Principal, Strategic Projects and Vendor Manager

Exemption Status:

United States of America (Exempt)

Exemption Status:

$114,622 - $160,472 - $206,321

“Pay scale information is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any selected candidate or employee, which is always dependent on actual experience, education, qualifications, and other factors. A full review of our comprehensive pay and benefits will be discussed at the offer stage with the selected candidate.”

Verdegard is looking for extraordinary people to join our team!

Why join Verdegard? Because our success is dependent on you; innovative professionals with top notch skills who thrive on opportunity, high performance, and teamwork. We look for individuals who want to work on a team that cares about making a difference in the value of healthcare.

Job Description

Summary

The Strategic Projects & Vendor Manager works with the Verdegard Teams to provide vendor management, new business service development, project planning, project management and project governance of vendor and program implementations.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

Vendor Management:

· Evaluates potential vendor's services, reputation, resources and expertise through the Request for Information (RFI) and Request for Proposal (RFP) process. Ensure that selected vendors support the Company's business objectives.

· Handles contract negotiations. Works closely with Contracts Management to approve contracts.

· Works closely with departments and vendors on vendor renewal contracts and related business terms, pricing and vendor service level agreements.

· Manages external vendor relations (such as Zelis, Claims Bridge, AHH, ICM, and Recuro) for all lines of business within Verdegard.

· Serves as the liaison between vendors and internal stakeholders.

· Ensures that the enterprise-wide requirements for vendors are met by confirming due diligence, risk assessment, audit reviews, and continuous vendor monitoring.

· Ensures vendors are performing in-line with expected contractual service levels and related performance guarantees.

· Troubleshoots any vendor issues with sub-standard performance; presents issues and solutions to management as needed.

· Identifies and implements continuous efficiencies associated with vendor product or service fulfillment.

Project Management for New Vendors:

· Manages the entire project management cycle to include initiation of projects, planning, and execution, monitoring and close out of the project phase.

· Leads the efforts of multi-disciplinary project teams through various stages of the vendor and project development lifecycle, including vision and scope, required analysis and partnership with various departments throughout the duration of projects.

· Reviews project proposals and plans to determine timing of deliverables, funding limitations, procedures for accomplishing projects, staffing requirements and allotment of available resources to various phases of projects; establishes work plans, schedules, resources for each phase of projects

· Participates in the formulation of workflow processes, methods and policies for new vendors.

· Develops project prioritization, project scope, project plan, project tracking and other project-related activities and associated documentation; guides project stakeholders in defining project scope.

· Communicates with staff to outline work plan, assign duties, responsibilities, and scope of authority. Coordinates and interfaces with other departments to secure project team resources.

· Responsible for completeness of project documentation throughout the project lifecycle and for obtaining appropriate approvals at each phase of the project.

· Manages project progress by establishing regular meetings scheduled with project teams. Assesses project progress versus milestones and identifies areas of potential concern in adequate time in order to mitigate risk.

· Creates and communicates status reports for management, clients and key stakeholders.

Project Management for New Product Offerings:

Follows best practices in project management and works across multi-disciplinary teams to coordinate and guide small to large scale projects.

Develops new service offerings within, including new process development, organization, communications while leading the execution across all stakeholder departments.

· Identifies and implements continuous process improvement as well as operational efficiencies.

· Supports project through project close out and transitions to maintenance of business owners.

Education and/or Experience

BS/BA and 9+ years’ experience or equivalent combination of education and experience, and 6 years' of SME in respective areas

Computer Skills

To perform this job successfully, an individual should be proficient in Microsoft Office (Access, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint) and Microsoft Project.

Certificates, Licenses, Registrations

PMP certification strongly preferred. Six Sigma/Lean background desired.

Other Skills and Abilities

· Excellent working knowledge and experience in the role of industry vendors, TPA offerings, and sales strategies.

· Experience in all phases of systems development lifecycles (SDLC) and/or business process engineering methodologies.

· Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, employees, and clients.

· Executes and delivers within the confines and timeframes provided by regulatory agencies.

· Good understanding of Policy & Procedure associated with purchase contracts such as indemnification and amendments. Familiarity with legal and contractual best practices.

· Very good listener who demonstrates a preference for highly analytical approaches to problem solving, and the ability to be personable and tenacious as the situations requires.

Reasoning Ability

Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.

Ability to apply principles of logical or scientific thinking to a wide range of intellectual and practical problems.

Mathematical Skills

Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions to practical situations.

Ability to calculate figures and amounts such as discounts, interest, commissions, proportions, percentages, area, circumference, and volume. Ability to apply concepts of basic algebra and geometry.

Language Skills

Ability to effectively present information in one-on-one and small group situations to customers, clients, and other employees of the organization.

Ability to read, analyze, and interpret the most complex documents.

Competencies To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

Business Acumen

Directing Others

Organizational Agility

Conflict Management

Drive for Results

Political Savvy

Customer Focus

Innovation Management

Strategic Agility

Decision Quality

Managerial Courage

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and talk or hear. The employee is regularly required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel and reach with hands and arms. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Ability to maintain clear near visual acuity at approximately 20 inches or less (i.e., “close vision”) to accurately read fine print, view computer screens, and handle small objects. Requires adequate color vision and depth perception to support safety and precision in detail-oriented tasks.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are repres