Strategic Partner & Vendor Manager

Powering the world's payments ecosystem

ACI powers the payments ecosystem - globally, and you power ACI.

You'll innovate, collaborate, and grow - in an energetic technology culture with decades of proven success.

ACIers - in all roles and levels - are truly your colleagues and many are your friends.

Our size and reach allow you to see the global impact of your work.

You are visible, your talents are valued, and you are empowered to shape the future of payments.

As a Strategic Partner & Vendor Manager in Omaha, NE or Norcross, GA, you will join a diverse, passionate team, dedicated to powering the world's payments ecosystem!

Job Purpose

The Strategic Partner & Vendo r Manager supports the definition and execution of ACI's Global Technology and Innovation (GTI) partner and vendor strategy across a global ecosystem of strategic providers.

The role drives a formal Partner/Vendor Stewardship Program, including governance (QBRs/MBRs/EBRs), performance scorecards, risk and issue management, and cross functional alignment to improve service stability, quality, and cost efficiency.

This role will also be responsible for overseeing existing critical contracts and ensuring the vendors deliver in accordance with their contracted SLAs, performance commitments, and defined success metrics.

Operating through influence in a matrixed environment, this role serves as an escalation point and partners closely with stakeholders involved in vendor relationship management to ensure ACI's most critical partners are aligned to strategic priorities, accountable to outcomes, and managed consistently across the enterprise.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

Strategic Vendor Relationship Management


* Define and maintain a clear "Partner vs.

Vendor" framework and tiering model (strategic, preferred, tactical) aligned to ACI and GTI's business and technology priorities.


* Design and drive a formal Partner/Vendor Stewardship Program (cadence, artifacts, roles, and decision forums).


* Analyze and support partner landscape rationalization (fewer, deeper relationships) to improve quality and cost leverage; pinpoint consolidation opportunities and propose sequencing.


* Align partners to the ACI roadmap (capabilities, capacity, reliability) and identify joint improvement plans.


* Orchestrate and facilitate alignment with internal stakeholders for partner priorities and decisions.


* Champion continuous improvement with partners related to service stability, response/repair times, release hygiene and roadmap fit.


* Serve as a trusted escalation point across internal departments including but not limited to GTI, Product, Global Information Security, Enterprise Risk Management, Procurement, and GTI partner(s).

Contract & SLA Governance


* Establish and maintain partner scorecards and KPIs (e.g., SLA/CSL adherence, availability, incident (Detection, Response, Repair) MTTR trends, release quality, roadmap alignment, escalation


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