Legal & Tax Vendor Manager

A new opportunity has arisen at a successful private equity firm in London for a legal and tax vendor manager on a permanent, full-time basis. Based within the legal and tax team, this is a new, business-critical role where you will take ownership of how the firm manages external relationships and associated expenditure.The main purpose of this role is to build processes and AI-enabled tools that provide visibility of external advisory spend and support the legal and tax teams in managing external relationships efficiently.Main responsibilities include:Owning the annual budgeting process – setting and communicating budgets to relevant stakeholders.Providing regular reporting to legal and tax leadership.Monitoring and managing fee arrangements and rate cards across all external vendors.Identifying opportunities for fixed-fee arrangements and volume discounts.Leveraging and configuring legal spend management tools, integrating AI-enabled functionality where appropriate.Ensuring that the legal spend management platforms are integrated with the firm’s other finance systems.Continuously improving the spend management platform based on user feedback.Managing and maintaining external advisor panels, running regular panel review processes.Acting as the primary point of contact for external advisors on billing and relationship admin issues.Coordinating onboarding of new external advisors.Ensuring that all external advisory invoices are processed and settled within agreed payment terms.Collaborating closely with the legal technology team, staying aware of emerging legal technology systems and recommending new innovative tools.Identifying and implementing improvements to procurement governance for external advisors.Experience and skills required:Strong experience managing external counsel and professional advisory spend.Proven track record of implementing spend management processes or tools.Excellent communication skills and the ability to build relationships at all levels.The ability to work under pressure and to tight timescales.Experience managing panel processes.Skilled in using legal technology and AI tools to improve processes.A solid understanding of finance and accounts payable function.Confidence presenting to senior stakeholders.This is an exciting role that offers a competitive salary and the opportunity to make a big contribution in a high-impact role. To be successful you must possess excellent stakeholder management skills, be commercially minded and very well organised.Location: LondonRegion: London (Greater)Country: UKSpecialisation: Legal Technology & Innovation, Legal TechSector: Legal Software ConsultancyRole Position: Legal TechnologyContract Type: PermanentHours: Full TimeExperience Level: Mid Level (2-5 years)PQE: Non QualifiedReference Number: JXE-IM-18290