Commercial Contract Management

• Work alongside the Commercial Director to shape the strategic approach to commercial contract management across Vanguard customers.
• Manage contracts and contractual processes to meet contractual obligations of the Vanguard customer (frequently to very short timeframes).
• Ensure contract management is compliant with internal processes, and where necessary gain business support for new practices to be implemented.
• Manage suppliers to meet and exceed contractual obligations.
• Support and lead commercial negotiations including work order and contract variation approvals.
• Mitigate and manage supply risk.
• Work with PMO, procurement, legal and finance to ensure new suppliers and/or opportunities are smoothly transitioned into the programme.

Leadership Support

• Enhance leadership effectiveness through supplier performance management and reporting.
• Work with program office, delivery, technical and legal leads to support consistent commercial representation and knowledge of topics at hand.
• Drive the execution of strategic commercial initiatives on behalf of the Commercial Director.

People & Culture Strategy

• Drive a practice of capturing lessons learned and sharing across the teams.
• Create support process to propagate commercial knowledge amongst the program.

Qualifications

Education, Key Experiences, Skills and Knowledge:

• Bachelor’s degree in one of these related fields; business management, global project management; finance, engineering, or operations with significant business experience. Relevant work experience in lieu of Degree.
• Consulting experience or MBA qualification highly desirable.
• Orchestration of strategic and complex business activities.
• Decision making, and problem solving in a cross-functional environment.
• Strong analytical and operational skills; strategic and growth mindset.
• Excellent collaboration skills and ability to partner with others.
• Effective in dealing with senior stakeholders (both internal and external).
• Track record of building strong internal business and supplier relationships at all levels.
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, oral and written communication skills at all levels of an organization.
• Strong commercial and contract management skills.
• High personal accountability for self and others.
• Ability to work in a flexible, fast-paced environment.
• Experience of large scale, complex programs preferred.
• Self-managing leader who takes initiative.
• Attention to detail and process.
• Strong attention to workflows and deadlines.
• Software/Cloud services industry, consulting, and support experience preferred.

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements is required for this role. These requirements may include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings: Microsoft Cloud Background Check; UK Baseline Personnel Security Standards; UK Security Clearance.

Travel

This role is based in the UK. 20-30% travel should be anticipated – regular travel to Microsoft offices in Reading and London; with occasional travel to customer sites in the South West of England and the US as required.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

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