Manager – IT Application Managed Services

Position Overview

The Manager – IT Application Managed Services (AMS) is accountable for the governance and performance management of external service providers delivering AMS for a defined application portfolio. This role ensures vendors meet contractual commitments and service levels, provides oversight of operational delivery (without directly managing day-to-day incident/problem execution), and drives continuous improvement, cost optimization, and service maturity. A key focus is enabling cross-vendor collaboration to support end-to-end business process outcomes across integrated application landscapes. Success in this role requires strong, proactive alignment with two critical stakeholder groups: the IT Service Center (front-line intake, triage, and user experience) and Product Teams (roadmaps, releases, and product health). The Manager partners with Product, Application Owners, Infrastructure, Security, and Finance/Procurement to ensure vendor-delivered services align to business priorities and technology standards.

Key Accountabilities 

Vendor Governance & Service Performance Management:

• Act as the primary IT point of contact for AMS service providers for assigned application scope.

• Establish and run vendor governance routines (weekly operational reviews, monthly service reviews, quarterly business reviews).

• Monitor vendor performance against SLAs and contractual KPIs (availability, responsiveness, backlog, change success rate, knowledge quality), ensuring corrective actions are executed.

• Review vendor RCA reports and improvement plans; challenge quality and timeliness of deliverables and ensure closure of actions.

• Ensure vendors maintain appropriate documentation (runbooks, SOPs, knowledge articles) and operational readiness artifacts.

Financial & Commercial Management:

• Lead/participate in commercial negotiations with vendors for new scope, changes in service conditions, and pricing, diligently pursuing a continuous productivity practice to ensure value for money and alignment to service expectations.

• Identify and deliver cost optimization opportunities while maintaining service quality.

• Manage AMS financial administration for the scope: budget planning, forecasting, cost tracking, and variance explanations.

• Validate vendor invoices for accuracy and correct allocation (projects vs. run, GL coding) in line with company policy.

• Support contract lifecycle activities with Procurement/Vendor Management (SOWs, renewals, rate cards, scope changes).

• Review and challenge vendor proposals, assumptions, and effort estimates; negotiate deliverables, acceptance criteria, and commercial terms in partnership with Procurement and Legal as required.

Cross-Vendor Collaboration & End-to-End Service Delivery

• Drive cross-vendor operating rhythms (shared governance, joint triage, integrated reporting) to ensure seamless service across multi-vendor environments.

• Facilitate collaboration between vendors supporting different applications/technology towers to resolve handoffs, reduce “swivel-chair” support, and improve end-to-end business process performance (e.g., order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, inventory-to-fulfillment).

• Define and enforce clear RACI, escalation paths, and cross-vendor accountability for integrated services and shared outcomes.

• Lead cross-vendor initiatives to improve knowledge sharing, reduce recurring cross-system issues, and strengthen integration support.

Service Improvement & Standardization

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives with vendors (process adherence, shift-left, automation opportunities, reduction of recurring issues, improved documentation quality).

• Define and track service improvement plans (SIPs) and ensure measurable outcomes.

• Promote standard ways of working across vendors (templates, reporting, governance cadence, escalation paths).

Stakeholder Alignment: IT Service Center & Product Teams 

• Foster strong day-to-day partnership with the IT Service Center to ensure effective intake, routing, escalation paths, knowledge availability, and a consistent end-user support experience.

• Maintain tight alignment with Product Teams to anticipate roadmap-driven support impacts, ensure operational readiness for releases, and align vendor priorities to product health and business outcomes.

• Establish clear engagement models (RACI, escalation, communications) between vendors, IT Service Center, and Product Teams to reduce friction and improve time-to-resolution across the service chain.

• Provide clear, business-ready reporting on vendor performance, risks, and improvement progress to IT leadership and stakeholders.

• Ensure effective escalation management and timely stakeholder communications for service risks and chronic issues (without owning operational execution).

• Collaborate with Security, Risk, and Compliance teams to ensure vendors meet required controls, access standards, and audit needs.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field (or equivalent experience).

• 8–10+ years of IT experience with significant exposure to Application Managed Services / outsourcing models.

• 2–3+ years of experience managing vendors/service providers and holding them accountable to SLAs and deliverables.

• Strong understanding of IT service management concepts (ITIL-aligned incident/problem/change processes) sufficient to govern vendor execution.

• Demonstrated experience with budgeting, forecasting, invoice validation, and financial tracking for managed services.

• Demonstrated capability to negotiate scope, service conditions, and commercials/pricing with vendors (in partnership with Procurement/Legal where applicable).

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, including executive-level reporting and negotiation.

• Experience with service management tools (e.g., ServiceNow) and reporting/metrics.

Preferred Qualifications

• ITIL Foundation certification.

• Experience managing AMS for SaaS and subscription-based services.

• Experience in global, multi-region environments and working with offshore/onshore delivery models.

• Familiarity with governance frameworks, vendor scorecards, and service improvement planning