Senior Technology Vendor Manager

At Philo, we’re a group of technology and product people who set out to build the future of television, marrying the best in modern technology with the most compelling medium ever invented — in short, we’re building the TV experience that we’ve always wanted for ourselves. In practice this means leveraging cloud delivery, modern tech stacks, machine learning, and hand-crafted native app experiences on all of our platforms. We aim to deliver a rock solid experience on the streaming basics, while cooking up next generation multi-screen and multi-user playback experiences.

Senior Technology Vendor Manager

Philo is hiring its first dedicated Senior Technology Vendor Manager to own how we choose, contract, and get value from the technology vendors and partners that power our product and platform. Today, vendor relationships are spread across teams. You'll bring them under one clear owner, with a sharp eye on cost and a strong point of view on which tools and partners we should be using.

Technology is our largest and most complex area of spend, so it's where you'll spend most of your time: AWS, video transcoding, CDN, billing, and business intelligence. You'll be comfortable digging into AWS billing, Savings Plans, and usage data alongside our infrastructure engineers, and turning that into concrete cost recommendations. You’ll also be the go-to vendor partner for our Engineering and Data teams, helping them evaluate new tools and take promising products through a proof of concept before we commit.

This role suits someone who is organized, proactive, and research-driven. You'll know the vendor landscape well, form recommendations backed by analysis, and have a grounded sense of what's realistic for a company of our size and budget.

What you'll do

You’ll own vendor management for Philo’s Engineering and Data teams, with cloud and infrastructure costs as the top priority.

Cloud and infrastructure cost management

• Partner with our infrastructure engineers to understand AWS usage, billing, and commitments, and model the savings from Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, and other commercial options.

• Manage and optimize spend with AWS, our CDN partners, and our transcoding providers to lower unit costs and improve ROI.

• Track usage against commitments and flag risks or opportunities before they show up on the invoice.

Engineering and Data vendor support

• Act as the vendor partner for Engineering and Data teams, helping them find, evaluate, and contract the tools, platforms, and services they need.

• Build a simple intake process so Engineering and Data teams can request a new vendor and know what happens next.

• Partner with IT and Legal on vendor security and risk reviews before new tools are onboarded.

• Set and share vendor management best practices so engineers know how to engage vendors on their own.

Vendor evaluation and recommendations

• Research the vendor landscape for new projects and recommend the options that best fit our product needs, quality bar, and budget.

• Own the evaluation and selection criteria for new vendors, and run structured comparisons when we're choosing between them.

• Support "build vs. buy" decisions by laying out the cost, effort, and tradeoffs of each path.

• Run proofs of concept with Engineering and Data teams before we commit to a new product.

Negotiation and contracts

• Lead negotiations on pricing, business terms, and SLAs for new agreements and renewals.

• Manage the full contracting lifecycle with Legal, including NDAs, MSAs, SOWs, and purchase orders, through renewal or termination.

• Keep a central record of every technology vendor’s owner, contract terms, cost, and renewal date, and start renewal conversations early enough to negotiate.

Budget and financial partnership

• Work with Finance to model the cost of vendor contracts and forecast committed spend.

• Give leadership a clear view of where our vendor dollars go, where we're overlapping, and where we can save.

• Identify tools to consolidate or retire as our needs change.

Relationship management

• Serve as Philo's main point of contact for key vendors and escalate issues internally when needed.

• Run quarterly business reviews with strategic vendors, measuring performance against SLAs.

• Coordinate vendor meetings at CES and other industry events.

Qualifications:

• 8–10+ years in vendor management, technology procurement, or a closely related role, with most of that time spent on technology and cloud vendors.

• Hands-on experience managing a relationship with a major cloud provider (AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure), including reading usage and billing data and recommending commitment or pricing changes.

• Strong knowledge of technology products and categories, enough to compare vendors on substance and make a confident recommendation.

• A track record of negotiating pricing, terms, and SLAs that produced measurable savings or better terms.

• Experience running contracts through legal review, including NDAs, MSAs, and SOWs.

• Financial fluency. You've owned or managed vendor budgets, can build a cost model, and know what's realistic to spend.

• Strong research and analysis skills, with the judgment to turn findings into a clear recommendation.

• Highly organized and proactive. You plan ahead, keep many workstreams moving, and spot problems before they're urgent.

• Clear communicator who works well with engineers, finance, legal, and non-technical teams, in person and remotely.

• Comfortable working independently in a lean, fast-moving team.

Nice to have

• Experience at a streaming or media company, or familiarity with video technology such as transcoding, stream acquisition, and CDNs.

