Vendor Manager (Remote, US)

Are you a relationship builder who finds satisfaction in win-win solutions? Do you take pride in turning expectations into results, through clear communication, consistency, and collaboration? If you thrive in an environment where long-term partnerships matter as much as performance, keep reading. Apex is looking for an experienced, steady, and proactive International Vendor Manager to strengthen the foundation of our global manufacturing relationships.

Who are we?

Apex is a leading provider of high-performance automotive wheels and wheel accessories, catering to the motorsport and performance car enthusiast community. We have a strong vision for the future, a powerful narrative about our brand, and an enthusiastic team to execute our plans. We’ve been in business since 2007, and our team of 40+ staff are spread out remotely across the USA. 

Objective

The Vendor Manager at Apex is responsible for the health of relationships with our long-term contract manufacturing partners. Success in this role is measured by how well our vendors perform with respect to quality, timeliness, and cost, while maintaining long-term healthy partnerships that scale with us. The Vendor Manager will own communications with our vendors, ensuring alignment and accountability. This role would free our team up to focus on their core areas, allow our CEO to focus his talents on higher-level strategic initiatives, and make us less dependent on our negotiating consultants. 

Job Summary

At Apex, the International Vendor Manager will play a pivotal role in leading and nurturing key existing relationships with a small group of Southeast Asian contract manufacturers, and with time, adding a few more. The core of this position is about building long-term, strategic partnerships where trust, cultural understanding, and consistent execution are essential. Our ideal candidate will bring a proven track record in long-term vendor relationship management - not just in title, but through direct, hands-on ownership of vendor performance and accountability. This position is not suited to candidates whose prior experience has been limited to large teams with distributed responsibilities or to managing high volumes of interchangeable, low-complexity vendors. You’ll work with a small number of key manufacturing partners producing custom, highly technical products where relationship quality directly impacts success.

To make those strategic partnerships successful, day-to-day discipline matters just as much as vision. Keeping our vendors aligned on timelines, product quality, and communication standards will require diligence, strong organization, and consistent follow-through. You must be the kind of person who sets regular check-ins and follows up even when it’s inconvenient. A reactive approach will not suffice, and if you are not proactively managing deliverables, checking status without being prompted, and holding both internal and external stakeholders accountable, things will quickly fall apart. 

While tactical follow-through keeps us on track, lasting success depends on how we manage and evolve our vendor relationships. Because we will not simply walk away from our vendor relationships, success in this role requires a nuanced, relationship-first approach. You’ll need to understand what motivates our manufacturing partners, gain their buy-in on shared success, and maintain open, respectful, and proactive communication. We are looking for someone who can help us take these relationships to the next level by formalizing expectations and accountability through thoughtfully structured vendor contracts and constantly improving terms and practices that are mutually agreed upon. You will need to quickly establish trust with both Apex’s leadership and our vendors so that you can move Apex’s priorities forward with our vendors. You must have direct experience drafting, implementing, and upholding vendor agreements, ideally in collaboration with internal leadership and legal counsel. These contracts will serve as a framework to protect our interests, minimize risk, and define clear standards around lead times, quality, communication, and corrective actions.

While our international vendors generally communicate in English, it is typically not their first language, which is why Mandarin verbal fluency is strongly preferred.  If you do not speak Mandarin, you will need to utilize creative translation tools. Your communication will help reduce problems to a few short calls instead of weeks of back-and-forth emails. You will play a significant role in key negotiations that will include our executives and the leadership of our vendor. Your knowledge of Southeast Asian business culture, gained through travel or extended stays in the region, will enable you to overcome the challenges of our different business customs. 

Building a great relationship can’t happen over email or WeChat alone. At a minimum, you will be expected to visit our vendors annually, though more frequent trips may be necessary to build trust, resolve issues, and provide boots-on-the-ground visibility during new system setup. Travel to trade shows would also be needed. We envision having a local support presence in the future, but we don’t have one today. While you will work remotely from your home within the contiguous United States, you will need to be available for early morning or late evening calls to accommodate time zone differences. You’ll also be expected to participate in occasional in-person team-building events, either at our headquarters in Pleasanton, California or at another US-based location.

