How To Become A Procurement Administrator: What It Is and Career Path

What is a procurement administrator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

As a procurement administrator, you will serve the purpose of providing support to the procurement team by firstly completing general administrative tasks, and secondly, placing orders for equipment and components. Thus, if you have a great eye to evaluate suppliers and negotiating skills, then this is the job for you.

Some of the duties and responsibilities that you will be performing in this capacity include monitoring inventory stocks to ensure that all materials and equipment are present for manufacturing and other purposes. Moreover, you will be negotiating with suppliers regarding prices and contract terms. You will also prepare purchase orders, resolve any problems that might occur with those orders, and update the file records.

Essential skills required for this role are organizational, time management, teamwork, communication, customer service, and computer knowledge. The minimum educational requirement for this role is a high school diploma or a GED, although some employers do prefer candidates with an associate's or a bachelor's degree in business administration and similar disciplines. Prior work experience of two or more years will be advantageous. The average hourly pay for this role is $22.47, which amounts to $46,747 annually.

ScoreProcurement AdministratorUS Average

Salary

3.7

Avg. Salary $46,745

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.7

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.73%

Asian 8.69%

Black or African American 10.24%

Hispanic or Latino 13.27%

Unknown 5.49%

White 61.58%

Gender

female 65.53%

male 34.47%

Age - 46.5

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 - 46.5

Stress level

7.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.2

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.9

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a procurement administrator

Explore procurement administrator education requirements

Most common procurement administrator degrees

Bachelor's

58.3 %

Associate

22.7 %

Master's

11.9 %

Start to develop specific procurement administrator skills

Skills	Percentages
Purchase Orders	26.53%
Data Entry	8.70%
Logistics	6.21%
Procurement Process	6.09%
Vendor Relationships	6.02%

Complete relevant procurement administrator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New procurement administrators 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 procurement administrator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real procurement administrator resumes.

Research procurement administrator duties and responsibilities

Manage various accounts with downstream product supply from orders to delivery, logistics and inventory management.
Review RFQ and RFP, reviewing for completeness and necessary information to obtain competitive quotes.
Direct the development and administration of standard contracts and solicitations, including RFP, IFB and RFQ formats.
Conduct commercial negotiations on pricing, scope of supply, terms and conditions and logistics.

Prepare your procurement administrator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your procurement administrator 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 procurement administrator resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable procurement administrator resume templates

Build a professional procurement administrator 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 procurement administrator resume.