How To Become A Procurement Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a procurement engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Manufacturers producing different products need specialists who can oversee the purchase of technical materials and other components needed to make those products. This is where your expertise as a procurement engineer comes in. Your purpose, in this capacity, will be to oversee the purchase of necessary material.

Some of the duties that you will be performing in this capacity include determining needs for the production process, choosing suppliers that seem the most viable and profitable for the company, negotiating prices and contracts, and managing those suppliers. You will also adopt appropriate supplier management methodologies. Essential skills required to successfully complete these tasks include technical skills, communication, rapport building, attention to detail, and leadership.

To qualify for this position, you will need a bachelor's degree in procurement engineering or a similar field. However, individuals holding a master's degree may be given preference. Prior work experience is also required. The position comes with a lot of responsibilities and monetary compensation to match those. The average hourly pay for this position is $35.54, which amounts to over $73,000 annually.

ScoreProcurement EngineerUS Average

Salary

5.9

Avg. Salary $75,682

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.5

Growth Rate 10%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 15.08%

Black or African American 4.23%

Hispanic or Latino 10.38%

Unknown 3.88%

White 66.26%

Gender

female 16.90%

male 83.10%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress Level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.3

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

5.1

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a procurement engineer

Explore procurement engineer education requirements

Most common procurement engineer degrees

Bachelor's

75.4 %

Master's

15.1 %

Associate

5.6 %

Start to develop specific procurement engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Project Management	10.38%
Cost Reduction	7.05%
Supplier Quality	4.96%
Supplier Selection	4.75%
Logistics	4.63%

Complete relevant procurement engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New procurement engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a procurement engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real procurement engineer resumes.

Research procurement engineer duties and responsibilities

Develop and supports of strategic plans to manage projects total spend on designate commodities.
Lead procurement ISO 9001 2008 task team to implement vendor performance tracking and an effective supplier corrective action/root cause analysis process.
Manage construction and implementation of new warehouses which include determining racking configurations, picking automation and integrating WMS systems.
Mentore a new engineer to develop six sigma skills in a lean manufacturing environment.

Prepare your procurement engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your procurement engineer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a procurement engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Procurement Engineer Resume templates

Build a professional Procurement Engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Procurement Engineer resume.

Apply for procurement engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a procurement engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do procurement engineers rate their job?

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Procurement Engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2019

Pros

Learning more on the job and gaining new skills and experience