Strong relationships abroad only work when they’re matched by alignment at home. This position reports directly to our CFO. You will work closely with our Inventory & Demand Manager, Engineering Manager, and leadership to ensure that our manufacturing partners are aligned and capable of meeting our needs. This role might evolve to include people management as we grow, but we’ll expect you to create efficiencies, maybe even the use of AI tools, before we seriously consider adding to our headcount. 

Even with the right structure in place, challenges will arise. Our contract manufacturers are not accustomed to our level of scrutiny, and your role will be to install the safeguards that prevent recurring problems, while also addressing issues with tact, firmness, and clarity. You’ll need to anticipate risks, create and enforce contract-based expectations, and negotiate fair resolutions that protect Apex from unnecessary cost or disruption. Success in this role means being respected by both our vendors and internal teams for your accountability, cultural fluency, problem-solving, and execution. In many ways, you are our key problem solver, helping others overcome their issues where the vendor is the core problem.

Who are you?

• Communication is your superpower. You can clearly articulate expectations and ensure understanding, even across language barriers. You embrace conflict as a tool to build relationships.
• You see the value in long-term partnerships and know what it takes to build and maintain them.
• You have demonstrated success in managing high-value relationships, fostering partnerships, and delivering mutually beneficial results
• Your motivation to work isn’t dependent on being in an office around others. You can concentrate and avoid distractions when working from home.
• You balance kindness and curiosity and are not afraid to ask questions, stick your nose in, or stick your neck out.
• You naturally want to use tools to keep projects well organized, and it won’t take pressure from a manager to do so. Improving the efficiency of a process or automating it together puts a huge smile on your face.
• Proactive and adaptable, you anticipate problems before they arise and implement solutions to keep operations running smoothly.
• You’d rather move slowly and deliberately than suffer poor quality or outcomes.
• You have demonstrated the ability to successfully promote a vision that results in vendor investments and concessions on the company’s behalf.

How to Apply:

When submitting your application, please include a cover letter that answers the following question: How have you tailored your vendor management approach when dealing with single or dual sourcing vendors? Mention specific challenges you've faced and how you've overcome them. If you've never used single or dual sourcing before, tell us about a win you earned when you had very little leverage with a vendor. Mention specific challenges you've faced and how you've overcome them. If you do not speak Mandarin, please also tell us about how you’ve overcome language barriers with vendors.

Responsibilities

• Vendor Relationship Management: Serve as the primary liaison between Apex and international manufacturing partners, ensuring mutual understanding across time zones, languages, and cultural expectations.  Own vendor relationships and consistently and proactively follow up with vendors for their deliverables to ensure production objectives are not delayed by any vendor-side disorganization.Own vendor relationships and consistently and proactively follow up with vendors for their deliverables to ensure production objectives are not delayed by any vendor-side disorganization.  
• Vendor Onboarding: Identify and onboard new vendors strategically to mitigate risk, diversify supply, and support future product launches. Develop scalable vendor onboarding and evaluation frameworks that can support future growth and new product categories.
• Vendor Performance Management: Develop and maintain vendor scorecards to evaluate performance on quality, lead time, cost, communication responsiveness, and risk.Collaborate with internal teams (engineering, inventory, and finance) to translate forecasts, design changes, and launch plans into clear vendor deliverables. Track and negotiate cost structures, identifying opportunities for cost reductions or process efficiencies without compromising quality. Mediate and resolve vendor disputes effectively and diplomatically while safeguarding Apex’s operational and financial interests. 
• Vendor Communications:  Lead morning or early evening group calls to check in with vendors and solve problems. Conduct quarterly business reviews (QBRs) with vendors to ensure continuous improvement and alignment with Apex’s evolving priorities. Maintain timely, clear, and thorough communication with all vendors, tracking all deliverables due for both sides. Foster a culture of transparency by maintaining clear communication channels and documentation of all key decisions, commitments, and follow-ups. Train and mentor internal stakeholders on vendor communication best practices, cultural fluency, and escalation protocols.
• Contract Management and Negotiations: Own the vendor contract lifecycle, from drafting and negotiation (with leadership support) through renewal and compliance tracking. Continuously refine vendor management systems, leveraging AI and automation tools where they make sense to increase visibility and accountability. Collaborate with leadership to align vendor strategy with Apex’s long-term growth, innovation, and sustainability goals. Analyze market trends and regional developments that could impact vendor performance or cost structures.
• Support Quality Management: Ensure compliance with Apex’s quality standards, coordinating with cross-functional teams to audit processes and implement corrective actions and hold vendors accountable to product quality standards through improved contract language and follow up. Reduce product issues by pushing each vendor to improve. Own each problem and work with vendors and various department heads to catch issues and find solutions. Establish and enforce corrective action plans for recurring performance issues, documenting outcomes and learnings. Chase vendors down for compensation for errors and implement solutions to prevent repeats. 
• Continuous Improvement: Improve our current processes and results using APICS or another similar methodology. Establish department-level KPIs in alignment with organizational goals. Implement and monitor risk mitigation plans for geopolitical, environmental, and supply chain vulnerabilities. Ensure compliance with international trade regulations, ethical sourcing policies, and Apex’s internal code of conduct. Create knowledge-sharing resources (such as vendor management playbooks or cultural best practices guides) for internal teams.

