Basic Requirements
You’ll find in many of these purchasing and procurement jobs, companies are looking for industry-specific experience. If you’ve been doing procurement work in engineering, don’t expect to be able to take over a position as procurement director in a health-care facility. It is not likely to work.
Additionally, you will need to have plenty of experience in the field. On average, most procurement director positions require a minimum of five to ten years’ experience before you will even be considered. And that experience usually needs to be in the same or related industry. For example, if you handled procurement for a pharmaceutical company you could possibly end up obtaining a similar position for a hospital or medical office.
One of the common requirements is that you have past experience in saving your employer money on the purchases made. This is an important goal of any procurement department. This might mean shopping around to find the lowest-priced vendors. It might mean negotiating more reasonable deals with certain vendors. It may even be figuring out ways to cut corners so something no longer needs to be purchased. If you are attempting to obtain a procurement director position, you need to stress these cost-reduction accomplishments on your resume. They will attract the attention of any employer.
Many of the available positions in this area are also looking for people with experience working with a SAP environment, supply chain management, and logistics. Remember, as the procurement director you may have to oversee all of these elements in addition to being in charge of the rest of the procurement staff. Chances are you will also answer directly to one of the upper executives. In some cases, your direct boss will be a vice president in the company, which means you will need to present yourself in a highly professional manner at all times. You should also be prepared to make presentations on your efforts and the efforts of your department.
Locations of Procurement Positions
If you want to be in a procurement director position, don’t feel that you have to stay in your current location. Hundreds of these jobs are available all over the United States. If you go through a job search site on the Internet, you can find any of these positions and can relocate to almost any place from Miami to Seattle, and everywhere in between.
You don’t even necessarily need to remain in the United States to find the job you desire. Some of the job sites, particularly those focused on the procurement field, will provide you with searches for other parts of the world, too. France, Spain, Germany, Japan, Mexico, China, and other locations are all seeking people with similar experience. If you are fluent in a foreign language, this might be an ideal option to consider.
Besides the bonus of an experience of living and working in a foreign country, the pay can be quite good overseas. One position in France for a head of procurement paid the equivalent of $150,000 to $200,000 USD. While some parts of living in another country could be challenging, even a short-term assignment would dramatically improve your marketability back at home.
Finding These Positions
If you are interested in securing either a local or a global position as procurement director, we’ve already looked briefly at a couple of ways to find these jobs when they become available. Probably the most effective is going to be using online job search sites because these simply provide you more options. You can look all over the country and the globe at hundreds of jobs for this specific job title which makes the entire process much easier.
Of course, if you are hoping to stay closer to home, you might want to work on moving up the procurement ladder at your existing place of employment. If you’re having trouble making the transition, you should first look at your education. Many companies will not promote anyone unless they have advanced their education in some way during their time with the firm. That could mean you take some additional courses or even obtain an MBA.
If you still don’t move upward, you might want to look at your record. As mentioned earlier, procurement directors need to have a history of saving their employers money. If that doesn’t describe any of your efforts, you may want to double your cost-cutting efforts. Without some accomplishments in this area, you might find it difficult to land a job in this field even outside your current company.
