What does a Purchasing Manager do?

Plan, direct, or coordinate the activities of buyers, purchasing officers, and related workers involved in purchasing materials, products, and services. Day to day that includes work like develop and implement purchasing and contract management instructions, policies, and procedures and Locate vendors of materials, equipment or supplies, and interview them to determine product availability and terms of sales.

What skills should a Purchasing Manager put on a resume?

O*NET rates Active Listening, Management of Personnel Resources, Speaking, Monitoring, and Negotiation among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Purchasing Manager list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes Automated purchase order software, Bottomline Technologies Bottomline Sprinter Purchasing Manager, Bowen & Groves M1 ERP, Corel Paradox, and Database software. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Purchasing Manager work?

O*NET records 24 titles for this occupation, including Materials Manager, Procurement Manager, Purchasing Director, and Category Purchasing Manager. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Purchasing Manager need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 53% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Purchasing Manager role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Purchasing Manager resume example

A resume for a Purchasing Manager needs to show the work itself: plan, direct, or coordinate the activities of buyers, purchasing officers, and related workers involved in purchasing materials, products, and services. Day to day that means work like this: develop and implement purchasing and contract management instructions, policies, and procedures; locate vendors of materials, equipment or supplies, and interview them to determine product availability and terms of sales. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

Materials Manager
Procurement Manager
Purchasing Director
Category Purchasing Manager
Commodity Manager
Materials Director
Procurement Director
Purchasing Supervisor
Strategic Sourcing Director
DMM
Commissary Superintendent
Contract Manager
Contracting Manager
Division Merchandise Manager
General Merchandise Manager
Merchandise Director
Merchandise Manager
Merchandising Manager

O*NET records 24 titles for this occupation in total.

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

Develop and implement purchasing and contract management instructions, policies, and procedures.
Locate vendors of materials, equipment or supplies, and interview them to determine product availability and terms of sales.
Prepare bid awards requiring board approval.
Direct and coordinate activities of personnel engaged in buying, selling, and distributing materials, equipment, machinery, and supplies.
Review purchase order claims and contracts for conformance to company policy.
Review, evaluate, and approve specifications for issuing and awarding bids.
Administer online purchasing systems.
Prepare and process requisitions and purchase orders for supplies and equipment.
Interview and hire staff, and oversee staff training.
Develop cost reduction strategies and savings plans.
Control purchasing department budgets.
Resolve vendor or contractor grievances and claims against suppliers.

18 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

Develop and implement purchasing and contract management instructions, policies, and procedures, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Locate vendors of materials, equipment or supplies, and interview them to determine product availability and terms of sales, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Prepare bid awards requiring board approval, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Direct and coordinate activities of personnel engaged in buying, selling, and distributing materials, equipment, machinery, and supplies, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

Automated purchase order software
Bottomline Technologies Bottomline Sprinter Purchasing Manager
Bowen & Groves M1 ERP
Corel Paradox
Database software
Enterprise resource planning ERP software
Epicor Vantage ERP
IBM Lotus Notes
Infor Lawson Supply Chain Management
Inventory management software
Materials requirement planning MRP software
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Excel

37 software entries are recorded in total.

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

10-key calculators
Desktop computers
Personal computers

Skills an ATS reads for

Worth naming only if they are genuinely yours. Keyword overlap is one input to a resume's score, not a verdict.

Purchasing
SAP
hire personnel

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Active Listening
02Management of Personnel Resources
03Speaking
04Monitoring
05Negotiation
06Reading Comprehension
07Social Perceptiveness
08Time Management
09Writing
10Coordination

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

Administration and Management
Customer and Personal Service
English Language
Law and Government
Economics and Accounting
Computers and Electronics
Mathematics
Administrative

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

53%Bachelor's Degree
16%Post-Secondary Certificate, awarded for training completed after high school
11%Associate's Degree

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Considerable Preparation Needed”. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Common questions

What does a Purchasing Manager do?: Plan, direct, or coordinate the activities of buyers, purchasing officers, and related workers involved in purchasing materials, products, and services. Day to day that includes work like develop and implement purchasing and contract management instructions, policies, and procedures and Locate vendors of materials, equipment or supplies, and interview them to determine product availability and terms of sales.
What skills should a Purchasing Manager put on a resume?: O*NET rates Active Listening, Management of Personnel Resources, Speaking, Monitoring, and Negotiation among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Purchasing Manager list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes Automated purchase order software, Bottomline Technologies Bottomline Sprinter Purchasing Manager, Bowen & Groves M1 ERP, Corel Paradox, and Database software. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Purchasing Manager work?: O*NET records 24 titles for this occupation, including Materials Manager, Procurement Manager, Purchasing Director, and Category Purchasing Manager. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Purchasing Manager need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 53% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Purchasing Manager role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.