Making deliberate career decisions in Procurement
The most important career decisions are made before we start looking for a new role
One of the greatest long-term career risks in Procurement can look like success for a long time. A professional may be responsible for strategic categories, influence financial performance and operational risk, and receive successive pay rises, while having fewer genuine career options with each passing year.
As long as the company continues to operate within a familiar model, knowledge of previous decisions, suppliers, ways of working with the business and informal rules strengthens the employee’s position. It allows them to identify risks more quickly, anticipate resistance and bring complex agreements to a conclusion. Some of this effectiveness, however, comes from knowledge that is useful mainly within that particular environment.
A new employer assesses experience through the types of problems for which a role has been responsible. A company centralising category management will look for different experience from a manufacturing site that needs a strong local buyer. An organisation bringing structure to its procurement operations will assess a candidate differently from a company developing category management, analytics or procurement technology. The same experience may qualify someone for a senior position in one company, but only for a role with a much narrower scope of responsibility in another.
The projects and responsibilities taken on today determine which roles a professional will be credibly prepared for in several years. Once changing jobs becomes necessary, there is usually little time left to gain the missing experience. At an earlier stage, it is still possible to broaden the scope of responsibility or adjust the direction of development.
The current role can expand or restrict future opportunities
A CPO leading a mature function is responsible for performance, risk, team development and the quality of collaboration with the business. In an organization beginning a transformation, the same title may involve redesigning the allocation of roles, changing how procurement participates in business decisions, bringing structure to data and implementing a new operating model.
Career capital consists of competencies, experience, documented results, reputation and relationships that retain their value after a change of employer. Its value is reflected in the level of responsibility an employee can credibly take on after several years in their current role. Career capital grows when an employee makes more complex decisions, takes on broader responsibility and delivers results under new conditions.
Spending many years performing a similar scope of work can gradually narrow future opportunities. If technology, the procurement operating model or the requirements of particular roles change faster than the employee’s responsibilities, their job level and salary become increasingly weak indicators of the experience required in other organizations. Strong performance may continue to reinforce the employee’s internal position, while the number of external roles offering comparable responsibility and conditions declines. The greatest risk arises when the job title and salary increase faster than the actual scope of responsibility. After changing companies, the experience gained may correspond to roles with a narrower scope and lower level of seniority.
Career options depend on the roles for which current experience provides credible preparation
Experience builds career optionality when it enables a professional to credibly consider several roles that differ in their scope of responsibility or position within the procurement function. It may create opportunities to deepen a specialisation, take full responsibility for a category, move into people management or transition to another area of Procurement. In several years, professionals may need options that they are not yet considering today.
A buyer working mainly within Source-to-Contract processes may have an excellent understanding of the supplier market, lead complex negotiations and conclude contracts effectively. This experience creates a strong position in sourcing roles. Full category management additionally requires the ability to develop a strategy independently, analyse demand and costs, assess risk, plan supplier collaboration and align the proposed direction with the business. Further years spent in Source-to-Contract will increase the employee’s sourcing proficiency. Moving into a full Category Manager role will still require them to gain the missing experience.
The title of Category Manager may also cover very different scopes of responsibility. In one organisation, the person independently develops the strategy, takes responsibility for its implementation and delivers the category objectives. In another, they execute a centrally developed strategy, run local sourcing processes and report the results. An organization expecting the independent development of a category strategy will require experience in category analysis, selecting a strategic direction and taking responsibility for its implementation. A profile based mainly on executing an established strategy is better aligned with buyer roles or Category Manager positions operating within a similar model.
Moving into management changes the type of experience being built. In some organisations, taking responsibility for a team is the main route to higher pay and a stronger position.
A strategic buyer may accept such an opportunity even if they would prefer to continue developing as an expert. If the new role still includes responsibility for key categories, strategies, negotiations and business decisions, the buyer’s experience is expanded to include leadership. A position focused on team coordination, reporting and the day-to-day management of the function prepares the employee primarily for further management roles. After several years, other employers will assess that person mainly through their people management experience. Returning to an advanced expert role may require rebuilding credibility in category work.
Where a buyer can take on an expert role involving greater scale, higher risk or a stronger impact on financial performance and continuity of operations, management becomes one of several routes to higher pay. The buyer can then choose the type of work that is consistent with their preferred career direction.
An employee with genuine alternatives can remain with their current company because the role still fits their objectives, family situation, need for stability and preferred way of working. When there are few alternatives, remaining with the company ceases to be a fully independent choice. Maintaining the existing level of pay and responsibility then depends on one employer, one manager and one procurement operating model.
Pay can strengthen a professional position or increase the cost of changing jobs
Data from the Big Fish Procurement Barometer 2025 show that the salaries of Category Managers and strategic buyers in companies with a global reach and regional reporting structures are, on average, 50–70% higher than in organizations with local structures. Higher pay is associated with roles involving greater scale, a broader impact on performance and risk, and a regional or global scope of responsibility. An organization may also pay above the market rate for knowledge of process exceptions, inconsistent data, difficult suppliers and the informal allocation of responsibilities. The employee compensates for weaknesses in the system through their own knowledge and commitment, making them particularly valuable to that organization. After changing companies, some of this advantage loses its relevance. A new employer may use different systems, allocate responsibilities differently and work with a different type of supplier base. If pay increases faster than the experience for which other employers are prepared to pay, the gap between the employee’s expectations and the opportunities available outside the company widens. Remaining with the current employer becomes increasingly attractive in the short term, while finding a comparable external role becomes progressively more difficult. An offer with a lower salary may be an investment in changing the profile of experience. Moving to an organisation that offers full responsibility for a category, regional exposure, access to advanced analytics or participation in the redesign of the procurement function may broaden future opportunities, provided that the move supports the chosen career direction. An employment offer should therefore be assessed both in terms of the salary paid for the responsibility being taken on and the value of the experience for which other employers may be prepared to pay several years later.
Changing direction does not require an immediate change of employer
Before changing companies becomes necessary, some of the missing experience can be gained within the current role.
A Category Manager who has previously focused mainly on sourcing processes may take responsibility for demand analysis, a cost model, supply risk or the preparation of a complete category strategy.
A specialist working with procurement tools may move beyond system administration and become responsible for data quality, process design, performance indicators and the way information is used in procurement decisions.
Some organizations will not be able to provide the experience required for the chosen direction. A local function may not offer regional projects. The operating model may not allow procurement to participate in defining business needs. Outdated technology may restrict the development of analytical competencies. In such circumstances, changing employers should be planned before the loss of the current role determines the timing and conditions of the decision.
Remaining in the current position may also be a rational choice. Stability, health, family circumstances or the need to reduce workload may, at a particular point in time, be more important than rapidly expanding the scope of responsibility. Understanding the cost of this decision makes it possible to determine which elements of career capital should be developed in parallel and when to return to the plan for change.
Check what opportunities your current role is building
- Which procurement decisions do you now make independently that you were not entrusted with two years ago?
- Is your scope of responsibility expanding to include new problems, markets, data and stakeholders, or are you mainly becoming more familiar with one organisation?
- Which elements of your experience will retain their value after a change of company, procurement operating model or technology?
- Which roles in Procurement are you credibly prepared for today? Which of them were beyond your reach several years ago?
- If your current role were eliminated, how many attractive opportunities would you have outside your current company?
A current role builds career security when it provides stability today and prepares the employee for roles that will remain available after a change of employer or scope of responsibility.