How To Become A Director Of Purchasing: What It Is and Career Path

What is a director of purchasing and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

The Director of Purchasing is in charge of maintaining good performance in various levels of activities. First, he/she is saddled with the responsibility of negotiating prices and checking for good quality materials or products. Also, the type of products that will be used for production is determined by the director. Plus, he/she makes findings of where to get the desired product. After this, he/she draws the budget cost, which often includes transportation, staffing, and prices of products. Not just this, but he/she also builds trusting relationships with different vendors to get good prices and great quality.

To be a purchasing director, some essential skills and educational levels are required. For the skills, a purchasing director should be able to lead a team successfully. He/She should also possess problem-solving skills should in case they face any challenges during their job. Besides these, it might be expected of him to understand some accounting principles in Microsoft Word and Excel. Directors of Purchasing make $103,449 annually.

ScoreDirector Of PurchasingUS Average

Salary

7.8

Avg. Salary $106,945

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.1

Growth rate -6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.31%

Asian 7.49%

Black or African American 9.15%

Hispanic or Latino 12.42%

Unknown 3.83%

White 66.80%

Gender

female 24.88%

male 75.12%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress level

8.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a director of purchasing

Explore director of purchasing education requirements

Most common director of purchasing degrees

Bachelor's

67.9 %

Associate

14.3 %

Master's

11.2 %

Start to develop specific director of purchasing skills

Skills	Percentages
Supply Chain	17.63%
Purchase Orders	9.20%
Product Development	6.58%
Vendor Relations	5.70%
Logistics	5.36%

Complete relevant director of purchasing training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New directors of purchasing learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a director of purchasing based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real director of purchasing resumes.

Research director of purchasing duties and responsibilities

Manage all aspects of the RFQ process, contracts, cost and rebate negotiations, and awarding of business.
Manage out-bound logistics services and third-party logistics providers to expand the range of commodities need to support automobile and aerospace manufacturing.
Develop standards and implement procedures for materials planning, product acquisition, inventory control, material distribution and logistics management.
Implement cost controls using commodity segmentation, vendor KPI's and cost justification base on key market indicators.

Get director of purchasing experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a director of purchasing. The most common roles before becoming a director of purchasing include purchasing manager, buyer team lead and purchasing agent.

Prepare your director of purchasing resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your director of purchasing resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a director of purchasing resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable director of purchasing resume templates

Build a professional director of purchasing resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your director of purchasing resume.