Head of Third-Party Management – Relationship and Contract Management
Absa Group
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Hybrid
Location: Johannesburg • South Africa
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Job Level
About the role
- Ensure the design, implementation and maintenance of Third-Party relationship against global best practice standards.
- Act as point of contact between all sub risk type owners for the management of strategic, major and critical third parties.
- Fulfil all activities in adherence to relevant change policy, control and compliance requirements.
- Actively promote and manage the collaborative engagement of internal and external stakeholders.
- Own and manage a portfolio of strategic, high-risk, high-value, or business-critical third parties.
- Support Account Executives to execute third-party management strategies aligned to corporate objectives.
- Act as executive escalation point for material vendor issues.
- Lead strategic business reviews (SBRs) with key suppliers.
- Drive continuous improvement, innovation, and cost optimisation initiatives
- Identify opportunities for building and extracting Value Added Services from third parties during the tenure of the relationship.
- Ensure compliance with internal policies and applicable.
- Oversee due diligence, onboarding, ongoing monitoring, and exit planning.
- Partner with Risk, Compliance, Legal, Procurement, and Information Security teams.
- Monitor vendor risk indicators, SLAs, KPIs, and risk events.
- Ensure appropriate contingency, exit, and business continuity plans are maintained and tested.
- Support contract negotiations and renewals.
- Monitor commercial performance and value realisation.
- Oversee financial health assessments of critical suppliers.
- Manage dispute resolution and commercial escalations.
- Build strong relationships with Accountable Executive sponsors and senior leaders.
- Act as senior liaison between business units and third parties.
- Provide executive-level reporting on vendor performance and risk exposure.
- Support internal audit, regulatory reviews, and external inspections.
- Influence senior stakeholders to drive accountability in vendor governance.
- Oversee incident response involving third parties.
- Ensure timely root cause analysis and remediation.
- Contribute to operational resilience mapping and impact tolerance assessments.
- Lead lessons-learned reviews following material disruptions.
- Coach, inspire, engage, mentor and develop financially and business savvy leaders.
- Ensure consistent application of TPRM framework and governance standards.
Requirements
- Post Graduate Degree: Honours Degree, Post Graduate Diploma and Professional Qualifications [NQF8] Field of Study: Legal qualification proffered.
- Risk Management, Business Management, Financial Management, and related fields.
- 12+ experience in vendor management, supplier governance, outsourcing, operational risk or legal risk.
- Proven experience in managing critical or regulated third-party arrangements.
- Demonstrated ability of working within regulated industries (e.g., financial services, insurance, utilities) preferred.
- Experience in working with Global and Multinational suppliers.
- Proven track record for leading in complex and matrix reporting structures.
- Experience implementing governance, risk, and compliance frameworks.
Benefits
- Professional development opportunities
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard Skills & Tools
vendor managementsupplier governanceoutsourcingoperational risklegal riskgovernance frameworksrisk frameworkscompliance frameworksfinancial health assessmentscontract negotiations
Soft Skills
stakeholder engagementdispute resolutionleadershipcoachingmentoringcommunicationinfluencecollaborationcontinuous improvementstrategic thinking
Certifications
Post Graduate DegreeHonours DegreePost Graduate DiplomaProfessional Qualifications