WHAT MAKES US A GREAT PLACE TO WORK:

Bain & Company is recognized as one of the top international management consultancy firms. We assist major corporations worldwide with strategy, acquisitions, organizational design and performance improvement.

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Position overview

Bain’s Primary Research capability supports high-quality insight generation for client teams through a broad ecosystem of external research partners, including expert networks, survey providers, specialist research vendors, and other third-party partners. The Manager, Vendor Management, will support category management, quality and risk-related initiatives, commercial and performance tracking, stakeholder communications, and operational improvement efforts.

The ideal candidate is a strong Manager-level operator who can bring structure to ambiguity, coordinate across multiple stakeholders, manage complex vendor workstreams, and translate priorities into practical execution.

Why this role matters

Primary Research is an important capability for Bain, helping teams develop distinctive market, customer, and expert perspectives. As research channels become more complex, Bain’s ability to manage a high-performing vendor ecosystem, maintain quality standards, and support efficient research operations is increasingly important to delivering client impact.

Key responsibilities

• Support the ongoing management of Bain’s external research vendor portfolio, including expert networks, specialist research vendors, and other third-party partners.
• Oversee recurring vendor management activities, including business reviews, performance check-ins, issue-resolution meetings, and commercial follow-ups.
• Track vendor performance against agreed service, quality, compliance, operational, and commercial expectations.
• Support vendor selection, onboarding, renewal, amendment, and offboarding processes in partnership with relevant internal stakeholders.
• Support innovation initiatives that improve the quality, consistency, efficiency, and scalability of Primary Research operations.
• Translate priorities into structured workplans with clear owners, timelines, risks, dependencies, and decision points.
• Prepare clear updates that summarize progress, key risks, decisions required and recommended next steps.
• Build trusted working relationships with internal stakeholders across business, research, Legal, Risk & Compliance, Finance, technology, and client-service teams.
• Support communications with external vendors, including meeting preparation, follow-up notes, action tracking, and issue escalation.