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Buyers and Procurement Officers

Buyers and procurement officers organise and undertake the buying of raw materials, equipment and merchandise from manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and other sources for distribution, resale or for own internal use.

Wages

New workers
AVERAGE
Experienced
£20,631
£30,567
£61,943

New workers start around £20,631. Normal pay is £30,567 per year.
Highly experienced workers can earn up to £61,943.

Available jobs

In the past year there were 71,292 vacancies for this type of job

3.39%

Projected job growth over the next 8 years

Related courses

People work towards these careers by taking these courses at college and uni.

What they do most days?

  • Maintains records and prepares reports as necessary.

  • Works closely with merchandisers who allocate stock and develop sales forecasts.

  • Supervises clerical, administrative and warehouse distribution staff, deals with recruitment and training.

  • Ensures that delivered items comply with order, monitors quality of incoming goods and returns unsatisfactory or faulty items, monitors performance and makes sure targets are met.

  • Looks at ways to improve supply networks, presents new ideas to senior management team.

  • Helps negotiate contract with supplier and specifies details of goods or services required.

  • Assesses bids from suppliers, finds suppliers and negotiates prices.

  • Assesses budgetary limitations and customer requirements and decides on quantity, type, range and quality of goods or services to be bought.

  • Keeps up with market trends and chooses products/services.

  • Attends trade fairs, shows and demonstrations to research new product lines and suppliers, checks catalogues.

Hard Skills

Hard skills are specific, learnable, measurable, often industry or occupation-specific abilities related to a position.

Skills are ranked based on the number of job adverts that list them as required skills.

  • Procurement

  • Purchasing

  • Contract Management

  • Supply Chain

  • Project Management

  • Invoicing

  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

  • Finance

  • Supplier Relationship Management

  • Subcontracting

Soft Skills

Soft skills can be self-taught and usually do not necessitate a certain completed level of education.

Skills are ranked based on the number of job adverts that list them as required skills.

  • Communication

  • Management

  • Negotiation

  • Detail Oriented

  • Sales

  • Customer Service

  • Planning

  • Microsoft Excel

  • Operations

  • Microsoft Office

How do I get a job like this?

People in these types of job started their career paths after studying courses like the ones below.

Routes to this career

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Related industry guides

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Sales, marketing, and procurement