Purchasing administrator vs lead administrator

The differences between purchasing administrators and lead administrators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a purchasing administrator, becoming a lead administrator takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, a lead administrator has an average salary of $94,444, which is higher than the $40,133 average annual salary of a purchasing administrator.

The top three skills for a purchasing administrator include purchase orders, invoice and data entry. The most important skills for a lead administrator are payroll, office equipment, and expense reports.

Purchasing administrator vs lead administrator overview

	Purchasing Administrator	Lead Administrator
Yearly salary	$40,133	$94,444
Hourly rate	$19.29	$45.41
Growth rate	-8%	5%
Number of jobs	63,681	57,229
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 57%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Average age	48	43
Years of experience	6	2

What does a purchasing administrator do?

A purchasing administrator is primarily in charge of overseeing a company's purchasing procedures. As a purchasing administrator, it is their duty to monitor the company's inventory of supplies, gather and analyze purchase requests, and process purchase orders, resolving issues should there be any. They must also negotiate with vendors and suppliers, building positive relationships with them. Furthermore, as a purchasing administrator, it is essential to maintain records of all transactions, producing progress reports regularly for a smooth and efficient workflow.

What does a lead administrator do?

Lead administrators are information technology (IT) professionals who are responsible for managing and troubleshooting departmental computer operations of an organization. These IT professionals must manage and approve access to their online score data as well as create new users directly in the portal to allow access to the score data. They manage the office supplies of the organization while processing salary management and executive payroll every month. Lead administrators must also coordinate with technicians for hardware, printer, and cabling repairs.

Purchasing administrator vs lead administrator salary

Purchasing administrators and lead administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Purchasing Administrator	Lead Administrator
Average salary	$40,133	$94,444
Salary range	Between $30,000 And $53,000	Between $63,000 And $141,000
Highest paying City	Sacramento, CA	Richmond, CA
Highest paying state	Washington	Oregon
Best paying company	Rivian	Koch Industries
Best paying industry	Health Care	Finance

Differences between purchasing administrator and lead administrator education

There are a few differences between a purchasing administrator and a lead administrator in terms of educational background:

	Purchasing Administrator	Lead Administrator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 57%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	Stanford University

Purchasing administrator vs lead administrator demographics

Here are the differences between purchasing administrators' and lead administrators' demographics:

	Purchasing Administrator	Lead Administrator
Average age	48	43
Gender ratio	Male, 24.0% Female, 76.0%	Male, 37.2% Female, 62.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.1% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 12.5% Asian, 7.8% White, 65.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%	Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 9.5% White, 63.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	7%	9%

Differences between purchasing administrator and lead administrator duties and responsibilities

Purchasing administrator example responsibilities.

Manage the RFP preparation and analysis, cost negotiations, and vendor performance management.
Manage logistics and materials receive for appropriate quantities, timeliness and accuracy to complete project project.
Resolve RMA s on all engineering material.
Schedule product delivery against customer needs and MRP.
Administer the ISO 9001 and vendor performance evaluation process.
Maintain and update supplier master information in the ERP system.

Lead administrator example responsibilities.

Manage and coordinate office operations and procedures to include payroll preparation, information management/filing systems, and supply requisitions.
Support and troubleshoot all claims questions and provide assistance with more advance issues.
Provide initiatives and suggestions for performance tuning of applications, script auto deployment plans, troubleshoot complex production issues.
Create and implement migration plans to new SharePoint environments.
Provide application training for company's custom provisioning application.
Implement SSO configuration and user provisioning on IDM environments.

Purchasing administrator vs lead administrator skills

Common purchasing administrator skills

Purchase Orders, 33%
Invoice, 10%
Data Entry, 10%
ERP, 4%
Office Equipment, 2%
Credit Card, 2%

Common lead administrator skills

Payroll, 10%
Office Equipment, 8%
Expense Reports, 6%
Windows, 6%
Data Entry, 5%
PowerPoint, 5%

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Business and Financial Industry
Purchasing Administrator
Purchasing Administrator vs Lead Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

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