Senior Vendor Relations Specialist

**** Must be local to Greater St. Louis, Missouri ****

Responsibilities

• Manages the relationships between MTS and external vendors
• Administers the contracts with hardware and software vendors
• Collects information about external marketplace (not limited to technology) and serves as a resource on this knowledge to the organization
• Provides information and advice about technology vendors, offerings, and options
• May interact with vendor to resolve escalated problems and plan for future releases of software
• Resolves complaints, make adjustments, or correct mistakes regarding a specific set of products, services, capabilities, issues, or questions
• Monitor progress and performance of vendor services based on more-complex statements of work
• Responsible for managing statements of work for contracted labor
• May perform simple negotiations with established vendors

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in related field, specialized training, or equivalent work experience
• Two (2) years of relevant technical or business work experience.
• General understanding of project management and software development life cycles
• Demonstrates thorough understanding of the fundamental tools and concepts of one of the information technology Teams
• Applies that understanding to make independent practical contributions to moderately complex IT work within a particular department or function
• Operates under general supervision
• Identifies and documents problems and notifies others as appropriate based on problem escalation procedures. Applies understanding of a primary professional SEGMENT to resolve most common problems/ issues/ opportunities
• Has a deeper understanding of business and the implications that each technology has on business results
• Interpersonal Interactions
• Adapting = communicate specific subject matter to others through explanation, demonstration, testing, and reinforcement
• Works with project manager to define tasks & create team work plans. May delegate work to others and monitor progress. Identifies issues affecting work progress and recommend solutions
• Estimates effort to complete requirements for small, simpler projects
• Customer Relationship Management
• Accountable for addressing customer needs through individual action or with a "warm handoff"
• Interacts independently with customer subject matter experts