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Oyster is a global employment platform enabling companies to hire, pay, and care for talent anywhere. As Senior Vendor Relationship Manager, you will own and evolve Oyster's global network of external payroll partners and compliance providers that underpin end-to-end payroll delivery across 60+ countries.
You will operate with primary focus (~80%) on core multi-country payroll delivery, vendor accuracy, calendar adherence, and operational controls, alongside secondary oversight (~20%) of specialized compliance vendors. Your responsibilities span the full vendor lifecycle: strategic partner selection, commercial negotiations, SLA monitoring, performance governance, compliance audits, risk assessments, and escalation resolution.
Key areas of impact include:
**Vendor Performance & Governance**: Establish and monitor KPIs, SLAs, and scorecards. Lead executive business reviews with partner leadership. Conduct vendor compliance audits and risk assessments. Drive consistent governance standards and regulatory alignment across the partner ecosystem. Monitor operational performance and proactively identify service risks.
**Commercial & Partnership Management**: Build trusted relationships with external partner leadership. Lead commercial negotiations, contract renewals, pricing discussions, and service changes. Resolve complex, multi-market payroll escalations through root-cause analysis and executive communication. Identify and source new partners to strengthen global coverage.
**Operational Excellence**: Maintain deep mastery of end-to-end payroll workflows, cut-off calendars, variance analysis, Gross-to-Net calculations, statutory filings, and failure modes. Partner with internal Pay & Payroll operations teams to monitor SLA compliance and payroll cut-off adherence. Proactively evaluate vendor capacity ahead of peak cycles and market expansion.
**Strategic Business Partnership**: Advise internal teams on vendor capabilities and operational considerations. Guide partner selection based on customer needs. Share insights from vendor trends and escalation data. Partner with Go-To-Market teams on deal strategy and customer solutions.
**Continuous Improvement**: Audit and refine workflows to reduce response times and elevate service quality. Build scalable processes and automation. Analyze recurring ticket trends to identify systemic issues and build preventative resources.
You will thrive in ambiguity, solve complex operational challenges, and confidently influence stakeholders internally and externally. You are commercially minded, data-driven, solutions-oriented, and energized by building partnerships that create long-term business impact.
**Requirements**
- 5+ years of direct experience managing multi-country payroll vendors and compliance/health & safety partners in a global environment
- Strong technical understanding of end-to-end payroll processing cycles, Gross-to-Net (GTN) calculations, statutory filings, and payroll controls
- Significant experience owning strategic payroll and compliance vendor relationships in a global or multi-country environment
- Deep understanding of payroll operations, compliance tracking, risk assessments, statutory controls, regulatory monitoring, and global legal standards
- Evidence of improving vendor performance and regulatory alignment through KPIs, SLAs, vendor compliance audits, governance, remediation, and executive business reviews
- Commercial negotiation and contract-management capability, including pricing, service levels, remedies, renewals, and trade-offs
- Highly strategic thinker with ability to balance operational detail with long-term business goals
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with ability to use data to drive decisions and improvements
- Commercially minded and solutions-oriented, with pragmatic approach to operational challenges
- Exceptional relationship-building and influencing skills across internal and external stakeholders
- Strong ownership mindset with ability to operate autonomously in 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
- Demonstrated track record of proactive business partnering with internal stakeholders such as HRBPs, Lifecycle Teams, and Pay teams
- 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 fast-paced, scaling startup or global tech environment
- Bonus: Experience implementing AI tools or automation workflows to improve workflows and vendor management
- Fluent English language
- Reliable home internet connection
