Q: How do we differentiate the role of “Procurement Specialist” and “Procurement Manager” in a typical Procurement Department?

A procurement manager role is to make sure that the overall approach of the buying of goods and services is strategic and aligned to the company's outlook, a specialist is perhaps tasked with the details of a particular group of goods or services of which he has indepth knowledge on  

Generic Procurement specialist Job description is as follows:

1.   Identify, source and register the suppliers

2.   Update and review specifications

3.   Prepare bidding documents and solicits bid

4.   Evaluate the bid from Technical and commercial point of view

5.   Provides a recommendation for award of works or a way to follow

 Whereas, the job description of Procurement Manager is varied and may be summarized as follows: 

1.   Provides strategic direction to Procurement specialist and other procurement staffs

2.   Attend meetings with other department heads and provide necessary feedback during discussion on procurement issues

3.   Communicates the necessary information to procurement specialist and other procurement staffs.

4.   Review and update progress of works and provide support when the progress is not satisfactory

5.   Motivates all procurement staffs to clearly follow deadline.

6.   Approves the work order or recommends for approval to the senior management

7.   Monitor the delivery deadline of all contracts and intervene when necessary 

8.   Checks the warehouse stock position and advise the logistics officer as necessary