Vendor Management (IT Project Management Specialist)
Administration, IT
Bloomington, IN, USA
Posted on Jun 29, 2026
STRATEGIC SERVICES (UA-STS-IUBLA)
Department Specific Responsibilities
- Provides leadership and strategic direction of client relations division to align with strategic and operational objectives of Indiana University and University Information Technology Services.
- Responsible for building and managing relationships with product suppliers and services, ensuring obligations and cost effectiveness are met contributing to organizational efficiency, productivity and success.
- Establishes, evaluates/improves internal and external policies, standards, workflow processes, and templates for client interaction for UITS in alignment with governance standards.
- Develops strong relationships with IT managers, business owners, and procurement to better support enterprise objectives, influence key stakeholders, and jointly develop strategic sourcing strategies while acting as the interface between the clients and the teams.
- Collaborates with the CTO, the Associate VP for Strategic Services, Contracts Department, Purchasing Department, and Business Relationship Managers to assist with developing statements of work (SOWs), service level agreements (SLAs) and understand any current requests for information (RFIs), requests for quotations (RFQs), and requests for proposals (RFPs) that are in the pipeline.
- Evaluates potential suppliers using criteria such as industry experience, capacity, quality standards, and financial stability.
- Analyzes the University's software usage to determine cost effectiveness and work with vendors to include incentives and remedies where appropriate.
- Manages factors such as delivery reliability, quality, and accuracy of estimates and invoices.
- Responsible for tracking, analyzing, and generating vendor performance reports to share with executive leaders, stakeholders, and/or project partners.
- Keeps partners informed on developments in the organization or changes in market conditions that might affect demand for products or services.
- Successfully and safely manages data as well as an ongoing knowledge base of negotiating strategies, best practices, personnel/teams, etc. Work with teams (Cybersecurity, Audit, Compliance, HR, Purchasing, Contracts) to ensure that vendors are performing in accordance with existing requirements and meeting SLA terms through audit process.
General Responsibilities
- Leads planning and implementation of high-level, complex IT projects involving university staff from different teams and external partners on interrelated project tasks.
- Determines and evaluates strategic university needs; creates and adjusts projects as necessary.
- Designs, creates, executes, and manages high-level project work plans and work-flow documents; establishes project timelines and revises as appropriate to meet changing needs and requirements.
- Manages budget and monitors progress of projects at highest levels to ensure that quality and cost constraints are met.
- Responsible for reporting and documenting project milestones to share with leaders, stakeholders, and/or project partners.
- Makes recommendations to leadership to improve project management approaches and processes.
- Researches and stays up-to-date with IT project management best practices, approaches, and trends.
- Creates and fosters relationships with key project stakeholders and service owners to ensure functional user expectations and requirements are articulated and integrated.
- Often provides guidance and support to less experienced peers.
Combinations of related education and experience may be considered. Education beyond the minimum required may be substituted for work experience. Work experience beyond the minimum required may be substituted for education.
EDUCATION
Required
- Bachelor's degree in related field
WORK EXPERIENCE
Required
- 7 years technical project management experience
Preferred
- 5 years of demonstrated experience with vendor management, contract negotiations, and purchasing
- 5 years of experience in IT space with demonstrated growth
- 5 years of demonstrated experience with collaborating and working with cross-functional teams for projects
LICENSES AND CERTIFICATES
Preferred
- Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Upon Date of Hire
SKILLS
Required
- Proficient communication skills
- Maintains a high degree of professionalism
- Demonstrates time management and priority setting skills
- Demonstrates a high commitment to quality
- Possesses flexibility to work in a fast paced, dynamic environment
- Seeks to acquire knowledge in area of specialty
- Highly thorough and dependable
- Demonstrates a high level of accuracy, even under pressure
- Possesses a high degree of initiative
- Ability to influence internal and/or external constituents
- Demonstrates project management skills
Preferred
- Strong presentation skills
- Ability to negotiate and collaborate at many different levels
- Detail oriented to manage databases and knowledge bases
- Good analytical ability to monitor and review financial and operational performance
- Team player who can work closely with colleagues in other departments
This role requires the ability to effectively communicate and to operate a computer and other standard office productivity equipment. The position involves sedentary work as well as periods of time moving around an office environment and the campus. The person in this role must be able to perform the essential functions with or without an accommodation.
For full-time staff employees, Indiana University offers a wide array of benefits including:
- Comprehensive medical and dental insurance
- Health savings account with generous IU contributions
- Healthcare and dependent care flexible spending accounts
- Basic group life insurance paid by IU
- Voluntary supplemental life, long-term disability, critical illness, and supplemental accidental death & dismemberment insurance
- Base retirement plan with generous IU contributions, subject to vesting
- Voluntary supplemental retirement plan options
- Tuition subsidy for employees and family members taking IU courses
- 10 paid holidays plus a paid winter break each year
- Generous paid time off plans
- Paid leave for new parents and IU-sponsored volunteer events
- Employee assistance program (EAP)
Learn more about our benefits by reviewing the IU Benefit Programs Brochure.
Career Level: Expert
FLSA: Exempt
Job Function: Information Technology
Job Family: IT Project Management
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This posting is scheduled to close at 11:59 pm EST on the advertised Close Date. This posting may be closed at any time at the discretion of the University, but will remain open for a minimum of 5 business days. To guarantee full consideration, please submit your application within 5 business days of the Posted Date.
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