What does a senior purchasing agent do?
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 purchasing agent responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior purchasing agent resumes:
- Manage patterns for older, obsolete OEM part outsource production to locally foundries.
- Interact within an ERP system environment and manage various reporting tools to support operations and control the flow of information.
- Manage subcontracts activity including RFQ analysis, major negotiations and construction of complex subcontracting orders and milestones.
- Provide management for warehousing, transportation, documentation requirements, cost analysis, third-party logistics, and reverse logistics.
- Help create new purchasing procurement program base on customer forecasting and JIT programs (KANBAN).
- Update & maintain ERP system part master data including new item creation, discontinuations and site planning changes.
- Follow up with MRO on status of parts in shop and keep detailed notes of ship by dates.
- Project include RFP development and licensing negotiation.
- Standardize MRO financial controls across multiple facilities.
- Implement ISO certification and track Sarbanes-Oxley testing and audits.
- Solicit competitive proposals, evaluate RFQ's and prepare sourcing recommendations.
- Head transition between US-Asian suppliers, implement lean manufacturing KanBan system.
- Train entire staff to effectively utilize MRP system to help maintain profitability and production.
- Work closely with commodity management, supply base and understand customer requirements to satisfy MRP scheduling.
- Develop procedures for process: finance resolution, logistics and customs problem resolution and accounting guideline adherence.
Senior purchasing agent skills and personality traits
We calculated that 8% of Senior Purchasing Agents are proficient in Purchase Orders, Project Management, and Supplier Relationships. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Decisionmaking skills, and Math skills.
We break down the percentage of Senior Purchasing Agents that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Purchase Orders, 8%
Review, verify and check for accuracy and completeness of purchase requisitions/purchase orders to ensure conformance to corporate policy.
- Project Management, 6%
Project Management lead for consolidating requirements from different business units and stakeholders to leverage spend for favorable pricing and services.
- Supplier Relationships, 6%
Manage supplier relationship including performance reports consistent with agreed requirements to insure consistency with quality, service, and delivery objectives.
- Strategic Sourcing, 5%
Selected to participate on supply chain logistics panel for standardization and business cases/strategic sourcing regarding the SAC.
- Customer Service, 5%
Demonstrate continuous efforts to improve procurement processes through Lean initiatives, reducing turnaround and delivery times and providing quality customer service.
- Continuous Improvement, 5%
Developed realistic SCM metrics and evaluation procedures for measuring procurement performance; this evolved into an effective continuous improvement program.
"purchase orders," "project management," and "supplier relationships" are among the most common skills that senior purchasing agents use at work. You can find even more senior purchasing agent responsibilities below, including:
Analytical skills. The most essential soft skill for a senior purchasing agent to carry out their responsibilities is analytical skills. This skill is important for the role because "when evaluating suppliers, purchasing managers and buyers and purchasing agents must analyze their options and choose a supplier with the best combination of price, quality, delivery, or service." Additionally, a senior purchasing agent resume shows how their duties depend on analytical skills: "performed analysis on production scheduling requests to approved best delivery dates for materials. "
Decisionmaking skills. Another essential skill to perform senior purchasing agent duties is decisionmaking skills. Senior purchasing agents responsibilities require that "purchasing managers and buyers and purchasing agents must have the ability to make informed and timely decisions, choosing products that they think will sell." Senior purchasing agents also use decisionmaking skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "led the make-buy decisionmaking process and supply chain definition for all new components, sub-assemblies and assemblies of new products. "
Math skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of senior purchasing agents is math skills. This skill is critical to many everyday senior purchasing agent duties, as "purchasing managers and buyers and purchasing agents must possess math skills." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "report weekly purchase order statistics to the purchasing director and vp of procurement. "
Negotiating skills. senior purchasing agent responsibilities often require "negotiating skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "purchasing managers and buyers and purchasing agents often must negotiate the terms of a contract with a supplier." This resume example shows what senior purchasing agents do with negotiating skills on a typical day: "saw a 10% cost savings on each purchase by negotiating prepaid freight with vendors. "
The three companies that hire the most senior purchasing agents are:
- Peloton Interactive, Inc.26 senior purchasing agents jobs
- Bank of America23 senior purchasing agents jobs
- Raytheon Technologies18 senior purchasing agents jobs
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Compare different senior purchasing agents
Senior purchasing agent vs. Associate buyer
An Associate Buyer maintains and keeps records of the inventory and disburses the different materials as required by the departments or personnel. The Associate Buyer reports to the Buyer or Senior Buyer.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a senior purchasing agent are more likely to require skills like "project management," "supplier relationships," "continuous improvement," and "commodities." On the other hand, a job as an associate buyer requires skills like "math," "vendor relations," "market trends," and "strong analytical." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Associate buyers tend to make the most money working in the technology industry, where they earn an average salary of $52,342. In contrast, senior purchasing agents make the biggest average salary, $89,158, in the energy industry.associate buyers tend to reach lower levels of education than senior purchasing agents. In fact, associate buyers are 8.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Senior purchasing agent vs. Buyer
A buyer's duties include product sourcing and comparing resources for the best product range that would suit the specific needs of the business. Buyers must have excellent communication and negotiation skills to evaluate items that most likely benefit the customer and improve the sales of daily operations with cost-efficient products. They also conduct extensive research for market and price trends while considering the highest quality standards. Buyers should also possess strong analytical skills to create purchase orders and statistical analysis.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real senior purchasing agent resumes. While senior purchasing agent responsibilities can utilize skills like "project management," "continuous improvement," "contract management," and "federal acquisition," buyers use skills like "market trends," "product quality," "quality issues," and "product development."
On average, buyers earn a lower salary than senior purchasing agents. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, buyers earn the most pay in the automotive industry with an average salary of $59,735. Whereas senior purchasing agents have higher pay in the energy industry, with an average salary of $89,158.In general, buyers achieve lower levels of education than senior purchasing agents. They're 6.2% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior purchasing agent vs. Contracts administrator
Contract administrators create and manage legal contracts from which the company participates. They ensure that all entities to the contract will accomplish their obligations, as indicated in the contract. They usually work for larger organizations that might be involved with different or highly complex contracts. These organizations spread across a range of industries, including government, construction, and healthcare. Their responsibilities include addressing any conflicts of questions regarding the contract, analyzing the possible risks posed by contracts, and working alongside the legal and procurement teams.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a senior purchasing agent is likely to be skilled in "supplier relationships," "continuous improvement," "supplier performance," and "logistics," while a typical contracts administrator is skilled in "contract administration," "proposal preparation," "powerpoint," and "non-disclosure agreements."
Contracts administrators earn the highest salary when working in the finance industry, where they receive an average salary of $72,687. Comparatively, senior purchasing agents have the highest earning potential in the energy industry, with an average salary of $89,158.When it comes to education, contracts administrators tend to earn similar degree levels compared to senior purchasing agents. In fact, they're 2.6% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 2.8% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Senior purchasing agent vs. Landman
Landmen are referred to as the public-facing side of a gas, mineral, and oil exploration and production team. They are professionals who interact and negotiate directly with landowners for the acquisition of gas and oil drilling leases. Their duties include acquiring subsurface mineral rights from the landowners. They negotiate mineral rights, which include marketing and leasing right from the owner. The skills necessary for the job include management skills, leadership, communication skills, and attention to detail.
Types of senior purchasing agent
Updated January 8, 2025
