Senior Buyer Job Description, Key Duties and Reasponsibilities

This post provides detailed information on the senior buyer job description, including the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they commonly perform.

It also highlights the major requirements you may be expected to fulfill to be hired for the senior buyer role by most recruiters/employers.

What Does a Senior Buyer Do?

A senior buyer is responsible for negotiating and acting as the company’s principal spokesperson in accordance with the company’s policies and procedures.

The senior buyer job description involves writing business plans, budgets, and other proposal documents for products for clients.

It also entails helping to develop new products or provide continuous improvement to existing ones that are intended to enhance the quality of the organization’s products and services.

Senior buyers may be required to participate in various cross-functional projects aimed at improving efficiency, profitability, quality, and/or customer service of the organization.

These may include new product development, pricing strategies or corporate ventures (e.g., joint ventures), and cost-management projects such as total quality management (TQM).

Senior buyers ensure that the company is compliant with all legal, regulatory, and ethical requirements that include equal opportunity laws, environmental issues, anti-trust laws, and banking.

They also assist and work with other senior members of their department in analyzing potential problems that could impact their work.

It is also the senior buyer’s duties to oversee all financial analyses pertaining to the department’s budget and ensure that those goals are met or exceeded by adjusting the budget as necessary.

Evaluating departmental policies and procedures to ensure they are consistent with industry/company standards or changes in law or technology affecting performance or efficiency of the business is a part of the tasks.

They are also responsible for managing procurement activities, including purchasing supplies and informing suppliers regarding company specifications for product(s).

The senior buyer work description includes negotiating, developing, and maintaining commercial contracts with clients, suppliers, and other business partners.

It also involves recommending to management on matters concerning the purchasing division.

For example, they may recommend product improvements, new products, quality issues or operational efficiencies.

They must have the ability to deal with several projects at a time and prioritize tasks according to what is most important at the moment.

Senior Buyer Job Description Sample/Example/Template

The senior buyer job description consists of the following duties, tasks, and responsibilities:

• Negotiates with sellers to find the best sales price and may include bid prices and negotiation techniques, plus review of written documents
• Conducts negotiations with other buyers to determine a sales price when more than one buyer is interested in a particular item
• Acquires information concerning an item’s condition, type, rarity or value
• Prepares data for financial records: invoices, purchase orders and other related documents
• Orders new acquisitions or items from a catalog
• Prepares purchase orders and shipping documents for the shipment of acquisition to other offices or locations: receives shipping information, such as insurance values, cost of packaging and necessary equipment for delivery, and verifies that all items ordered arrived in good condition
• Performs financial analysis to determine savings, calculates quantity discounts and negotiates the best sales price when purchasing large quantities of goods
• Prepares and maintains accounts receivables by receiving, verifying, and settling payments
• Arranges payments through bank drafts or money orders to purchase items
• Prepares documentation necessary for billing customers, such as invoices, order details and shipping documents
• Assist in shipping by organizing shipments, including shipping materials and equipment for the shipment of items from the office to customers’ locations: assists packers and receivers with packaging and labeling of shipment materials; arranges for the transportation of shipment from the office to consignee’s location; makes recommendations regarding insurance coverage when sending valuable items; arranges insurance coverage when sending fragile or valuable items by air, surface or ocean shipment
• Maintains inventory that includes verifying inventory levels, choosing new items, returning expired items or obsolete merchandise.

Senior Buyer Job Description for Resume

If you have worked before as a senior buyer or are currently working in that role and are making a new resume or CV, then you can create a compelling Professional Experience section for your resume by applying the sample senior buyer job description above.

You can highlight the duties and responsibilities you have performed or are presently performing as a senior buyer in your resume’s Professional Experience by utilizing the ones in the above senior buyer job description example.

This will show that you have been successful working as a senior buyer, which can significantly boost your chances of being hired for the new job that you are seeking, especially if it requirements someone with some senior buyer work experience.

Senior Buyer Job Requirements: Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for Career Success

Here are major requirements candidates for the senior buyer role may be expected to fulfill to be hired:

• 21 years of age or above
• Possess educational qualifications equivalent to high school diploma
• Ability to communicate effectively using oral and written English to accomplish communication needs of the department
• Must be able to problem solve, organize and prioritize work, interact with customers effectively and meet deadlines
• Ability to work effectively in a fast paced setting and meet deadlines
• Must be able to work independently or as a team member as needed
• Possess good judgment, attention to detail, and ability to work with numbers and data
• Must have basic computer skills
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills are necessary for this position
• Possess strong communication skills, including written and verbal,  as well as interpersonal skills
• Minimum of 1 year experience in the purchasing field
• Expert knowledge of legal procurement processes and practices including purchasing controls, bidding procedures, contract administration, vendor/contractor management, contract termination and other related procurement activities.

Senior Buyer Salary

According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary for a senior buyer in the United States is $81,133.

Conclusion

Senior buyers are the people who are responsible for managing purchases and negotiating the best deals possible to obtain the maximum savings for their company.

They also make sure that documentation, invoices, shipping documents and other related documents are prepared accurately and on time.

They must have strong analytical and quantitative skills, as well as excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills.

Senior buyers are held accountable to meet deadlines while providing quality products at an affordable price to their customers.

This post is useful to individuals interested in the senior buyer career.

They will be able to learn all they need to know about the duties and responsibilities typically carried out by senior buyers and be able to decide if that’s the job they want to do.

It is also helpful to recruiters/employers in making a detailed job description for the senior buyer position for use in hiring for the role.