate contract inventory and key contract data, including scope, term, commercial commitments, service levels, notice periods, renewal dates and accountable owners.
• Coordinate with Vendor Managers, Procurement, Legal, Finance and business stakeholders to monitor contractual obligations, deliverables, dependencies and required approvals.
• Track contract milestones, expiries, renewals and termination notice periods, providing timely alerts and supporting forward planning to avoid unplanned extensions or commercial risk.
• Support the administration and governance of contract changes, amendments, statements of work and renewals, ensuring decisions and documentation are complete and appropriately recorded.
• Monitor service levels, contractual commitments, consumption and commercial performance; identify variances and coordinate remediation or escalation with the Vendor Manager.
• Provide contract status, upcoming decisions, risks, obligations and commercial insights as inputs to Business Reviews and VMO management reporting.

VMO Operations and Continuous Improvement

• Maintain the Business Review playbook, templates, RACI, controls, repositories and supporting tools as part of the wider Vendor Management Governance Framework.
• Identify process improvements and automation opportunities that reduce preparation effort, improve data quality and strengthen the stakeholder experience.

You will report to Head of Vendor Management Office.

Whatyou’ll bring

We’re looking for someone who has these abilities and skills:

Required Skills and Abilities:

• Significant experience in operations, governance, programme coordination, vendor management, procurement or a related corporate function.
• Robust planning and organisational capability, with proven experience coordinating recurring executive or supplier governance forums across multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to structure complex inputs into concise, accurate and decision-oriented review materials.
• Excellent communication, facilitation and stakeholder-management skills, with the confidence to challenge constructively and drive accountability.
• Robust analytical skills and attention to detail, with the ability to identify trends, risks, dependencies and required actions.

Desired Skills and Abilities:

• Proficiency in Microsoft 365 and governance or vendor-management platforms; experience with workflow automation and dashboarding is desirable.
• A continuous-improvement mindset and the ability to work effectively in a complex, global and matrixed organisation.
• Experience using and Capably navigating tools used to track and report KPIs.

Whatweoffer

Inclusion

AXA XL is committed to equal employment opportunity and will consider applicants regardless of gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity and origins, marital status, religion, disability, or any other protected characteristic. At AXA XL, we know that an inclusive culture and enables business growth and is critical to our success. That’s why we have made a strategic commitment to attract, develop, advance and retain the most inclusive workforce possible, and create a culture where everyone can bring their full selves to work and reach their highest potential. It’s about helping one another - and our business - to move forward and succeed.

• Five Business Resource Groups focused on gender, LGBTQ+, ethnicity and origins, disability and inclusion with 20 Chapters around the globe.
• Robust support for Flexible Working Arrangements
• Enhanced family-friendly leave benefits
• Named to the Diversity Best Practices Index
• Signatory to the UK Women in Finance Charter

Learn more at axaxl.com/about-us/inclusion-and-diversity. AXA XL is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Total Rewards

AXA XL’s Reward program is designed to take care of what matters most to you, covering the full picture of your health, wellbeing, lifestyle and financial security. It provides competitive compensation and personalized, inclusive benefits that evolve as you do.

We’re committed to rewarding your contribution for the long term, so you can be your best self today and look forward to the future with confidence.

Sustainability

At AXA XL, Sustainability is integral to our business strategy. In an ever-changing world, AXA XL protects what matters most for our clients and communities. We know that sustainability is at the root of a more resilient future. Our 2023-26 Sustainability strategy, called “Roots of resilience”, focuses on protecting natural ecosystems, addressing climate change, and embedding sustainable practices across our operations.

Our Pillars:

• Valuing nature: How we impact nature affects how nature impacts us. Resilient ecosystems - the foundation of a sustainable planet and society - are essential to our future. We’re committed to protecting and restoring nature - from mangrove forests to the bees in our backyard - by increasing biodiversity awareness and inspiring clients and colleagues to put nature at the heart of their plans.
• Addressing climate change: The effects of a changing climate are far-reaching and significant. Unpredictable weather, increasing temperatures, and rising sea levels cause both social inequalities and environmental disruption. We're building a net zero strategy, developing insurance products and services, and mobilizing to advance thought leadership and investment in societal-led solutions.
• Integrating ESG: All companies have a role to play in building a more resilient future. Incorporating ESG considerations into our internal processes and practices builds resilience from the roots of our business. We’re training our colleagues, engaging our external partners, and evolving our sustainability governance and reporting.
• AXA Hearts in Action: We have established volunteering and charitable giving programs to help colleagues support causes that matter most to them, known as AXA XL’s “Hearts in Action” programs. These include our Matching Gifts program, Volunteering Leave, and our annual volunteering day - the Global Day of Giving.

For more information, please see axaxl.com/sustainability.

Whoweare

AXA XL, the P&C and specialty risk division of AXA, is known for solving complex risks. For mid-sized companies, multinationals and even some inspirational individuals we don’t just provide re/insurance, we reinvent it.

How? By combining a comprehensive and efficient capital platform, data-driven insights, leading technology, and the best talent in an agile and inclusive workspace, empowered to deliver top client service across all our lines of business - property, casualty, professional, financial lines and specialty.

With an innovative and flexible approach to risk solutions, we partner with those who move the world forward.

Learn more at axaxl.com.