Senior Consultant – Enterprise Critical Vendor Program Manager

About the role

Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution with over 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners. The role is within the First Line of Defense, responsible for driving the oversight, governance, and continuous improvement of Enterprise Critical vendor relationships.

Responsibilities

• Support transformation and ongoing maturity of the TPRM and Enterprise Critical Vendor Program through cross-functional collaboration across Business, Procurement, Risk, and Control functions.
• Facilitate cross-business unit coordination for enterprise critical engagements, ensuring standardized oversight and governance execution.
• Drive change management initiatives, including process enhancements, automation, and reporting improvements.
• Provide ongoing monitoring and oversight of critical/high-priority vendors, ensuring adherence to contractual obligations, KPIs, SLAs, and financial targets.
• Lead proactive identification, escalation, and remediation of vendor risks, control gaps, and performance issues.
• Perform vendor criticality assessments and support risk treatment activities aligned with regulatory expectations.
• Maintain risk, issue, and incident logs and support governance reporting and escalation.
• Prepare and deliver risk-based insights, dashboards, and executive reporting to governance forums.
• Support internal audits, regulatory exams, and third-party reviews through comprehensive documentation and program transparency.
• Lead QA/QC reviews of TPRM and ECV lifecycle deliverables to ensure quality, completeness, and policy adherence.
• Provide oversight and governance support for Consulting and Contingent Labor (C&CL) third-party relationships, ensuring alignment with Enterprise Critical Vendor Program standards and TPRM requirements.
• Partner with Procurement and Business Units to ensure appropriate onboarding, risk assessment, and lifecycle management of C&CL engagements.
• Drive cross-BU coordination and reporting of consulting and contingent labor vendor performance, risk posture, and compliance.
• Act as a trusted advisor to Business Units and vendor managers on TPRM requirements and regulatory expectations.
• Coach stakeholders on vendor lifecycle processes, governance standards, and risk management practices.
• Develop strong relationships with internal stakeholders and external vendors to drive performance and compliance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Risk, Finance, Business, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience in Third-Party Risk Management, Vendor Management, or related oversight functions in a financial services or regulated environment.
• Experience managing vendor relationships and supporting contractual, operational, and risk oversight activities.
• Strong understanding of third-party regulatory frameworks and risk management practices.
• Preferred experience supporting Consulting and Contingent Labor programs, including oversight of Master Agreement risk assessments, onboarding, and lifecycle governance.
• Experience working across multi-business unit environments coordinating enterprise-level vendor oversight.
• Experience with vendor lifecycle tools (e.g., Coupa or equivalent platforms).

Skills

• Strong consultative and problem-solving skills with the ability to develop business cases and solutions.
• Advanced data analytics skills; Power BI expertise strongly preferred (dashboard development, data modeling, visualization).
• Proficiency in Excel and financial / operational data analysis.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including executive-level presentations.
• Strong project management skills and ability to work in a matrixed, fast-paced environment.
• Ability to manage ambiguity, prioritize effectively, and drive outcomes.

Benefits

Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.

Working With Us

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at MyHRHelp@ntrs.com. We hope you’re excited about the role and the opportunity to work with us. We value an inclusive workplace and understand flexibility means different things to different people. Apply today and talk to us about your flexible working requirements and together we can achieve greater.