IT Vendor & Contract Analyst

About Ascent Ascent Global Logistics, headquartered in Belleville, Michigan, is a leading global provider of expedited, time-critical logistics solutions and other direct transportation services. The company connects customers to its extensive carrier network, internal ground fleet and airline via its proprietary, digital PEAK freight marketplace, which provides robust carrier capacity and transparent pricing, backed by 24/7/365 logistics experts. Ascent’s offerings include air charter and ground expedited solutions as well as truckload, less-than-truckload, global forwarding, brokerage, and managed transportation services. The experienced Ascent team solves customers’ most challenging logistics needs by providing industry-leading service and top-tier satisfaction. Our Guiding Principles At the core of Ascent's culture is a strong commitment to excellence, driven by the passion and dedication of every team member. We're equally dedicated to going above and beyond for our customers, ensuring this commitment extends beyond our team and brings exceptional value to those we serve. We aim for perfect execution in everything we do and ‘play hard’ by creating an environment where tasks are performed with a can-do attitude from start to finish. We ‘play smart’ by delivering on our commitments in an honest, fair, and ethical manner. We treat every person with whom we interface with the utmost dignity and respect. We understand that our teammates are our most valuable assets, so we ‘play together’ by making every effort to provide a professional and enjoyable experience, enabling careers to flourish and personal growth to be achieved. What You’ll Do The IT Vendor & Contract Analyst supports the PMO and IT delivery teams by managing the end-to-end intake, coordination, and governance process for third-party vendor engagements. This role ensures vendor requests are appropriate, aligned to approved projects, and routed through the correct procurement, security, and contract review pathways. The analyst drafts and refines SOW documentation, manages contract workflows, and maintains portfolio visibility into vendor engagements, renewals, and project dependencies. This role also supports commercial negotiations within established guidelines, especially for staffing and recurring services, and partners with Procurement and IT leadership to negotiate non-standard terms or higher-risk agreements. Vendor Intake and Portfolio Alignment

• Serve as the PMO point of contact for new vendor requests, renewals, SOW changes, and extensions supporting IT projects.
• Validate intake requests for completeness and alignment to approved initiatives, including scope summary, vendor justification, timeline, funding/charge codes, and internal owner.
• Maintain vendor-to-project traceability across the portfolio: vendor name, service type, project/program, start/end dates, SOW value, renewal dates, and accountable IT owner.
• Coordinate vendor onboarding requirements (as applicable), including security intake, access needs, and required documentation. SOW Development and Contract Workflow Coordination
• Draft, assemble, and refine Statements of Work (SOWs) and supporting exhibits to ensure clear:
• scope, deliverables, milestones, assumptions, acceptance criteria, and roles/responsibilities
• governance expectations (status cadence, escalation path, change control)
• Coordinate routing of SOWs/contracts through the appropriate review and approval steps (Procurement, Legal/Contract team, InfoSec, Finance), ensuring packages are complete and minimizing rework.
• Manage change orders, extensions, and amendments by collecting scope/cost impacts, ensuring approvals are obtained, and maintaining documentation integrity. Commercial Support and Negotiation (within guardrails)
• Support and execute negotiations within approved standards, primarily for staffing and recurring services, including: rate cards, markups, discounts, extension terms, not-to-exceed caps, and payment terms
• Prepare negotiation inputs: rate benchmarking (internal history), option comparisons, and recommendation summaries for IT/Procurement leaders.
• Escalate non-standard terms, high-dollar agreements, or elevated-risk vendors to Procurement/Legal/IT leadership for final negotiation and approval. Vendor Governance and Delivery Support
• Track vendor performance issues and work with PMs to document impacts, capture issues/risks, and facilitate escalation to vendor leadership when needed.
• Ensure vendor commitments are integrated into project governance (kickoff readiness, milestones, resourcing commitments, renewals that impact schedule).
• Support vendor offboarding steps, including end dates, knowledge transfer expectations, and access removal coordination (as applicable). Reporting and Visibility
• Provide reporting to PMO and IT leadership such as:
• vendor/contract pipeline and aging
• renewals calendar and upcoming decision points
• vendor engagement inventory by project/p

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