Management · Holland code ECS

Purchasing Managers

Plan, direct, or coordinate the activities of buyers, purchasing officers, and related workers involved in purchasing materials, products, and services. Includes wholesale or retail trade merchandising managers and procurement managers.

Also called: Materials Manager, Procurement Manager, Purchasing Director, Purchasing Manager, Category Purchasing Manager, Commodity Manager, Materials Director, Procurement Director.

O*NET 11-3061.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $148,080; Middle half earn $115,550 to $182,270. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education: Bachelor's Degree; 53% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 4 of 5; Considerable preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

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.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Active Listening4.0 / 5
Speaking4.0 / 5
Reading Comprehension3.9 / 5
Writing3.9 / 5
Monitoring3.9 / 5
Critical Thinking3.8 / 5

Knowledge areas

Administration and Management4.3 / 5
Customer and Personal Service4.0 / 5
English Language3.9 / 5
Law and Government3.8 / 5
Economics and Accounting3.7 / 5
Computers and Electronics3.5 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic25
Investigative13
Artistic3
Social28
Enterprising100
Conventional83

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

category manager · DE Warengruppenmanager/Warengruppenmanagerin · FR responsable catégorie de produits
supply chain manager · DE Supply-Chain-Manager/Supply-Chain-Managerin · FR responsable de la logistique approvisionnement
purchasing manager · DE Einkaufsleiter/Einkaufsleiterin · FR responsable des achats
leather raw materials purchasing manager · DE Einkaufsleiter für Lederrohstoffe/Einkaufsleiterin für Lederrohstoffe · FR responsable des achats de matières premières cuirs
purchaser · DE Einkäufer/Einkäuferin · FR acheteur/acheteuse
ICT buyer · DE IKT-Käufer/IKT-Käuferin · FR responsable de l’approvisionnement en technologies de l’information et de la communication

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Purchasing managers and directors (1134)61,700 employed
Directors in logistics, warehousing and transport (1140)30,300 employed
Managers in logistics (1243)34,900 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Technicians and associate professionals”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Technicians and associate professionals, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€50,992
Austria	€46,986
Germany	€44,473
Netherlands	€42,448
Ireland	€41,613
Sweden	€41,155
Italy	€34,882
France	€34,816
Spain	€29,757
Portugal	€18,080
Poland	€12,108

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the higher third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of +1.42. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (11-3061).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

Take the career interests test