Hire a buyer in Greater Montreal
A buyer is hired on what they buy, not on the word “purchasing”. A machining parts buyer, a raw materials buyer and a services buyer share neither the same instincts nor the same supplier list. This page gives you a job description to copy, the requirements the classification actually attaches to the role, and eight interview questions.
Job description to copy
Replace what is in brackets, then post it as is.
Buyer
Location: [city], Greater Montreal · Schedule: [day / evening / night], [number] h per week
Pay: [to be set] (benchmark: median $35/h in Quebec, $36.20/h in Montreal (Job Bank))
Responsibilities
- Issue and follow purchase orders from MRP requirements and requests from production
- Request quotes, compare price, lead time and terms, and recommend a supplier
- Negotiate purchasing agreements and payment terms, and document what was agreed
- Chase late suppliers and keep planning informed of confirmed dates
- Maintain reorder points, min/max levels and safety stock in the ERP
- Handle receiving discrepancies: returns, credit notes, emergency replacements
- Match invoices to purchase orders and receiving slips before payment
- Measure supplier performance: on-time delivery, quality, price variances
- Develop a second source for critical parts and sole suppliers
- Take part in engineering changes: substitutions, end-of-life runs, running out remaining stock
Requirements
- College diploma or bachelor's degree in business management, commerce or economics, or equivalent industrial procurement experience
- Full-cycle ERP experience: requisition, purchase order, receiving, invoice
- Comfortable with supplier lead times and reorder points, not only with price negotiation
- Reads a bill of materials, a drawing or a spec sheet for what you buy
- Excel at the level of pivot tables and quote comparisons
- Working written English or French for suppliers outside Quebec
Assets
- SCMP designation from Supply Chain Canada, or enrolled in the program
- AEC or DEC in procurement or supply chain management
- Experience in your product family: machining, electrical, packaging, raw materials, maintenance parts
- Knows incoterms and customs clearance if you import
- Has used your ERP, or one close to it
What we offer
[benefits, insurance, shift premiums, training]
Buyer pay benchmark
| Region | Median | Offered in postings |
|---|---|---|
| All of Quebec | $35/h | — |
| Montérégie | $36.06/h | $34.62 (11) |
| Montréal | $36.20/h | $35 (36) |
| Laval | $34.65/h | — |
| Lanaudière | $34.36/h | — |
| Laurentides | $34.32/h | — |
Median published by Job Bank (NOC 12102) and median offered in job postings (6 months, February to August 2026); in brackets, the number of hourly postings.
Eight interview questions
- Which product families have you bought, and which one do you know well enough to challenge a quote?
- Tell me about the last stockout you saw coming. What tipped you off?
- A sole supplier announces a lead time that stops a line in three weeks. What do you do that same day?
- How do you set a reorder point and a safety stock, and what do you base them on?
- Describe a negotiation where you accepted a higher price. Why?
- A receipt is non-conforming and production needs it tomorrow: what is your sequence?
- Which ERPs have you used, and what were you doing outside the system, in Excel?
- How did you measure your suppliers, and what did you do about the last one that slipped?
Timelines and difficulties
The word “buyer” is the first obstacle. The National Occupational Classification splits it across three groups: the procurement and purchasing agent (12102), the retail and wholesale buyer (62101), who buys for resale, and the purchasing clerk (14403), who executes without deciding. A posting that says only “buyer” pulls all three, and the sorting happens in interviews instead of in the ad. The second obstacle is the product family: a machining buyer and a packaging buyer know neither the same suppliers nor the same lead times, and the gap is paid for in months of ramp-up. The third is the competition, which does not come from manufacturing alone — according to quebec.ca, public administration, construction and wholesale trade employ a large share of this group, and their conditions look nothing like yours. Name the product family in the posting, name the ERP, and say plainly that the role decides rather than executes. Then look inside: a purchasing clerk taking an AEC in procurement while working is exactly the route the classification itself describes.
We run this search for employers in Montreal, Laval, Longueuil, the North Shore and the South Shore. Our recruitment service: logistics and supply chain
If the placement does not hold six months, we replace it.
The replacement is on us. You do not pay twice for the same role.
A role to fill?
Fifteen minutes on the phone is enough to know whether we can deliver your mandate, and to tell you straight whether the salary range holds.
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