Manager, Vendor Management

When you join Sallie Mae, you become a champion for all students.

We're on a mission to power confidence as students begin their unique journey. To help them plan their higher education, successfully finish, and prepare for life after school. To help them Start smart. Learn big.

Students need guidance navigating this important time in their life. They need someone who acknowledges that their education path is unique. They need a partner willing to evolve and not only meet but surpass their expectations. We're changing. Because students need a better way.

We're looking for people who are excited to drive this transformation. To break barriers and think of new ways to adapt, help, and create better experiences for students-and for each other.

This is where diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives matter. It's where you're empowered to bring your authentic self to work.

Feeling your best allows you to do your best. Our benefits take care of the whole you-from physical and mental to financial and professional. You'll get opportunities to further your education and career, support for you and your family (including your pets!), paid time off to volunteer for the things that matter to you, and more.

We're obsessed with impact and making a real difference. For us, that means putting relationships first, asking "why not?" when tackling challenges, and continuously learning new skills.

Come do more than join something, change something. For students, for future generations, for the future of education.

What You'll Contribute

The Vendor Manager will be responsible for supporting various aspects of the management and oversight of all debt buyers associated with Sallie Mae Bank's Post Default Loan Sales. This includes but is not limited to assisting the Senior Manager, Vendor Management with tasks associated with the sale of charged-off accounts to debt buyers, ongoing due diligence, projects related to onboarding, expanding, and maintaining debt buyer relationships.

The successful candidate will work to facilitate regular communications to ensure key performance indicators are achieved and maintained. In this role, you will partner with appropriate internal stakeholders to support all activities associated with effectively building and maintaining relationships with debt buyers, coordinate and support vendor compliance, and provide appropriate reporting.

The Vendor Manager will require the ability to build rapport and work with individuals at various levels in the Vendor Management Office (VMO), Compliance, Finance, Accounts Payable, Procurement, Privacy and operational lines of business. They will work under the guidance of senior management to ensure that all policies pertaining to vendors are adhered to and meet or exceed expected performance.

What You'll Do

Loan Sales

• Assist with running the loan sales process on a monthly basis which includes, but isn't limited to:

• Working with internal and external partners

• Ordering media for the accounts in the loan sale

• Running system scrubs to ensure the correct loans are being sold

• Running reports

• Validating the loan sale was successful

• Demonstrate and leverage a strong understanding of the student loan lifecycle and related processes.

Vendor Management Control and Ongoing Diligence

• Tracks and monitors vendor compliance with contractual licensing and insurance requirements.

• Track and log third-party debt buyer and agency complaints.

• Support third-party legal networks and third-party debt buyers with media and research requests.

• Ensures all policies, procedures and internal controls are adhered to in order to ensure compliance and process changes are kept up to date and accurate.

Vendor Oversight (Compliance) Support

• Assists with initial due diligence and onboarding of new post default vendors and debt buyers.

• Provide data and support to the post-default first line of defense team when executing its testing and monitoring protocols.

• Participate in internal audits and internal risk assessments, as necessary.

• Supports senior manager and/or operations on Ad-Hoc special project work as necessary.

Vendor Relations

• Supports new and existing relationships for post default debt buyers.

• Coordinates periodic third-party business review meetings (as needed).

• Assists with onboarding new vendors and debt buyers.

• Assists with the charged-off loan sale bid process and initial due diligence.

• Assists in the contract renewal process to ensure competitive and accurate pricing at all times.

• Assists in the creation of RFP's and RFI's.

• Work with Procurement as needed.

The above information is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this job; it is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees in this role.

What you have

Minimum: Indicate minimum education, skills and experience required.

• Bachelor's Degree, or equivalent experience

• 2+ years vendor related experience, or proven specialized experience in the following functions: internal partnership development and management; external business partnerships; process evaluation, assessment and improvement.

• Strong understanding and/or ability to become a subject matter expert of student loan life cycle and process, such as the application process, originations, disbursement, repayment process, loss mitigation programs and collections, and loss recovery.

• Strong understanding of collections and recovery.

• Strong analytical skills with the demonstrated ability to identify issues and suggest appropriate resolutions.

• Possess excellent verbal and written communications skills to communicate with all levels of management, third-party vendors, and lawyers

• Ability to effectively prioritize multiple priorities in a fast paced, time sensitive environment

• Proficient in Microsoft suite of applications and other Sallie Mae support systems such as FDR, Encore, SalesForce, and Atlas.

Preferred: Indicate "nice to haves" regarding education, skills, and experience.

• 5+ years progressive experience working in a financial services environment

• Understanding of student loan lifecycle.

• Understanding of charged-off loan sales and recovery process.

• SQL or other data mining experience, with ability to interpret data.

The Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination by employers, in compensation and employment opportunities, against qualified individuals with disabilities who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the "essential functions" of a job. A function may be essential for any of several reasons, including: the job exists to perform that function, the employee holding the job was hired for his/her expertise in performing the function, or only a limited number of employees are available to perform that function.

Feeling your best helps you do your best:

Our benefits take care of the whole you-so you can build your work around your life (not the other way around!).

• Competitive base salaries

• Bonus incentives

• Generous PTO, Floating Holidays and 12 Federal Holidays observed

• Support for financial-well-being and retirement 401k with employer match

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, hospital indemnity, critical illness, pet insurance and more

• Employer paid short-term/long-term disability and basic life insurance

• Flexible hybrid working arrangements.

• Paid parental leave and adoption reimbursement programs

• Free access to on-site staffed fitness centers (in Delaware) and gym subsidy (for locations outside Delaware)

• Confidential counseling support (EAP), Health Advocacy services and Wellness program with financial incentives

• Tuition Reimbursement and Family Scholarship Programs

• Career development and training opportunities

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Sallie Mae is proud to be an equal opportunity (EEO) employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, genetic information, gender identity, disability, Veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. Click here to view the U.S. Pay Transparency Policy, here for federal job applicant notices, and here to view the California Employee Privacy Notice.

Reasonable accommodations are available for applicants with disabilities in all phases of the application and employment process. To request an accommodation please call (855) 756-2007 and choose option 9. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.