👩 💻 The Role

Location: While this position is posted in a specific location, all of Oyster’s positions are fully remote, and you can work from home. Forever. To create the best experience for our new hire, this role requires that you be based within 0 / +4 UTC.

We are looking for a Senior Manager, Operations Success to lead and develop a team responsible for managing and optimizing relationships with our external vendor partners. This role will oversee Vendor Managers who manage key partnerships across a number of business areas, including legal, compliance, H&S, Benefits, and EOR that support our global operations.

This leader will play a critical role in ensuring our operations vendor ecosystem is high-performing, scalable, and aligned with business goals. You and the team will focus on building strong, strategic partnerships that create mutual value for both Oyster and our partners.

The ideal candidate brings a strong background in partnership management, vendor strategy, and negotiation, combined with the ability to lead teams, influence cross-functional stakeholders, and use data to drive strategic decision-making.

This role sits at the intersection of strategy, operations, and relationship management and will work closely with teams across Go-to-Market (GTM), Legal, Finance, and Operations.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Individual Contributors who manage strategic external partners.
• Build a high-performing team culture focused on ownership, accountability, and partnership excellence.
• Provide guidance and support to the team on complex partner issues, escalations, and negotiations.
• Enable the team to develop clear processes, playbooks, and frameworks to support consistent vendor management practices.
• Lead change management initiatives, helping teams adopt new processes, tools, or ways of working at scale.

Vendor Partnership Strategy

• Define and execute the vendor partnership strategy to ensure vendors effectively support business growth and operational needs.
• Identify opportunities to optimize vendor performance, expand partnerships, and drive efficiencies.
• Develop scalable frameworks for vendor selection, onboarding, performance monitoring, and renewal decisions.
• Ensure vendor partnerships deliver strong outcomes while maintaining sustainable commercial arrangements.

Relationship Management & Negotiation

• Build and maintain strong executive-level relationships with key vendor partners.
• Lead complex vendor negotiations and support Vendor Managers in structuring commercially sound, mutually beneficial agreements in collaboration with Legal.
• Drive a “win-win” partnership approach, balancing business needs with long-term partner success.
• Manage vendor escalations and facilitate resolution of complex operational or contractual challenges.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Act as a strategic partner to internal teams, including GTM, Legal, Finance, and Operations.
• Ensure vendor capabilities, limitations, and opportunities are clearly understood across the organization.
• Partner with relevant teams to identify opportunities for process improvement and scalable vendor solutions.
• Work closely with Legal and Finance to ensure vendor agreements and service delivery meet compliance, risk, and financial objectives.

Data, Insights & Strategic Decision-Making

• Use data and analytics to evaluate vendor performance, cost efficiency, and service quality.
• Develop reporting frameworks and KPIs to monitor vendor performance and identify improvement opportunities.
• Provide leadership with insights on vendor ecosystem performance and recommendations for strategic changes.

Minimum Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in customer success/strategy, partnership management, vendor management, or strategic partnerships.
• Experience managing external vendors or partner ecosystems in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading and developing teams.
• Strong track record of leading negotiations and managing commercial agreements.
• Experience working cross-functionally with teams such as GTM, Legal, Finance, and Operations.

Skills

• Exceptional relationship-building and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking, with the ability to translate insights into action.
• Excellent negotiation and conflict resolution abilities.
• Ability to balance commercial objectives with long-term partnership success.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, including working with senior stakeholders.
• Experience working with various types of vendors, including legal, compliance, H&S, Benefits, and EOR.
• Experience in high-growth or global organizations.

You'll also need

• A reliable home internet connection (or be able to get one)