Procurement specialist, Auckland District Health Board

Nicala Husband says that being highly organised is essential. Picture / Kenny Rodger

Name: Nicala Husband
Age: 29
Role: Procurement specialist, Auckland District Health Board
Working hours: 40 a week
Average pay: $40,000-$80,000
Qualifications: BSc in statistics

Describe how you got this job.

Through a former work colleague of mine who recommended me for the job. I still went through the interview process. I have been doing procurement for about four years, one year at the Auckland District Health Board.

Describe what you do.

Setting up the deals for products and services to supply hospitals. The board uses pooled volume to test markets for the best price. The biggest thing about the role is that we run tender processes for both new areas of business and for areas where a contract is due to expire. I build supply relationships and monitor and measure supply and performance against service level agreements.

I provide reporting on suppliers' performance to board's key stakeholders, constantly test the market for better solutions, and test our suppliers' performance against their peers.

What do you need to succeed in this job?

Foremost, you have to be a great communicator because it is all about developing relationships, both with suppliers and internal customers. I am extremely organised and that helps. You need to be professional. You need to be a good listener because you are getting the scope from field experts and need to make sure you are getting it right, are on track, and that the end result is exactly what they are after. What training or experience do you need?

You need some sort of training and experience in management, commerce or project management. A strong analytical knowledge or background is important. Experience in supply chain management or purchasing would be helpful.

What skills and qualities do you need?

As well as what I mentioned in the success category, you need to be a great multi-tasker, to be confident, and to be computer efficient in a minimum of Word and Excel.

Best part of the job?

For me it is the constant challenge and getting a good result from a tender process.

Most challenging part?

You are always working on more than one project and juggling all the time. The challenge is to always keep on top of things and keep all the projects moving.

Often when you have done a project, you need to sell it to the end-users. The challenge at times is trying to get change happening and get buy-in from end-users.

How do you define success in this job?

A good result is when you have done a deal that pleases the stakeholders as well as the suppliers.

What are your career hopes for future?

To progress within procurement, the next step is procurement management, and to lead and mentor a team of procurement specialists.

If I wanted a job like yours how would I go about it, and what qualifications would I need?

You would go about it by normal job advertisements.

One thing to be aware of is that the title often varies - sometimes it is called supply or purchasing, or it can be officer, executive or specialist.

You have to look at the scope of the job and work it out that way.

I understand there might be a procurement qualification now, which would be something to investigate.

But anything in commerce, or business management, or even a statistical background like I have, would be useful.

What advice would you have for someone contemplating a career like yours?

Procurement isn't widely known and people want to know what it is about. As time goes on it is going to become more well-known as companies are centralising their purchasing to make the most of that pool spend. It's a fun, rewarding and challenging career choice. Procurement has to do with research and background work so make sure you are well researched.