Senior Program Manager, Vendor Operations

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was founded in 2015 by Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg to harness the power of technology to pursue some of society’s most ambitious goals — from curing or preventing all disease to transforming how students learn.

At CZI, you’ll join a deeply collaborative, mission-driven community where your work helps drive breakthroughs across our flagship nonprofit organizations, Biohub and Learning Commons. Whether enabling scientific breakthroughs via open science and AI-powered biology or strengthening the tools teachers and students rely on every day, your contributions help turn bold ideas into real-world impact.

Our teams operate at the intersection of innovation and scale, building the infrastructure, partnerships, and capabilities that allow scientists, educators, and innovators to tackle some of the most complex challenges of our time — and to do so with urgency, integrity, and optimism.

The Team

Across our work in Science, Education, and within our communities, we pair technology with grantmaking, impact investing, and collaboration to help accelerate the pace of progress toward our mission. Our Operations organization provides the support needed to push this work forward. 

Operations consists of our Brand & Communications, Central Tech, Finance, People, Real Estate/Workplace/Events/Facilities/Security (REWFS), Strategy & Operations, and Ventures teams. These teams provide the essential operations, services, and strategies needed to support CZI’s progress toward achieving its mission to build a better future for everyone.

The Opportunity

As CZI continues to mature its Vendor Management Office (VMO) within Central Technology, we are hiring a Senior Program Manager, Vendor Management, to scale and strengthen SaaS vendor lifecycle operations. This role will serve as a key execution leader within the VMO, ensuring vendor engagements move efficiently from intake through negotiation, execution, renewal, and off-boarding. As the VMO expands its support across Biohub and Learning Commons, this position will drive operational rigor while helping build a scalable, centralized vendor management model.

This role will lead operational execution across CZI’s technology vendor portfolio, with a strong focus on SaaS environments. It will partner closely with Vendor Strategy, Legal, Finance, Security, and Contract Owners to drive greater clarity, predictability, and efficiency across vendor workflows.

In addition to portfolio execution, this leader will strengthen standards, playbooks, and service delivery frameworks to enhance the VMO's overall effectiveness.

This role reports to the Senior Program Manager, Vendor Management.

What You'll Do

• Own and Execute the SaaS Vendor Lifecycle

  • Manage vendor engagements from intake through onboarding, execution, renewal, amendment, and offboarding
  • Ensure contracts progress efficiently through negotiation, approval, and onboarding workflows
  • Track contract milestones, renewal timelines, and termination notices to reduce operational risk
  • Partner with Contract Owners and cross-functional stakeholders to ensure smooth, compliant vendor onboarding
• Provide Day-to-Day Operational Leadership
  
  • Serve as the day-to-day operational lead for Vendor Management Specialists, ensuring clarity of priorities and execution standards
  • Coordinate workload distribution and support alignment with defined SLAs and service model expectations
  • Monitor execution quality and drive operational excellence across vendor workflows
  • Surface risks and bottleneck to the Senior Program Manager
  • Reinforce process standards and ensure consistent lifecycle execution
• Enhance Vendor Management Operations
  
  • Improve the Contract Owner experience by streamlining engagement processes, tools, and guidance
  • Operationalize standardized intake, prioritization, and lifecycle workflows
  • Maintain accurate vendor and contract data across tracking systems
  • Support automation initiatives to reduce manual effort and increase leadership visibility
  • Develop and document scalable vendor management processes, policies, and playbooks
• Drive Cross-Functional Coordination
  
  • Serve as a key liaison between vendors, Contract Owners, and internal partners including Legal, Finance, Privacy, Security, and IT
  • Provide clear guidance on process, timelines, and expectations
  • Improve predictability and reduce friction across vendor workflows
  • Act as a trusted advisor to stakeholders on vendor management best practices
• Contribute to Strategic SaaS Vendor Initiatives
  
  • Support vendor performance assessments and lifecycle health reviews
  • Contribute to vendor segmentation, consolidation, and optimization efforts
  • Lead execution of vendor management initiatives aligned with organizational goals
  • Continuously assess and improve processes to strengthen scalability and effectiveness

What You'll Bring

• 8+ years of experience in program management, vendor management, procurement, or related operational roles
• Demonstrated experience owning programs from strategy through execution, with measurable impact.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex workflows across multiple stakeholders
• Experience supporting SaaS, technology, or infrastructure vendor portfolios
• Strong commercial awareness and comfort supporting negotiations
• High attention to detail and ability to manage competing priorities
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and evolving team structures
• A proactive, ownership-driven mindset with a focus on execution and continuous improvement

Compensation

The Redwood City, CA base pay range for a new hire in this role is $169,000.00 - $211,000.00. New hires are typically hired into the lower portion of the range, enabling employee growth in the range over time. Actual placement in range is based on job-related skills and experience, as evaluated throughout the interview process. 

Better Together

As we grow, we’re excited to strengthen in-person connections and cultivate a collaborative, team-oriented environment. This role is a hybrid position requiring you to be onsite for at least 60% of the working month, approximately 3 days a week, with specific in-office days determined by the team’s manager. The exact schedule will be at the hiring manager's discretion and communicated during the interview process.

Benefits for the Whole You 

We’re thankful to have an incredible team behind our work. To honor their commitment, we offer a wide range of benefits to support the people who make all we do possible. 

• Provides a generous employer match on employee 401(k) contributions to support planning for the future.
• Paid time off to volunteer at an organization of your choice. 
• Funding for select family-forming benefits. 
• Relocation support for employees who need assistance moving

If you’re interested in a role but your previous experience doesn’t perfectly align with each qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply as you may be the perfect fit for this or another role.

#LI-Hybrid