Senior Vendor Relationship Manager

Location: While this position is posted in a specific region, all of Oyster's positions are fully remote, and you can work from home. Forever. Global candidate-location options available.

In this highly strategic and cross-functional role, you'll own and evolve Oyster's global network of external payroll partners and core compliance providers that underpins end-to-end payroll delivery across our markets.

Operating with a primary focus (~80%) on core multi-country payroll delivery, vendor accuracy, calendar adherence, and operational controls, alongside secondary oversight (~20%) of specialized Compliance vendors, you'll ensure our partners deliver scalable, high-quality, and fully compliant solutions that enable our customers to hire anyone, anywhere.

You'll combine commercial acumen, operational excellence, regulatory monitoring, and strong relationship management to drive vendor performance, execute risk assessments, resolve complex payroll escalations, and continuously strengthen our global partner ecosystem.

From leading commercial negotiations, compliance tracking, and governance frameworks to identifying new partner opportunities and ensuring alignment with local legal and statutory payroll standards, you'll play a critical role in shaping how Oyster delivers global employment solutions at scale.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in ambiguity, enjoys solving complex operational challenges, and can confidently influence stakeholders internally and externally. You are commercially minded, data-driven, solutions-oriented, and energized by building strong partnerships that create long-term business impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the Subject Matter Expert and primary operational and commercial owner for Oyster's strategic multi-country payroll partners worldwide.
• Maintain deep operational mastery of end-to-end payroll delivery workflows, cut-off calendars, variance analysis, Gross-to-Net (GTN) calculations, statutory filings, and failure modes across key markets
• Partner with internal Pay & Payroll operations teams to monitor partner SLA compliance, data payload delivery, and payroll cut-off adherence
• Proactively evaluate vendor capacity, operational readiness, and processing controls ahead of peak payroll cycles and expansion into new markets
• Define partner strategy, governance, scorecards, review cadences, escalation thresholds, and improvement plans
• Hold partners accountable for payroll accuracy, timeliness, statutory compliance, compliance tracking, responsiveness, controls, and customer outcomes
• Manage the full vendor relationship lifecycle, from partner selection and onboarding through transition, consolidation, or exit decisions
• Evaluate partner capabilities, market coverage, operational maturity, security/compliance posture, and scalability
• Build and maintain expertise in multi-country payroll delivery, regulatory dependencies, and contractual trade-offs
• Establish baselines and monitor vendor performance through KPIs, SLAs, scorecards, and remediation plans
• Lead recurring executive business reviews and performance discussions with partner leadership teams
• Translate payroll-partner performance data into recommendations for Operations, Product, Finance, Legal, Customer teams, and leadership
• Monitor operational performance and proactively identify service risks or quality concerns
• Conduct structured vendor compliance audits, risk assessments, and operational reviews across the partner ecosystem
• Drive consistent governance standards, regulatory alignment, and operational excellence across vendors
• Lead ongoing regulatory monitoring, risk assessments, and compliance tracking to ensure there are no gaps in compliance across all payroll and compliance vendor operations and local legal standards across all operating regions

Commercial & Partnership Management

• Build trusted, long-term relationships with external partner leadership teams
• Lead or materially shape commercial negotiations, contract renewals, pricing, remedies, and service changes
• Strengthen strategic partnerships to support business growth and customer outcomes
• Lead complex, multi-market payroll escalations through root-cause analysis, recovery, prevention, and executive communication
• Collaborate cross-functionally and externally to resolve sensitive operational challenges
• Support customer and internal stakeholder conversations requiring partner expertise
• Identify and source new partners to strengthen global coverage and capabilities
• Identify operational or geographic gaps within the vendor ecosystem
• Evaluate and onboard new partners to strengthen Oyster's global coverage
• Recommend improvements to ecosystem strategy, scalability, and service quality
• Partner cross-f