Sr. Director, Vendor & Relationship Management
Kardigan · Princeton, New Jersey, United States
About Us
Kardigan is a heart health company working to make cardiovascular disease preventable, curable and no longer the leading cause of death in the world.
It is Kardigan’s mission to develop multiple targeted treatments in parallel that bring people with cardiovascular diseases to the cures they deserve.
Led by Tassos Gianakakos, Jay Edelberg, M.D., Ph.D., and Bob McDowell, Ph.D., Kardigan’s co-founders have reunited after leading MyoKardia to discover and develop mavacamten, the first cardiac myosin inhibitor, resulting in an acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2020.
We have a cutting-edge discovery and translational research platform, a pipeline of late-stage candidates, and an industry-leading team that is driven to improve the lives of patients.
At Kardigan, we are motivated by our values which guide how we work, interact, and achieve our goals. Driven by patients and their families, we are deeply committed to improving the lives of patients and prioritizing their needs above all else. We believe in being authentic—leading with truth to bring out the best in others by creating an environment where every person knows they will be fully accepted. With an eagerness to learn, we encourage the highest levels of curiosity and are open to changing our minds. We are committed to winning as a team with urgency, excellence, and intention, and support each other no matter what role we play or where we sit. Lastly, we strive to enable the impossible because patients are counting on us. We are not afraid to take risks to unlock innovation and advance scientific discoveries.
These values are the foundation of our work, empowering us to make a real difference, every day.
Department: Development
Reports To: Vice President, Head of Development Services
Location: Princeton, NJ -On-site 4 days (M-Th)
*May consider candidates in South San Francisco
Travel: Up to 20–30% domestic and international travel as required
About Kardigan
Kardigan is a heart health company focused on modernizing cardiovascular drug development and advancing targeted treatments for cardiovascular diseases. The company is building a development model grounded in deep cardiovascular expertise, data, technology, and operational excellence to bring forward therapies that may meaningfully change outcomes for patients and families.
Role Summary
The Sr. Director, Vendor & Relationship Management will provide strategic and operational leadership for vendor governance, sourcing strategy, and relationship management across Kardigan’s clinical portfolio. This role defines and implements sourcing strategies and associated operating models that enable effective clinical trial execution through external partnerships, and is directly accountable for ensuring that CROs, central labs, and other clinical vendors meet performance, quality, and cost targets. The role oversees vendor selection, integration, governance, performance management, relationship health, and issue escalation, ensuring vendors are embedded effectively into Kardigan’s operating model, ways of working, and culture.
The Senior Director serves as a subject matter expert on vendor and relationship management best practices and industry trends, bringing external perspective to how Kardigan structures, governs, and matures its vendor relationships. This is a hands-on leadership role that requires the ability to operate strategically while also building fit-for-purpose governance structures, processes, and team capabilities — including providing leadership to and development of direct reports as the function scales. The Senior Director will partner closely with Development Operations, Clinical Operations, Biometrics, Business Operations, Procurement, Legal, Quality, and cross-functional clinical development teams to ensure clinical vendors are selected, onboarded, managed, and held accountable effectively across the portfolio.
Key Responsibilities
Sourcing Strategy and Operating Model Design
- Define and implement sourcing strategies and associated operating models that enable efficient, high-quality clinical trial execution through external partnerships.
- Assess portfolio resource demand and sourcing options — including build-vs-buy and vendor-mix decisions — to meet current and anticipated future portfolio needs, in partnership with Procurement and the functions.
- Serve as subject matter expert on vendor and relationship management best practices and industry trends, applying external benchmarking to continuously evolve Kardigan’s sourcing and governance models.
Vendor Governance and Relationship Management
- Lead the vendor governance model across Kardigan’s clinical portfolio, ensuring relationships between functional areas/study teams and their vendors are running smoothly and efficiently.
- Define, model, and reinforce Partnership behaviors that enable high-performing partnerships—transparency, trust, shared accountability, constructive challenge, timely decision-making, and a mutual commitment to outcomes—across Kardigan and its strategic vendors.
- Oversee the planning and leading of Joint Operations Committees, Executive Steering Committees, and other governance committees on behalf of Kardigan with key vendors — including agenda setting, metrics review, strategy formulation, and action follow-up.
- Serve as the senior point of contact for strategic, relationship-level vendor issues and escalations, distinct from day-to-day operational escalations managed within study teams.
- Develop and maintain vendor segmentation and oversight models that align governance intensity with vendor scope, risk, and criticality.
- Promote compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards related to vendor management and outsourcing, including the development and maintenance of appropriate partnership documentation.
Vendor Performance, Cost, and Operational Transparency
- Own vendor accountability for performance, quality, and cost targets across the portfolio, collaborating with Business Operations and Finance to align operational cost management with budgeting, forecasting, and accrual processes.
- Develop and enhance vendor performance scorecards and dashboards that monitor vendor performance and compliance with contracts, using analytics to drive early identification of risks and proactively initiating mitigations and contingencies against performance and cost risks.
- Collaborate with relevant functions to ensure vendors execute clinical trials within budget, on time, and to the highest quality, through cross-company and cross-partnership collaboration.
- Translate vendor performance, cost, and relationship data into concise insights for Development Operations leadership, executive leadership, and governance forums.
- Drive continuous improvement in vendor management processes, tools, templates, and reporting practices to increase speed, consistency, and inspection readiness.
- Identify opportunities to leverage automation, AI-enabled tools, and fit-for-purpose systems to improve vendor oversight, score carding, and relationship reporting.
Vendor Onboarding and Strategic Partnership Development
- Play a pivotal role in the identification, evaluation, selection, and onboarding of new vendors, in partnership with Procurement/Business Operations, Development Operations, and functional business partners.
- Cultivate and model effective partnerships that foster robust relationships with key external partners, leading the integration of new vendors into Kardigan’s operating model and ways of working.
- Drive vendor-enabled process improvements and innovation initiatives that enhance efficiency, quality, and relationship value over time.
Issue Resolution and Cross-Functional Escalation Management
- Apply strong negotiation and honest-brokering skills to drive resolution of relationship, performance, and commercial issues, partnering with Procurement/Business Operations and Legal on form