Procurement Manager
What the work is
Plans, organises, directs, controls and coordinates the procurement and purchasing of materials, products and services for an organisation.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Prepares and implements plans to maintain required stock levels at minimum cost
- Negotiates prices and contracts with suppliers to meet quality, cost and delivery requirements
- Participates in the development of specifications for equipment, products or substitute materials
- Researches and identifies new products and suppliers
- Arranges quality checks of incoming goods and ensures suppliers deliver on time
- Directs staff activities and monitors their performance
- Provides products and services to meet customer or client requirements
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in the purchasing department of a fictional regional hospital supplies and catering company. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- You negotiate a deal that is good for the company and still works for the supplier
- A supplier you backed through a hard season delivers when everyone else cannot
- A new product you sourced makes a colleague's job easier and nobody quite knows why
Hard days
- A key supplier fails to deliver and you have hours to find another
- Everyone wants the cheapest option until it breaks, and then they want to know who chose it
- Being pressed by a friendly supplier for a favour you cannot give
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 133231, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.