Vice President (VP), Tool Management

We are committed to cultivating an environment that is collaborative, curious, inclusive and honors diversity of thought. Providing training and career development opportunities and emphasizing strong support for our local communities through philanthropic initiatives are essential to our culture., The Vice President (VP), Tool Management is responsible for the strategy, governance, and day-to-day operations of the firm’s technology tooling portfolio. Spanning software development and DevOps tooling as well as IT asset, license, and SaaS lifecycle management, the role ensures cost-effectiveness, compliance, and alignment to business needs. Operating within a financial services environment, the VP partners with enterprise architecture, engineering, security, procurement, vendor management, and risk teams to maximize the value and minimize the risk of the technology tool estate.

This role serves as a brand ambassador for Technology at Oaktree and the Technology Strategy & Operations team, which aims to support digital transformation, service excellence, and disciplined execution. We are an ambitious team with an entrepreneurial mindset and strive to inspire, influence, and collaborate within and across teams.

Responsibilities

• Manage the full tool lifecycle - evaluation, selection, onboarding, standardization, rationalization, and retirement - to eliminate redundancy and reduce total cost of ownership.
• Serve as the primary technical lead for incoming tool-evaluation requests, and define and own a standard, repeatable process for evaluating, scoring, and approving new tools.
• Serve as the focal point for license strategy and allocation - governing software licensing, subscriptions, entitlements, and maintaining accurate license positions.
• Partner with Procurement and Vendor Management on contract negotiation, renewals, and vendor performance for technology tools and platforms.
• Establish and enforce tooling governance, access controls, and usage standards in line with the firm’s information security and regulatory obligations.
• Participate in vendor risk assessments and remediation for tools in partnership with Information Security, Risk, and Compliance.
• Track and report on tool usage - including active-user counts and adoption per tool, spend, utilization, and ROI - to confirm value; forecast usage and spend against budget, analyze deviations and consumption patterns; partner with tool owners to identify and execute cost-optimization opportunities across the portfolio.
• Partner closely with Enterprise Architecture to ensure the tool portfolio aligns to approved technology-stack standards, reference architectures, and application-build patterns; jointly govern tool selection so new and existing tools support target-state architecture.
• Partner with teams across the firm to keep the tool and system inventory current - gathering supporting information such as the technology stack in use - and maintain a configuration and inventory record of all managed tools, including ownership, entitlements, and renewal dates.
• Maintain awareness of emerging trends, regulatory requirements, and technological advancements to inform ongoing evolution of the change management practice., * Strategic and hands-on, able to set portfolio direction while engaging deeply in operational details.
• Collaborative and influential, building trust and alignment across technical, business, risk, and vendor stakeholders without relying on direct authority.
• Commercially minded, with a strong instinct for balancing user needs, technology value, cost, and risk.
• Highly organized and disciplined, bringing structure, transparency, and consistent follow-through to complex processes.
• Curious and adaptable, proactively evaluating emerging technologies, market trends, and evolving regulatory requirements.
• Decisive and pragmatic, using data and sound judgment to make timely recommendations and resolve competing priorities.
• Accountable and integrity-driven, with a strong sense of ownership and commitment to responsible technology governance.

• 8+ years of experience in technology operations, engineering tooling, IT asset/software license management, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated expertise managing enterprise tool portfolios and software license/SaaS lifecycle at scale.
• Strong working knowledge of DevOps and SDLC tooling (e.g., source control, CI/CD, artifact management, observability).
• Experience partnering with Enterprise Architecture and engineering leadership to align tooling with technology-stack standards and application-build patterns.
• Experience with software asset management (SAM) practices and tools, and managing vendor audits and true-ups.
• Proven vendor and contract management skills, including negotiation and renewal management.
• Understanding of information security, regulatory, and risk requirements in a financial services environment.
• Familiarity with frameworks and standards such as ITIL, SOX, and ISO/IEC 19770 (SAM).
• Hands-on experience with SAM/ITAM platforms (e.g., ServiceNow, Flexera, Snow) and FinOps practices is a plus.
• Strong analytical, data-driven mindset - able to interpret tool usage and consumption data, build spend and demand forecasts, and translate them into cost-optimization and budget decisions.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and cross-functional leadership skills.
• Proven ability to influence without direct authority - building buy-in across teams to drive adoption of tooling governance and standards, and to reclaim, reallocate, or rationalize licenses where usage no longer justifies them., * Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Oaktree is a leader among global investment managers specializing in alternative investments, with more than $220 billion in assets under management. The firm emphasizes an opportunistic, value-oriented, and risk-controlled approach to investments in credit, equity, and real estate. The firm has more than 1,400 employees and offices in more than 25 cities worldwide.