Information Technology Governance Manager

The Governance Lead plays a crucial role in driving the end-to-end ICT governance function to ensure the organization's information and communication technology (ICT) operations are well-governed, compliant, and optimized for performance. This senior position involves overseeing vendor governance, sourcing and contracting oversight, contractual compliance, Service Level Agreement (SLA) management, enterprise risk management for ICT, and vendor relationship management. The Governance Lead is responsible for robust governance of all ICT sourcing and procurement activities. Collaborating with Procurement and Legal teams, they establish and review ICT vendor contracts to ensure terms, conditions, and service expectations align with organizational policies. This includes overseeing contracts for Solution Engagement (SE) projects, ICT projects, and major strategic initiatives, ensuring they support project objectives and comply with internal standards. Developing and enforcing governance guidelines for ICT sourcing, the Governance Lead ensures that all RFPs, vendor evaluations, and contract awards adhere to the company's procurement policies, ICT templates/standards, and ethical standards for transparency and fairness. They coordinate contract drafting and negotiations with Legal, ensuring deliverables, service levels, and compliance requirements are contractually documented. The Governance Lead maintains strict compliance tracking of all vendor deliverables and obligations as per contracts. They implement and maintain a tracking system for all ICT vendor contracts, review deliverables submitted by vendors, and enforce obligations by initiating escalation in case of non-compliance. The Governance Lead prepares summaries of deliverables and obligations compliance status for leadership review. Monitoring and governing service performance through SLAs is another key responsibility of the Governance Lead. They collaborate with procurement and technical teams to define clear, measurable SLA metrics for each service, regularly review vendors" SLA performance reports, oversee any adjustments to SLAs, and summarize SLA compliance across all vendors in management reports. In addition, the Governance Lead leads the ICT risk management and compliance efforts, identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks across the entire ICT landscape. They work with ICT sub-departments to identify potential risks, conduct risk assessments, ensure compliance with relevant regulations and standards, and provide regular risk updates to senior management. Furthermore, the Governance Lead serves as the executive owner of vendor relationships, focusing on building and maintaining strategic partnerships with ICT suppliers. They establish structured vendor governance cadence, conduct Executive Steering Committees meetings, monitor performance and relationship aspects, and work on long-term strategies such as vendor development and alternate sourcing. The ideal candidate for this position should have an in-depth understanding of IT governance frameworks, familiarity with standards like COBIT and ITIL/ISO 20000, strong knowledge of contract management principles and procurement processes, solid grasp of risk management techniques and compliance requirements relevant to ICT, exceptional analytical skills, leadership abilities, and excellent communication and interpersonal skills. A Bachelors degree in CS, IS, Engineering, an MBA or relevant masters degree, 12-15 years of experience in the IT/ICT sector, with 5-7 years in leadership roles focusing on IT governance, vendor management & program management are required qualifications for this role.,