Senior Manager, Vendor Management

We’re building a world of health around every individual — shaping a more connected, convenient and compassionate health experience. At CVS Health®, you’ll be surrounded by passionate colleagues who care deeply, innovate with purpose, hold ourselves accountable and prioritize safety and quality in everything we do. Join us and be part of something bigger – helping to simplify health care one person, one family and one community at a time.

Position Summary

The Senior Manager, Vendor Management leads a team responsible for identifying, onboarding, and managing a portfolio of vendors that support health plan operations and strategic priorities. This leader partners with health plan executives and functional leaders to define vendor needs, evaluate vendor options, manage vendor performance and contracts, mitigate third-party risk, and ensure vendors deliver measurable outcomes. The role operates as the vendor “Quarterback,” coordinating across enterprise teams such as Procurement, Strategic Sourcing, Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM), Legal, Compliance, Security, Finance, and IT to ensure vendors are selected, governed, and optimized consistently and effectively.

Key Responsibilities

Vendor Strategy & Portfolio Management

• Partner with health plan leaders to identify vendor needs aligned to operational goals, member experience, regulatory requirements, and cost targets.
• Own the vendor lifecycle: intake, evaluation, selection, onboarding, governance, renewal, and offboarding.
• Maintain a vendor portfolio view (criticality, spend, risk tiering, performance) to prioritize attention and resources.
• Develop and maintain vendor management policies, playbooks, and standard operating procedures, ensuring consistent execution across the health plan.

Cross-Functional Enterprise Collaboration

• Serve as the primary liaison to Procurement and Strategic Sourcing for RFPs/RFIs, competitive bidding, negotiation strategy, and contracting timelines.
• Coordinate with Third-Party Risk (and Security/Privacy, as applicable) to ensure appropriate due diligence, risk tiering, assessments, remediation, and ongoing monitoring.
• Partner with Legal and Compliance to ensure contracts include appropriate regulatory, data protection, audit, and performance provisions.
• Work with Finance on budgeting, spend controls, savings tracking, and invoice/dispute resolution processes.
• Engage IT/Business Owners to ensure vendor solutions integrate effectively and support business continuity and incident response expectations.

Performance Management & Value Realization

• Establish KPIs/SLAs, reporting cadence, and governance forums (e.g., monthly/quarterly business reviews).
• Monitor performance trends, identify root causes of service issues, and lead corrective action plans.
• Drive vendor optimization initiatives: service improvements, process standardization, cost reductions, and elimination of duplicative solutions.
• Ensure vendor deliverables and roadmaps align with health plan priorities; escalate issues appropriately and transparently.

Contract & Relationship Management

• Oversee contract adherence and change control, including SOW development, amendments, renewals, and termination considerations.
• Lead negotiation support in partnership with Procurement/Sourcing to strengthen commercial terms, performance commitments, and protections.
• Build strong vendor relationships while maintaining accountability and managing conflicts of interest.

Risk, Compliance & Regulatory Readiness

• Ensure vendors comply with applicable healthcare and privacy requirements (e.g., HIPAA where applicable), security standards, and audit obligations.
• Coordinate incident management expectations (e.g., breach notification timelines, service outages), and ensure vendors participate in remediation and lessons learned.
• Support internal and external audits by maintaining documentation, evidence of due diligence, and governance artifacts.

People Leadership & Operational Excellence

• Lead and coach a team of 3: set priorities, develop skills, manage performance, and support career progression.
• Create a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and strong stakeholder service.
• Build scalable tools (dashboards, templates, governance calendars) to strengthen operational rigor.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in vendor management, procurement/sourcing, third-party management, healthcare operations, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated experience partnering with cross-functional enterprise teams (Procurement, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Security, Finance).
• Proven experience influencing across complex stakeholder environments without direct supervisory authority.
• Demonstrated experience developing and delivering presentations for executive audiences
• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• Experience with vendor governance, SLA/KPI design, performance management, and issue escalation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting a health plan
• 2+ years of people leadership experience (direct management strongly preferred).
• (Medicaid/Medicare/Commercial), healthcare services organization, or regulated environment experience.
• Familiarity with third-party risk frameworks and vendor due diligence practices (e.g., SOC reports, security assessments).
• Experience leading RFPs and vendor selection processes end-to-end.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience

Pay Range

The typical pay range for this role is:

This pay range represents the base hourly rate or base annual full-time salary for all positions in the job grade within which this position falls. The actual base salary offer will depend on a variety of factors including experience, education, geography and other relevant factors. This position is eligible for a CVS Health bonus, commission or short-term incentive program in addition to the base pay range listed above. This position also includes an award target in the company’s equity award program.

Our people fuel our future. Our teams reflect the customers, patients, members and communities we serve and we are committed to fostering a workplace where every colleague feels valued and that they belong.

Great benefits for great people

We take pride in our comprehensive and competitive mix of pay and benefits – investing in the physical, emotional and financial wellness of our colleagues and their families to help them be the healthiest they can be. In addition to our competitive wages, our great benefits include:

• Affordable medical plan options, a 401(k) plan (including matching company contributions), and an employee stock purchase plan.

• No-cost programs for all colleagues including wellness screenings, tobacco cessation and weight management programs, confidential counseling and financial coaching.

• Benefit solutions that address the different needs and preferences of our colleagues including paid time off, flexible work schedules, family leave, dependent care resources, colleague assistance programs, tuition assistance, retiree medical access and many other benefits depending on eligibility.

For more information, visit https://jobs.cvshealth.com/us/en/benefits

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state and local laws.