Roles in Third-party Risk Management

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 4 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Roles in Third-party Risk Management

    In Third-party Risk Management (TPRM) on the ServiceNow platform, roles define user permissions and access to various TPRM functions. Assigning the correct roles ensures users can perform their responsibilities effectively, from viewing third-party data to managing assessments, contracts, and automation. These roles help control access across the Third-party portal, Vendor Management Workspace, GRC portal, and related modules like Digital Resilience and Smart Assessment Engine (SAE).

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Roles and Their Permissions

    • Third-party reader [vendorreader]: Read-only access to third-party contact records.
    • Third-party editor [vendoreditor]: Create, update, and delete third-party contact records.
    • Third-party assessment reviewer [snvdrriskasmt.vendorassessmentreviewer]: View assessments and questionnaires; can comment on assessments, risk issues, tasks, and due diligence requests. This role includes multiple subordinate roles for compliance, task editing, and template viewing.
    • TPR assessor [snvdrriskasmt.vendorassessor]: Includes all reviewer permissions plus management of third parties, contacts, external assessments, and issues. Configurable permissions to answer or modify questionnaire responses are available via a system property.
    • TPR approver [snvdrriskasmt.approver]: Reviewer permissions plus the ability to approve Internal Risk Questionnaires (IRQs).
    • TPR manager [snvdrriskasmt.vendorriskmanager]: Assessor permissions plus management of assessment templates, scheduled assessments, engagements, and scoring rules.
    • TPR admin [snvdrriskasmt.vendorriskadmin]: Manager permissions plus creation and editing rights for assessment templates, risk tier templates, document requests, and automation rules.
    • Contract risk negotiator [snvdrriskasmt.contractnegotiator]: Assessor permissions plus legal department access to modify contract status and dates; users can be grouped accordingly for easy management.
    • Third-party contact [vendorcontact]: Assigned to external third-party users responding to questionnaires or tasks via the Third-party portal. Has limited access restricted to external interactions without ServiceNow AI Platform access.

    Roles Specific to Digital Resilience, Smart Assessment Engine, and Now Assist

    • Digital Resilience Roles:
      • TPRM DORA user, manager, and admin roles provide access to Digital Resilience third-party registers within Vendor Management Workspace.
    • Smart Assessment Engine Roles:
      • Roles such as template reader, assessment reader, internal and external assessment users enable viewing and responding to SAE templates and questionnaires.
      • Admin roles can create SAE templates and post-assessment automation rules.
      • The Third-party assessment reviewer role is the minimum required to view external questionnaires and document requests.
    • Now Assist for TPRM:
      • Third-party assessment reviewers automatically receive the TPRM GenAI User role upon installation of Now Assist for TPRM, enabling use of AI-powered assistance features.

    Practical Considerations for ServiceNow Customers

    • Assign roles carefully to align with user responsibilities, ensuring least-privilege access while enabling necessary functions.
    • Use system properties to customize assessor permissions on questionnaire responses.
    • Leverage role-based user groups, especially for contract risk negotiators in legal departments, to streamline access management.
    • Recognize that third-party contacts have restricted external portal access only, maintaining security of your ServiceNow instance.
    • Ensure users have the minimum required roles for accessing Digital Resilience and Smart Assessment Engine features relevant to their tasks.

    Next Steps

    Administrators should assign appropriate TPRM roles to users and user groups based on organizational responsibilities. For detailed configuration, review properties for assessor permissions and consider integration with Digital Resilience and Smart Assessment Engine modules. Regularly audit role assignments to maintain compliance and secure access.

    Roles determine permissions and access in TPRM.

    TPRM roles

    Friendly name [role name] Description Contains roles
    Third-party reader

    [vendor_reader]

    		 Read access to third-party contact records. None
    Third-party editor

    [vendor_editor]

    		 Create/update/delete third-party contact records. None
    Third-party assessment reviewer

    [sn_vdr_risk_asmt.vendor_assessment_reviewer]
    View assessment and questionnaire data. In addition to viewing, they can leave comments on the following tables:
    • Tiering assessment
    • Internal assessment
    • External assessment
    • Third-party risk issues
    • Third-party risk tasks
    • Third-party risk due diligence request

    Contains:

    • compliance_reader
    • risk_reader
    • task_editor
    • vendor_reader
    • sn_dora_accel.user
    • sn_smart_asmt.template_reader
    • sn_smart_asmt.assessment_reader
    • sn_tprm_genai.nowassist_user

    TPR assessor (Third-party risk assessor)

    [sn_vdr_risk_asmt.vendor_assessor]
    • Includes all permissions of the Third-party assessment reviewer role plus: Manage third parties, third-party contacts, external risk assessments, and issues.
    • You can set the following options for the sn_svdp.allow_assessor_edit property:
      • Enable TPR assessors to answer questions or modify responses in third-party questionnaires (default).
      • Enable TPR assessors to modify responses.
      • Don’t enable TPR assessors to answer questions or modify responses.
      See Configure TPRM properties.
    		 Contains:
    • compliance_reader
    • vendor_assessment_reviewer
    • vendor_editor
    • vendor_reader
    • sn_dora_accel.manager

    TPR approver

    [sn_vdr_risk_asmt.approver]

