Vendor and Contract Manager

About Us
The Department of Government Services (DGS) was established on 1 January 2023 to improve everyone's experience of doing business and interacting with the Victorian government. We bring important day-to-day services together in one department to make things easy and seamless for Victorians and businesses. We are doing this by connecting and digitising our systems and platforms across state and local government as well as streamlining our corporate and procurement services.

About the role

The Vendor and Contract Manager supports the Procurement and Contract Management Delivery Team in tracking and maintaining systematic approaches to the acquisition of a variety of services to the Digital Platforms Division and other business units.

The role is also responsible for managing and overseeing end to end procurement and contract management within DGS and to provide expert advice, devise solutions and ensure purchasing and contract management activities achieve value for money and are efficient, effective and ethical. This involves the application of comprehensive working knowledge of established legislation, policy, procedures and guidelines to a range of activities often involving complexity and sensitivity.

The role will identify initiatives seeking continuous improvement in procurement and contract management practices and standards as well as ensuring the organisation complies with all relevant policies.

Key Accountabilities

• Undertake procurement and contract management activities and engage the Corporate Procurement Team (CPT) as expert advisors at all points of the procurement process.
• Manage strategic procurement functions across multiple business units, providing a centralised procurement service to Digital Platforms and partnering across DGS to deliver consistent, compliant, and value-driven procurement outcomes.
• Support the management of contractor’s discretionary services proposals or contract variation proposals to ensure sound governance, smooth business processes and maximise value to the State.
• Lead procurement projects and set direction for delivery, including scoping work, and ensuring quality, timeliness, and alignment with organisational priorities.
• Maintain contracts records and track key actions to ensure high-level reporting
• Stakeholder engagement and influencing, advising Executive Director-level stakeholders and negotiating with vendor CEOs to achieve strong commercial and strategic outcomes.
• Integrate improved capabilities into service delivery processes.
• Define and maximises value add and/or return of investment in business cases, contract terms, or service delivery agreements. Use broad understanding of procurement and finance concepts to inform expenditure decisions and manage risks.
• Where required, demonstrated leadership and people management capability, , mentoring team members, and fostering a high-performing, accountable, and collaborative procurement function.
• Other duties as directed by the Manager, Procurement and Contract Management and Chief Procurement Officer from time to time.

Mandatory requirements

• Relevant experience in government procurement and an understanding of the procurement policy environment is highly desirable.
• Experience of working with financial software and procurement systems and tools.
• Tertiary qualifications in procurement, commerce, law or related disciplines is highly desirable

This is an ongoing position. The position is only open to applicants with relevant rights to work in Australia. 

For more information and the key selection criteria, please see the Position Description. 

How to apply:
Apply before the advertised closing date 11:59pm on Thursday, 8 October 2026. All applications should include: 

• a resume; and  
• a cover letter which addresses the key selection criteria (within three pages).

Other relevant information:
To be eligible for appointment to this role, applicants will possess corresponding work rights for the advertised employment period. Appointment to an ongoing role is only available to an Australian/New Zealand citizen or an Australian Permanent Resident.  Preferred candidates will be required to complete a Pre-employment Declaration and Consent Form. Employment of successful candidates will be subject to a National Police Check.  

The department is committed to providing and maintaining a working environment which is safe and without risk to the health of its employees and clients and consistent with the department's obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OH&S Act), to support this DGS has a COVID-19 Vaccination policy which strongly recommends all DGS employees be fully vaccinated.   

DGS actively promotes diversity, inclusion and an equal opportunity workplace. All roles at DGS can be worked flexibly, however it may differ from role to role.