Senior Vendor Relationship Manager

Location: While this position is posted in a specific region, all of Oyster’s positions are fully remote, and you can work from home. Forever. To create the best experience for our new hire, this role requires that you be based within UTC -1 to UTC +3

Please note: This is a 12-month fixed-term contract position.

In this highly strategic and cross-functional role, you’ll own and evolve Oyster’s global vendor ecosystem, acting as the bridge between our business, our customers, and our external partners. You’ll manage critical relationships across partners, ensuring they deliver scalable, high-quality solutions that enable our customers to hire anyone, anywhere. You’ll combine commercial acumen, operational excellence, and strong relationship management to drive vendor performance, resolve complex escalations, and continuously strengthen our global partner ecosystem. From leading negotiations and governance frameworks to identifying new partnership opportunities and improving operational processes, you’ll play a critical role in shaping how Oyster delivers global employment solutions at scale.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in ambiguity, enjoys solving complex operational challenges, and can confidently influence stakeholders internally and externally. You are commercially minded, data-driven, solutions-oriented, and energized by building strong partnerships that create long-term business impact.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Vendor Ownership

• Own strategic relationships with key operational vendors
  Develop a deep understanding of partner capabilities, service models, geographic coverage, and operational risks

• Position partners effectively within Oyster’s broader global employment ecosystem

• Ensure partners are equipped to support scalable, high-quality customer solutions

• Manage the full vendor relationship lifecycle, from onboarding through ongoing partnership management

• Continuously evaluate vendor fit and performance as Oyster scales globally

• Build and maintain expertise in global employment partner models and operational best practices

Vendor Performance & Governance

• Monitor, maintain, and strive to improve vendor KPIs, SLAs, and accountability frameworks

• Lead recurring business reviews and performance discussions with partner leadership teams
  Present vendor performance insights, trends, and improvement plans to internal stakeholders and leadership

• Monitor operational performance and proactively identify service risks or quality concerns

• Conduct structured audits and operational reviews across the partner ecosystem

• Drive consistent governance standards and operational excellence across vendors

Commercial & Partnership Management

• Build trusted, long-term relationships with external partner leadership teams

• Lead commercial discussions, contract negotiations, and partnership renewals

• Strengthen strategic partnerships to support business growth and customer outcomes

• Act as an escalation lead for complex or high-impact customer issues involving partners

• Collaborate cross-functionally and externally to resolve sensitive operational challenges

• Support customer and internal stakeholder conversations requiring partner expertise

• Identify and source new partners to strengthen global coverage and capabilities

Vendor Ecosystem Development

• Identify operational or geographic gaps within the vendor ecosystem

• Evaluate and onboard new partners to strengthen Oyster’s global coverage

• Recommend improvements to ecosystem strategy, scalability, and service quality

• Partner cross-functionally to evolve how Oyster leverages and manages external vendors

• Drive initiatives that improve partner consistency, efficiency, and customer experience

Strategic Business Partnership

• Advise internal teams on vendor capabilities, strengths, and operational considerations

• Guide partner selection decisions based on customer needs and business priorities

• Share insights from vendor trends, escalations, and operational performance data

• Partner with Go-To-Market teams to support deal strategy and customer solutions

• Enable scalable and commercially sound global employment solutions

Escalation Leadership

• Lead resolution efforts for complex vendor and customer escalations

• Coordinate cross-functional and cross-partner responses to critical operational issues

• Protect customer experience while balancing operational and commercial priorities

• Identify root causes and recurring trends across escalations

• Drive preventative improvements and operational maturity across the partner ecosystem

• Lead in escalations on calls to get to root cause, find solutions, and manage end-to-end resolution.

Continuous Improvement & High Performance

• Continuously audit and refine workflows and ways of working to reduce response times and elevate service quality.

• Actively leverage AI responsibly to maximize personal output, sharing best practices with the broader People Services team.

• Analyze recurring ticket trends and received queries to identify systemic issues, proactively building preventative resources for internal teams.

• Identify opportunities to improve workflows, documentation, and knowledge management, ensuring Pearls have accurate, accessible self-service resources to reduce dependency and improve operational efficiency.

Projects

• Lead People Services and cross-functional projects as we work towards our Mission to enable companies to hire anyone, anywhere!

Core Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in Vendor Management, Customer Success or a related function

• Experience working within an Employer of Record (EOR), global employment, HR tech, or international operations environment

• Strong experience managing strategic external partnerships and navigating complex stakeholder relationships

• Demonstrated experience leading commercial negotiations and managing partner performance

• Highly strategic thinker with the ability to balance operational detail with long-term business goals

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to use data to drive decisions and improvements

• Commercially minded and solutions-oriented, with a pragmatic approach to operational challenges

• Exceptional relationship-building and influencing skills across internal and external stakeholders

• Strong ownership mindset with the ability to operate autonomously in a fast-paced environment

• Experience managing complex escalations and driving resolution across multiple stakeholders

• Excellent communication and presentation skills, both written and verbal

• Collaborative and cross-functional by nature, with experience partnering across Operations, Legal, Support, Sales, and Customer-facing teams

• Process-oriented and continuously looking for ways to improve scalability and operational maturity

• Comfortable working in ambiguity and helping shape evolving operational functions and frameworks

• [BONUS] Experience working with global vendors across multiple regions (APAC, EMEA, LATAM, AMER)

• [BONUS] Experience building or scaling vendor governance programs and operational frameworks

• [BONUS] Additional languages

• [BONUS] Have worked in a fast-paced, scaling startup or global tech environment

• [BONUS] Experience implementing AI tools or automation workflows to improve workflows and vendor management