Job Description:

Role Title : VP, Tech & Ops Supplier Manager (Cloud & AI) (L12)

Company Overview:

COMPANY OVERVIEW: Synchrony (NYSE: SYF) is a premier consumer financial services company delivering one of the industry’s most complete digitally enabled product suites. Our experience, expertise and scale encompass a broad spectrum of industries including digital, health and wellness, retail, telecommunications, home, auto, outdoors, pet and more.

• We have recently been ranked #5 among India’s Best Companies to Work for 2023, #21 under LinkedIn Top Companies in India list, and received Top 25 BFSI recognition from Great Place To Work India. We have been ranked Top 5 among India’s Best Workplaces in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Top 10 among India’s Best Workplaces for Women in 2022.

• We offer 100% Work from Home flexibility for all our Functional employees and provide some of the best-in-class Employee Benefits and Programs catering to work-life balance and overall well-being. In addition to this, we also have Regional Engagement Hubs across India and a co-working space in Bangalore.

Organizational Overview:

Synchrony’s Technology Governance team is an amalgamation of 4 sub verticals, SM (Supplier Management), CSS (Client Systems & Support) , OOA (Office of Agile) & SR (Strategic Relationships). Supplier Management & Strategic Relationship teams have the mission to maintain a right-sized, healthy, and dynamic portfolio of suppliers with the breadth and depth of capabilities to power Synchrony products and services while maintaining compliance with our Supplier Management program and reduce the 3rd party outsourcing risk. The Office of Agile(OOA) endeavours to support the enterprise-wide adoption and adherence to Lean-Agile principles through the promotion of progressive thinking, tools, and techniques. In addition, the Office of Agile strives to define organizational guidelines which identify, prioritize, align and successfully execute the strategic directives of senior leadership. The Client Systems Support (CSS) team delivers multi-platform configuration solutions to drive functionality behind many core processes across Synchrony’s credit and pay later products including loyalty programs and campaigns, cardholder pricing and billing, promotional financing, merchant processing, billing statement content, cardholder letters, and plastics.

Role Summary/Purpose:

Responsible for the end-to-end Supplier Lifecycle Management for Cloud Service Providers (CSP’s), Artificial Intelligence and other Technology Office suppliers supporting Synchrony. Ensures supplier adherence to Synchrony’s Supplier Management Center of Excellence (SM CoE) program, and act as lead in driving the Supplier Management Strategy supporting our Cloud journey, AI and CTO initiatives with respective functional stakeholders. Manage and cultivate supplier relationships aligned to the CTO SLT including: Data Management, Infrastructure, Cloud, Network, Risk Management, and Technology Services teams. This role requires extensive cross-functional interaction and partnership with Technology leadership, Sourcing, Supplier Management, Legal, Risk Management teams along with respective suppliers. The ideal candidate has a strong technology background including Cloud solutions, is self-motivated, and can deliver on the core competences of Supplier Management through influence, analytics, and good decision making. It’s essential that the suppliers under your responsibility are performing to their contracted SLA’s, meeting or exceeding business expectations, identify any associated risks and partner accordingly in mitigating/managing performance/risk issues.

Key Responsibilities:

• Must have an in-depth understanding of technology supplier capabilities and competencies in the areas of: Cloud, AI, Data Analytics, Network, Compute, Infrastructure, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS and associated KPI’s.

• Engage with SM CoE function to understand your suppliers monitoring activities, testing schedules, audits, and successfully execute those responsibilities.

• Partner with Sourcing and business stakeholders to plan, track, and drive sourcing activities; highlight any risks identified in the process and manage them accordingly.

• Involved in Supplier Negotiations and preparing for supplier RFX’s

• Adopt best practices / ways of working within the current Tech & Ops SM team.

• Strong understanding of Technology Contracts with the ability to review, re-scope, and renew large multifaceted supplier contracts on a regular basis.

• Collaborate closely with your suppliers to ensure conformance to Synchrony required monitoring activities, requirements, and expectations for engagement.

• Develop a cohesive supplier strategy for each domain you support.

• Ensure the proper agenda, data requirements, attendees, and required materials are included in the supplier performance reviews you’ll be leading.

• Manage all supplier Risks and Issues in-line with the Technology SM CoE program guidelines and requirements.

• Effective and timely completion of supplier monitoring activities to ensure an “audit ready” posture.

• Provide support for audits, special projects, and other assessments as needed.

• Take necessary actions when supplier performance requirements are not being met.

• Gather insights from technology leaders to help identify supplier performance gaps to help drive improvements and implement needed changes.

• Understand where your suppliers align to the Technology & Operations Supplier Management strategy; re-align as needed.

• Identify and implement additional supplier monitoring activities to help mitigate risk and drive supplier performance.

• Support all annual and ad-hoc supplier assessments required to help identify supplier risks.

• Support ongoing strategy and deliverables related to Contingent Worker utilization, as it relates to your supplier base.

• Maintain full compliance with enterprise wide Supplier Management policies, procedures, and standards.

Required Skills/Knowledge:

• Bachelor's degree with minimum 10+ years of IT experience or in lieu of degree 12+ years of IT experience

• Minimum 5 years of experience as a Supplier Manager in Financial Services, Insurance / Reinsurance or other highly regulatory industry

• Minimum 5 years or Program and/or Project Management experience

• Minimum 5 years of Contract Management experience

Desired Skills/Knowledge:

• Experience working in / with Financial Institutions

• Strong knowledge and experience working with or for Cloud & AI suppliers

• Experience managing large multi-million dollar Technology Contracts

• Ability to contribute significant additional effort to support Sourcing with negotiations, SoW redlines, SLA’s, etc..

• Deep understanding of general IT controls, application controls, and change audit methodologies, as well as industry accepted standards (CobIT, ITIL, NIST)

• Working knowledge of current financial services technologies

• Strong analytical and negotiation skills with the ability to persuade negotiations

• Excellent oral and written communication, presentation, interpersonal, and facilitation skills

• Proven experience with partnering, collaborating and influencing across a large multilayered organization at all levels

• Action and detail oriented, excellent organization and prioritization skills

• Independent worker with awareness of when to escalate and engage others

• Demonstrates strong risk management mindset and behavior

• Experience working with auditors and regulators such as the Federal Reserve, OCC, and FDIC

• Additional auditing qualifications (such as CIA, CISA, or CFSA) and understanding of internal audit requirements, as set out by IIA and BIS

• Strong PC skills including MS office tools

Eligibility Criteria:

Bachelor's degree with minimum 10+ years of IT experience or in lieu of degree 12+ years of IT experience

Work Timings:

This role qualifies for Enhanced Flexibility and Choice offered in Synchrony India and will require the incumbent to be available between 06:00 AM Eastern Time – 11:30 AM Eastern Time (timings are anchored to US Eastern hours and will adjust twice a year locally). This window is for meetings with India and US teams. The remaining hours will be flexible for the employee to choose. Exceptions may apply periodically due to business needs. Please discuss this with the hiring manager for more details.

For Internal Applicants :

• Understand the criteria or mandatory skills required for the role, before applying

• Inform your manager and HRM before applying for any role on Workday

• Ensure that your professional profile is updated (fields such as education, prior experience, other skills) and it is mandatory to upload your updated resume (Word or PDF format)

• Must not be any corrective action plan (First Formal/Final Formal, PIP)

• L10+ Employees who have completed 18 months in the organization and 12 months in current role and level are only eligible.

• L10+ Employees can apply

Grade/Level: 12

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