• Internal Collaboration: Act as a liaison to Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, and Supply Chain teams to ensure that information is being disseminated to relevant team members and the factory. Support engineering by keeping your finger on the pulse of run-rates of molds and providing for future projects. Eventually, you may manage one or more individuals, from hiring to termination, including performance evaluations, coaching, and mentoring.
• Other duties as assigned.

About the working environment

While performing the duties of this job, you will be regularly required to stand, sit, talk, hear, reach, stoop, kneel, and use your hands and fingers to operate a computer, telephone, and keyboard. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision requirements due to computer work. Ability to sit at a computer terminal for an extended period. Light lifting may be required. Regular, predictable attendance is required. You’ll have a high degree of control over your working environment, as you’ll be primarily working from your home office. Occasional international and domestic travel is a requirement for this position.

• Excellent English written and verbal communication skills.
• A bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Materials Management, Business or another relevant area is strongly preferred.
• 5+ years of experience in purchasing, production, and manufacturing with significant responsibilities related to vendor management.
• 5+ years of experience managing relationships with Mandarin-speaking contract manufacturers is highly preferred.
• 3+ years of experience managing vendor relationships where products are single or dual-sourced.
• Detail-oriented and a proclivity towards analytical and critical thinking.
• Ability to travel up to 15%, domestic and international (China, East Asia), is required.
• Proficiency in ERP systems (such as Netsuite) and forecasting software is a plus
• APICS certification or a similar supply chain certification is preferred.
• Proficiency in speaking Mandarin is highly preferred. 
• Slack, Gmail experience preferred.
• Project Management experience and the use of PM software is preferred.
• Bonus points to knowledgeable performance automotive enthusiasts!

• Compensation: Full-time, salaried exempt, position $85 - 100K total comp depending on location and experience. We still want to hear from you if your salary requirements are above this range.
• Medical Benefits: We cover 100% of monthly premiums for employees and their dependents under the age of 14 on our base plans and generous contributions towards premiums for your other dependents. Plus, we have a wide variety of other medical plans, so you can contribute to a more robust plan if it suits your needs. Several plans include access to an HSA account!
• Dental and Vision: We cover 100% of the monthly premiums for employees on our base plans, plus affordable buy-up options including orthodontic coverage.
• 401(k) with Company Match: We make generous matching contributions after 6 months of full-time employment.
• Paid Time Off: Vacation begins accruing immediately, increasing over time and with career growth. Sick leave accrues beginning on your first day. Enjoy 11 paid holidays, including Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
• Track-Day Reimbursements: Support your track addiction with reimbursements for HPDE, autocross event registration fees, and more.
• Employee Discounts: Get employee discounts and freebies on Apex products and swag (did we mention friends and family discounts?).
• Work Remote: Work remotely from your home, anywhere in the contiguous US.
• Casual Environment: Casual in-office dress environment where T-shirts, jeans, and shorts are welcome. Participate in company activities, including karting, spectating at races, sim racing, and more.