If you're interested in pursuing a career opportunity that is a little different from the usual ones, then taking up a job as a material manager is a viable option. Material manager is one of the promising professions that brings a lot of future opportunities, attractive salary packages, diverse employment options, job satisfaction, and much more! Material management is one field where there is ample career potential in both the public and private sectors. As a material manager, your core duty is to plan, organize, and supervise the inbound and outbound movement of materials or goods based on customer needs, inventory targets, and production schedules. Working as a material manager, you'll maintain inventory, oversee procurement, storage, control, production, and shipping process.
To become a material manager, you'll need a bachelor's degree, preferably in logistics or a related field. Experience in the relevant field is a bonus for you. Many employers want their material managers to have proven experience in managerial or supervisory roles. They must have a solid understanding of supply chain, forecasting, budgeting, and inventory management systems. Working as material manager, typically you'll work in a warehouse, although some travel may be required. Being a material manager, you may be employed in a range of different industries, such as aerospace, medical device companies, large-scale food operations, utility companies, or biotech organizations. Dealing with the shipment and procurement procedures, usually, you'll work regular business hours, although you may expect to work in shifts too.
While working as a material manager, you can expect to make an average wage of $97,386 per annum. However, your salary may vary depending on your experience, location, the sector you work in, and your professional qualifications. You may get additional benefits such as bonuses, a company car, private healthcare, life insurance, and a pension. Not only this, but working as a material manager your advancement chances are high. With advanced managerial skills, experience, and a zeal for your career, you can go up to the level of Chief Purchasing Officer (CPO) or take the role of president.
Material Manager Overview
Material Manager Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a material manager. For example, did you know that they make an average of $40.64 an hour? That's $84,532 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -6% and produce -29,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Material Manager Do
There are certain skills that many material managers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, negotiating skills and math skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a material manager, we found that a lot of resumes listed 11.3% of material managers included supply chain, while 9.7% of resumes included procedures, and 5.8% of resumes included facility. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the material manager job title. But what industry to start with? Most material managers actually find jobs in the manufacturing and technology industries.
How To Become a Material Manager
If you're interested in becoming a material manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 46.2% of material managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 18.7% of material managers have master's degrees. Even though most material managers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a material manager. When we researched the most common majors for a material manager, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on material manager resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a material manager. In fact, many material manager jobs require experience in a role such as purchasing manager. Meanwhile, many material managers also have previous career experience in roles such as buyer or senior buyer.
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Material Manager Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of purchasing manager you might progress to a role such as senior purchasing manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title senior purchasing manager.
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Average Salary for a Material Manager
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Randstad Materials Manager Materials Manager | Randstad Randstad | 03/27/2021 03/27/2021 | $47,84003/27/2021 $47,840 |
Wood PLC Manager of Construction Materials Testing (CMT) Manager of Construction Materials Testing (CMT) | Wood PLC Wood PLC | 03/25/2021 03/25/2021 | $250,00003/25/2021 $250,000 |
Amec Foster Wheeler Manager of Construction Materials Testing (CMT) Manager of Construction Materials Testing (CMT) | Amec Foster Wheeler Amec Foster Wheeler | 03/25/2021 03/25/2021 | $250,00003/25/2021 $250,000 |
Randstad Materials Manager Materials Manager | Randstad Randstad | 03/24/2021 03/24/2021 | $125,00003/24/2021 $125,000 |
JBS USA Material Master Manager Material Master Manager | JBS USA JBS USA | 03/24/2021 03/24/2021 | $58,00003/24/2021 $58,000 |
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Material Manager Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Material Manager. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Material Manager Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Material Manager resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Material Managers
1. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
2. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
3. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
4. Maine Maritime Academy
Castine, ME • Public
5. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
6. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA • Public
7. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Public
8. Villanova University
Villanova, PA • Private
9. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
10. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
Top Skills For a Material Manager
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 11.3% of material managers listed supply chain on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and negotiating skills are important as well.
- Supply Chain, 11.3%
- Procedures, 9.7%
- Facility, 5.8%
- Logistics, 5.6%
- Customer Service, 4.9%
- Other Skills, 62.7% See All Material Manager Skills
Best States For a Material Manager
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a material manager. The best states for people in this position are California, New Jersey, New York, and West Virginia. Material managers make the most in California with an average salary of $118,789. Whereas in New Jersey and New York, they would average $118,509 and $109,056, respectively. While material managers would only make an average of $105,841 in West Virginia, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$118,789
Avg. Salary
2. New Jersey
$118,509
Avg. Salary
3. Pennsylvania
$95,529
Avg. Salary
How Do Material Manager Rate Their Jobs?
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Materials Department • March 2020What do you like the most about working as Material Manager?
its a challenging work. you need lot of potential to be materials manager. Show MoreTop Material Manager Employers
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