    Includes all permissions of the Third-party assessment reviewer role plus: approve IRQs.
    Contains:
    • vendor_assessment_reviewer
    • sn_dora_accel.user
    TPR manager (Third-party risk manager)

    [sn_vdr_risk_asmt.vendor_risk_manager]

    Includes all permissions of the TPR assessor role plus:

    • Manage third-party assessment templates and scheduled assessments.
    • Manage engagements and engagement contacts.
    • Manage scoring rules for both third parties and engagements.
    Contains:
    • vendor_assessor
    • sn_dora_accel.manager
    TPR admin (Third-party risk admin)

    [sn_vdr_risk_asmt.vendor_risk_admin]

    Includes all permissions of the TPR manager role plus:

    Create and edit the following items:

    • Third-party assessment templates
    • Risk tiering templates
    • Risk tier questionnaire templates
    • Third-party questionnaire templates
    • Document request templates
    • Post assessment automation rules
    Note:
    All the templates include both classic and SAE templates.
    Contains:
    • vendor_risk_manager
    • assessment_admin
    • sn_dora_accel.admin
    • sn_smart_asmt.assessment_admin
    • sn_smart_imp_auto.automation_creator
    Contract risk negotiator

    [sn_vdr_risk_asmt.contract_negotiator]

    Includes all permissions of the TPR assessor role plus:

    Gives users in the legal department access to modify contract status and the start and expiration dates.

    You can add users with this role to the Contract risk negotiators user group. See Add users to groups based on responsibilities.
    Contains:
    • vendor_assessor
    • sn_dora_accel.manager
    [vendor_contact]
    • Called a third-party contact when responding to an external questionnaire/task/issue for a third party.
    • Called an engagement contact when responding to a questionnaire/task/issue for an engagement.

    You assign the third-party contact role to users at the third-party organization whose risk is being assessed. Third-party contacts are assigned the snc_external role to give them access to resources and actions in the Third-party portal.

    Important:
    The third-party contact role should be used only for external contacts. The role prohibits access to your ServiceNow AI Platform instance and grants access only to the Third-party portal.

    You assign the primary contact responsibility to the third-party contact who can directly answer assessment questions or assign another contact at the third party to answer the questions. Primary contacts can manage other contacts for the third party.

    Contains: snc_external

    Roles required for accessing the Digital resilience third-party registers

    A user with one of the following roles can access the Digital resilience third-party registers related modules in the Vendor Management Workspace:
    • TPRM DORA user [sn_dora_accel.user] role

      Third-party assessment reviewer and TPR approver contain this role.

    • TPRM DORA manager [sn_dora_accel.manager] role

      TPR assessor and TPR manager contain this role.

    • TPRM DORA admin [sn_dora_accel.admin]

      The TPR admin contains this role.

    For more information on DORA related roles, see Roles installed with Digital resilience third-party registers.

    Roles required for using Smart Assessment Engine

    A user with one of the following roles can view templates in the Assessment Workspace:
    • TPRM SAE template reader [sn_smart_asmt.template_reader] role

      Third-party assessment reviewer contains this role.

    • TPRM SAE assessment reader [sn_smart_asmt.assessment_reader] role

      Third-party assessment reviewer contains this role.

    A user with one of the following roles can respond to questionnaires in the Vendor Management Workspace, GRC portal, or Third-party portal.
    • TPRM SAE internal assessment user [sn_vdr_risk_asmt.internal_assessment_responder]

      This role is automatically assigned to an assigned IRQ assessor or internal assessment respondent.

      This role is required to respond to internal/IRQ assessment questionnaires using the GRC Portal.

      This role contains the following roles: sn_grc_business_user, canvas_user, and sn_smart_asmt.actor.

    • TPRMSAE external assessment user [sn_vdr_risk_asmt.external_assessment_responder]

      This role is automatically assigned to the assigned third-party contact.

      This role is required to respond to external questionnaires using the Third-party portal.

      This contains the role: sn_smart_asmt.actor.

    A user with the TPRM SAE admin [sn_smart_asmt.assessment_admin] role can create SAE templates in the Vendor Management Workspace and Assessment Workspace.

    Third-party admin contains this role.

    A user with the sn_smart_imp_auto.automation_creator role can create post assessment impact automation rules.

    Third-party admin contains this role.

    Important:
    The Third-party assessment reviewer [sn_vdr_risk_asmt.vendor_assessment_reviewer] role is the minimum role that you must have to view any template that is a member of the TPRM external questionnaire, TPRM external document request, TPRM internal tiering questionnaire, and TPRM internal IRQ purposes.

    For more information on SAE related roles, see Roles in Smart Assessment Engine.

    Roles required for using Now Assist for Third-party Risk Management (TPRM)

    A user with the Third-party Assessment reviewer [sn_vdr_risk_asmt.vendor_assessment_reviewer] role can use the Now Assist for TPRM skills.

    The TPRM GenAI User [sn_tprm_genai.nowassist_user] role is granted to Third-party Assessment reviewers [sn_vdr_risk_asmt.vendor_assessment_reviewer] automatically after you install the Now Assist for TPRM application. For more information about a Now Assist for TPRM, see Now Assist for Third-party Risk Management (TPRM).