Lead Supplier Relationship Manager (IT)

At Yorkshire Building Society, we are taking our Supply Chain Management function on an exciting transformation journey, building a marketleading capability across category management, sourcing, thirdparty risk, property and supplier relationship management. As part of this, we are strengthening how we manage our most critical thirdparty relationships, particularly across IT, where supplier performance, resilience and value are fundamental to member outcomes.

We are looking for a Lead Supplier Relationship Manager to oversee a significant portfolio of IT suppliers and help embed our ThirdParty Target Operating Model (TOM) across technology services. This is a senior role, operating at the intersection of IT, supply chain, risk and governance, with strong opportunity to shape how supplier management operates in practice as the operating model continues to mature.

This role will operate on a hybrid basis, with weekly attendance to either our Leeds or Bradford Head Office (1-2 days per week).

About the Role

You will be responsible for leading supplier relationship management across a portfolio of 30+ IT suppliers, covering core banking and platforms, payments, infrastructure, networks and telecoms, cloud, SaaS, data, cyber and managed services. The portfolio includes both strategic suppliers and operationally critical providers.

The role sits within an emerging ThirdParty Target Operating Model, where roles, responsibilities and ways of working are becoming more clearly defined. The portfolio has already begun transitioning into this new model, and a key part of the role is embedding the TOM in practice locking in governance, clarifying accountabilities, and ensuring consistent and effective supplier oversight across IT.

Responsibilities include

• Collaboration with the Accountable Director and Category Management on supplier strategy, leading on governance for your supplier portfolio, providing oversight and challenge across performance, risk and value.
• Support effective operational outcomes by shaping and embedding supplier management frameworks that enable resilient service delivery, clear ownership and improved transparency. You will play an important role in supporting operational resilience and regulatory expectations, including incident management and thirdparty risk obligations, without owning daytoday execution.
• Lead a small team of Supplier Relationship Managers (2 FTE). Leadership in this role is focused on coaching, quality assurance of SRM outputs, and managing escalations and Execfacing supplier issues. The team is relatively new, and you will help build consistency, capability and confidence as the operating model matures.
• Working closely with the Director of IT and their leadership team, alongside stakeholders across Procurement, ThirdParty Risk, Legal, Compliance, Operational Resilience, Architecture, Data and AI. Externally, you will engage with senior and executivelevel contacts within key suppliers.
• Reporting to the Senior Manager, Supplier Relationship Management.

About you

You will bring experience managing complex IT suppliers within a regulated environment, and be comfortable operating at senior level with a strong focus on assurance, governance and value.

You are likely to have experience from one or more of the following:

• ITfacing supplier relationship management roles
• Procurement or commercial roles closely aligned to technology
• Operational supplier management roles with significant IT exposure

You will be experienced in working with large technology vendors, across a mix of software, hardware, cloud and onprem environments. Experience of outsourced IT services is advantageous. A working understanding of thirdparty risk management within Financial Services, including operational resilience and incident management expectations, is a significant benefit.

You are confident influencing senior stakeholders, providing constructive challenge, and handling difficult conversations without owning delivery or technical decisionmaking.

Success in this role looks like:

• Improved service stability and transparency across IT suppliers
• Clearer accountability between IT, SRM and third parties
• Stronger commercial leverage across the IT supply base
• Measurable value and innovation delivered through supplier relationships