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The differences between supply chain 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 supply chain planner and a senior purchasing agent. Additionally, a supply chain planner has an average salary of $80,668, which is higher than the $73,386 average annual salary of a senior purchasing agent.
The top three skills for a supply chain planner include supply chain, customer service and supply chain planning. The most important skills for a senior purchasing agent are purchase orders, project management, and supplier relationships.
| Supply Chain Planner | Senior Purchasing Agent | |
| Yearly salary | $80,668 | $73,386 |
| Hourly rate | $38.78 | $35.28 |
| Growth rate | 28% | -6% |
| Number of jobs | 36,145 | 43,833 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 73% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Average age | 47 | 48 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
The job of supply chain planners, or logisticians, is to plan, develop, and schedule project management tools in support of an organization's operations. They are responsible for managing and monitoring inventories, forecasting production and sales levels, and tracking response time and delivery performance. Other duties include analyzing the levels of finished products, developing and monitoring production plans, and generating reports. Supply chain planners are also responsible for supervising other team members and ensuring that customer service best practices are followed.
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.
Supply chain planners and senior purchasing agents have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Supply Chain Planner | Senior Purchasing Agent | |
| Average salary | $80,668 | $73,386 |
| Salary range | Between $58,000 And $110,000 | Between $52,000 And $103,000 |
| Highest paying City | Richmond, 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 supply chain planner and a senior purchasing agent in terms of educational background:
| Supply Chain 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 supply chain planners' and senior purchasing agents' demographics:
| Supply Chain Planner | Senior Purchasing Agent | |
| Average age | 47 | 48 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 55.0% Female, 45.0% | Male, 57.7% Female, 42.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.8% Asian, 9.0% White, 65.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% | 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 | 10% | 7% |