• An engineering or technical background that helps you find creative ways to lower AWS and CDN costs.

• Familiarity with FinOps practices and cloud cost tools (for example, AWS Cost Explorer).

• Experience with billing, payments, or BI and analytics platforms.

• Experience standing up a vendor management or procurement function from scratch.

More about Philo

At Philo, we’re a company that puts people first—both our subscribers and our team. We empower our colleagues to do their best work while supporting one another in pursuing shared goals. We value pragmatism, pride in our work, and passion, with transparency and openness as fundamental parts of our culture.

We’re committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility as we grow the Philo team and shape the future of TV. We believe that a diverse range of voices and perspectives enables us to innovate faster and create the best experiences for our subscribers. Philo is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We’re committed to supporting every candidate and employee. If you need an accommodation at any stage of the process, please email [email protected] and we’ll work with you to meet your needs.

Philo offers 70+ top-rated networks, including AMC, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, Food Network, Hallmark Channel, HGTV, HISTORY, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime, MTV, Nickelodeon, OWN, VH1, We TV, and more. It also includes all the groundbreaking originals and blockbuster movies available with AMC+ and access to HBO Max Basic With Ads and discovery+. Our service also includes 100+ free channels and premium add-ons like STARZ and MGM+.

Our extensive library boasts over 85,000 titles, and our unlimited DVR allows users to save their favorite shows and movies for up to a year, skipping ads for a seamless viewing experience. Stream on up to three devices simultaneously, whether on your phone, tablet, laptop, or TV using Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, Samsung TV, Android TV, Vizio TV, or Chromecast.

Philo is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and Cambridge, MA. Our leadership team includes alums from HBO, Tubi, and Meraki, and is backed by NEA and industry partners like Warner Brothers Discovery, Paramount, AMC, and A&E.

Join us at Philo and be part of a team that's shaping the future of TV!

Projected Start Date: ASAP
Status: Full-time
Location: San Francisco, CA, Brooklyn, NY, Cambridge, MA, or fully remote within the U.S.
Compensation: Includes annual salary, company stock options, and health benefits. Salary is determined by experience and location:

• San Francisco, New York City: $160K - $200K

• Boston, DC Metro, Los Angeles, Seattle: $150K - $190K

• Denver, Atlanta, Austin, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Chicago: $140K - $180K

• Texas, Florida: $135K - $170K

We value a diverse and inclusive workplace and we welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, skills, and perspectives. Philo is an equal opportunity employer. We believe that everyone does their best work when they are supported by each other and the company, and we offer a generous set of benefits to make sure the Philo team is happy and healthy. Here is a sampling of the benefits we offer our team:

• Full health, dental and vision coverage for you and your family

• 401(k) plan with employer contributions (we match 100% of deferrals up to 3% of pay and 50% of the next 2% of pay)

• Flexible working hours

• Up to 20 weeks of fully paid parental leave

• Unlimited paid time off for vacation and sick leave

• $2,000 annual vacation bonus (we pay you to take a two week vacation)

• $5,250 annually for professional development and educational assistance

• $1,250 annual home office + TV stipend during first year of employment ($250 annually thereafter)

• $500/month ($6,000/year) bonus for employees who commit to working at least 3 days per week in our offices, plus generous commuter benefits ($315/month towards transit, rideshare, bike rental, or parking at our HQ office in San Francisco)

• Free Gympass subscription — an all-in-one corporate benefit that gives employees the largest selection of gyms, studios, classes, training and wellness apps

• Dog-friendly office

• And much more!

For California Residents: Philo’s CCPA Notice at Collection – Employees, Applicants, Owners, Directors, Officers and Contractors

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Use of Automated Tools in Our Hiring Process

We use software tools, including our applicant tracking system (Ashby), to help manage applications for this role. Automated features (i) assess the skills, experience, and qualifications relevant to the role as described in this posting, and (ii) flag applications that appear fraudulent, duplicative, or not genuinely submitted by the applicant.

A summary of the most recent independent bias audit of the automated employment decision tool used in this process, including the audit date and data source, is available here: Bias Audit Summary.

You may request that a member of our team review a decision through a process that does not rely on the automated tools, or request a reasonable accommodation, by emailing [email protected]. We will not retaliate against you for exercising your rights.

Information about the type and source of the data our tools collect, our data retention policy, and how these tools were used in evaluating your application is described in our Privacy Notice – Employees,Applicants, Officers, Directors, and Contractors, or available by emailing [email protected].

Depending on your state of residence, you may have additional rights, including to an explanation of an adverse decision, correction of inaccurate data, and meaningful human review. To exercise these or ask whether they apply, email [email protected].