Procurement and purchasing agents
Job description
These individuals make various purchases on behalf of a company. These may include equipment, materials, land, rights of way, and services.
Environment
- Controlled ambient temperature
Main tasks
- Assess the needs of an institution.
- Specify the equipment, materials, and supplies to be purchased.
- Request bids, consult with suppliers, and review quotations.
- Determine or negotiate the terms of contracts.
- Negotiate the acquisition of land or rights of way and conduct property surveys.
- Award or recommend contracts to suppliers and monitor their performance.
- Develop delivery schedules.
- Communicate with customers and suppliers to resolve problems.
- Hire, train, and supervise purchasing clerks as required.
Advancement and mobility
- Experience leads to management positions.
- Purchasing Agents may specialize in purchasing equipment or business services, such as furniture or office equipment.
Hourly wage
The hourly wage is calculated by averaging wages from 2022 to 2024.- Minimum
- $23.44
- Median
- $34.00
- Maximum
- $54.00
Job prospects for 2024-2028
Les 2 champs de sélection ci-dessous vous permettent de comparer 2 régions. Les données des régions seront automatiquement mises à jour à la sélection. Par défaut, la province de Québec est sélectionnée pour la première région.
Job prospects for 2024-2028
Job prospects
All of Québec
Very good
All of Québec
Non available
Total jobs for 2023
All of Québec
15,000
All of Québec
na
Gender distribution
All of Québec
Not available.
- 49.7% Female
- 50.3% Male
Not available.
- 49.7% Female
- 50.3% Male
Job types
All of Québec
Not available.
- Full time
- Part time
Not available.
- Full time
- Part time
Yearly wage on 2020
All of Québec
$64,000
All of Québec
Other characteristics
All of Québec
- None
All of Québec
- None
Sectors of activity
All of Québec
Not available.
-
NAICS 9116% of jobs
-
NAICS 238% of jobs
-
NAICS 417% of jobs
-
NAICS 621, 622, 6235% of jobs
-
NAICS 48, 495% of jobs
-
Others59% of jobs
All of Québec
Not available.
-
NAICS 9116% of jobs
-
NAICS 238% of jobs
-
NAICS 417% of jobs
-
NAICS 621, 622, 6235% of jobs
-
NAICS 48, 495% of jobs
-
Others59% of jobs
Training and requirements
Formation
Most training programs are offered in French only.
College
DCS in accounting and Management Technology
Code : 410B0
Placement rate: 45.4%
52.5% of graduates pursue further studies
DCS in commercialisation de la mode
Code : 571C0
Placement rate: 65.2%
31.9% of graduates pursue further studies
ACS in gestion de l'approvisionnement
Code : LCA72
Placement rate: 92.9%
7.1% of graduates pursue further studies
Sometimes required
- A Bachelor’s degree or college diploma in Business Management, Commerce, or Economics is usually required.
- A university degree or college diploma in a related discipline may be required, depending on the goods and services to be purchased.
- A procurement certificate from the Purchasing Management Association of Canada (PMAC) may be required.
- Experience as a purchasing clerk or administrative clerk may be required.
- Certification from the International Right of Way Association (IRWA) may be required.
Main skills and characteristics
Skills
- Data collection
- Reading comprehension
- Active listening
- Oral expression
- Critical thought
- Active learning
- Written expression
- Financial resource management
- Judgment and decision-making
- Result evaluation
- Persuasion
- Solving complex problems
- Information processing
- Negotiation
- Social perception
- Time management
- Coordination
- Material resource management
- Teaching
- Systems evaluation
- Mathematics
Abilities
- Written comprehension
- Oral comprehension
- Verbal skills
- Deductive reasoning
- Speech recognition
- Written expression
- Inductive reasoning
- Awareness of issues
- Speech clarity
- Information organization
- Near vision
- Classification
- Mathematical reasoning
Knowledge and attributes
- Capacity to establish and maintain interpersonal relations
- Focussed on results
- Sense of responsibility
- Capacity to adapt
- Spoken and written bilingualism (French and English)
- Knowledge of economics and accounting
- Capacity to work in a team
- Capacity to delegate
- Rigour
- Sense of initiative
Interests
- Draft, communicate, and inform
- Work with numbers
- Work in an office
- Collect, verify, sort, and classify data or information
Personality profiles (RIASEC)
- Enterprising
- People with this profile prefer having responsibilities, influencing others and responding to challenges.
- Conventional
- People with this profile prefer specific, well-defined tasks. They like to respect the order of things and follow established rules.
- Investigative
- People with this profile prefer relying on theoretical knowledge before acting. They like observation, analysis and problem solving.
Official name of the NOC 12102
Procurement and purchasing agents and officers
Job titles
- Senior buyer - purchasing
- Buyer - purchasing
- Material purchasing officer
- Business services purchasing officer
- Procurement officer
- Media buyer
- Buyer - manufacturing and processing
- Media time and space buyer
- Pulpwood buyer
- Grain buyer
- Office equipment purchasing officer
- Furniture and furnishings purchaser
- Ore buyer
- Advertising buyer
- Radio time buyer
- Television time buyer
- Contract administrator
- Purchasing contracts administrator
- Construction contract administrator
- Petroleum land administrator
- Products administrator
- Landman/woman - oil and gas
- Hotel purchasing agent
- Restaurant purchasing agent
- Government supply officer
- Contracts officer
- Purchasing contracts officer
- Stewardship officer
- Contract management officer
- Purchasing contracts management officer
- Material management officer
- Right-of-way agent
- Land agent
- Purchasing contracts analyst
- Mineral land contracts analyst
- Energy asset surface land analyst
- Well and facilities asset analyst
- Passenger and freight rates analyst
- Strategic sourcing analyst
- Materials coordinator
- Storage purchasing coordinator
- Media estimator
- Contract claims examiner
- Contract negotiator
- Purchasing contracts negotiator
- Services contracts negotiator
- Purchasing-services contracts negotiator
- Land negotiator
- Energy asset joint venture representative
- Contract specialist
- Procurement specialist
- Supply chain specialist - procurement
- Sourcing specialist
- Purchasing supervisor
Skill type
Business, finance and administration
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Last update: January 29, 2026
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