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The differences between senior demand planners and senior purchasing agents can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a senior demand planner and a senior purchasing agent. Additionally, a senior demand planner has an average salary of $89,229, which is higher than the $73,386 average annual salary of a senior purchasing agent.
The top three skills for a senior demand planner include demand planning, forecast accuracy and supply chain planning. The most important skills for a senior purchasing agent are purchase orders, project management, and supplier relationships.
| Senior Demand Planner | Senior Purchasing Agent | |
| Yearly salary | $89,229 | $73,386 |
| Hourly rate | $42.90 | $35.28 |
| Growth rate | 28% | -6% |
| Number of jobs | 26,865 | 43,833 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 73% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Average age | 41 | 48 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
Senior demand planners are responsible for new product introduction and instrument forecasting inside the demand planning team. Their duty is an important part of the supply chain operation, and they perform closely with business operations, marketing, manufacturing, sourcing, and engineering to make certain service level expectations and inventory accessibility are met. Basic duties include creating planning margins in material requirements planning, evaluating demand trend data, and demonstrating to the leadership organization. Also, they essentially create models, procedures, and databases for data reporting and assimilation. Additionally, they design transition strategies and predictions as well as observe monthly performance to plan, identify, and convey trends that stipulate gaps.
Senior Purchasing Agents are experienced employees in the company's purchasing department. They oversee the purchase requisitions of the employees. They validate requests, ensure that the requestors followed company guidelines, check the availability of the items with the chosen supplier, and forward the purchase order to the supplier. Upon fulfillment of the request, Senior Purchasing Agents check the deliveries, ensure that the items are complete and correct, forward the items to the requestor, and process the payment for the supplier. Senior Purchasing agents also prepare reports, spot trends in employee or department purchases, and create recommendations based on observations. They are also expected to form good working relationships with suppliers.
Senior demand planners and senior purchasing agents have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Demand Planner | Senior Purchasing Agent | |
| Average salary | $89,229 | $73,386 |
| Salary range | Between $68,000 And $116,000 | Between $52,000 And $103,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | New York |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | Levi Strauss & Co. |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Energy |
There are a few differences between a senior demand planner and a senior purchasing agent in terms of educational background:
| Senior Demand Planner | Senior Purchasing Agent | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 73% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between senior demand planners' and senior purchasing agents' demographics:
| Senior Demand Planner | Senior Purchasing Agent | |
| Average age | 41 | 48 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 55.5% Female, 44.5% | Male, 57.7% Female, 42.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.2% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 21.8% Asian, 10.5% White, 51.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 8.9% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 12.3% Asian, 7.7% White, 66.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 7% |