Manager, Vendor Partnerships

About the role

We are seeking a detail-oriented and analytically strong Vendor Partnerships Manager to lead and optimize relationships with external research partners, including panel providers, fieldwork agencies, and data partners. This role sits at the intersection of market research operations, commercial negotiations, and data-driven performance management , ensuring that vendor decisions are objective, scalable, and aligned with business outcomes. The ideal candidate will help create and use quantitative metrics, dashboards, and insights to evaluate vendor performance, drive continuous improvement, and inform strategic sourcing decisions. Responsibilities | What you will own... Vendor Strategy & Governance With support from the Senior Research Operations, own the relationships with market research vendors, including outreach, selection, onboarding, contracting, performance management, and renewal decisions. Develop and maintain a structured vendor governance framework with clearly defined SLAs, KPIs, and escalation paths. Act as the primary point of contact between internal stakeholders (research, insights, operations, legal and procurement) and external research vendors. Data-Driven Vendor Performance Management Define, track, and analyze vendor performance metrics such as data quality, sample feasibility and reach, turnaround time, cost efficiency, fraud rates, and respondent experience. Work with Product and Engineering to build and maintain data connections, dashboards and scorecards to enable objective, data-backed vendor evaluations. Run regular discussions with partners to ensure that feedback is transmitted promptly and objectively. Use historical data and trend analysis to inform vendor selection, volume allocation, and consolidation decisions. Proactively identify performance risks and optimization opportunities using quantitative insights. Commercial & Financial Management Support in pricing discussions and contract negotiations using benchmarking, historical spend analysis, and ROI evaluation. Monitor vendor spend, forecast costs, and identify savings opportunities through data-led optimization. Ensure financial transparency, accurate invoicing, and adherence to contractual terms. Standardize the reconciliation process across vendors to the best degree possible and maintain records to measure the cost of bad data. Market Research Operations Support Partner closely with research and operations teams to match vendors to project requirements based on performance data and past outcomes. Support feasibility assessments and fieldwork planning using vendor-level and market-level data. Ensure vendors comply with research methodologies, quality standards, and data privacy regulations. Continuous Improvement & Process Excellence Drive continuous improvement initiatives by translating vendor performance data into actionable recommendations. Work closely with the Research Operations and Product & Engineering teams to build scalable systems for Vendor management and creating a feasibility engine to establish IR, Max feasibility and time in field for a particular product set of inputs Standardize vendor evaluation processes, reporting frameworks, and decision criteria. Stay current on panel industry trends, new vendors, and emerging data quality practices. Required Skills & Experiences Required: Bachelor's/Masters degree in Business, Economics, Statistics, or a related field. 5+ years of experience in panel management, procurement, or operations within market research, insights, or data services . Proven experience using data and metrics to drive vendor decisions and operational improvements. Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret complex datasets and translate insights into decisions. Experience working with research vendors such as panel providers, fieldwork agencies, or data suppliers. Experience with survey platforms, panel management tools, and research quality frameworks.