Understanding Procurement Coordinator Roles and Responsibilities in Legal Departments Today

Over 500,000 people are working in procurement to coordinate logistics activities today. From creating proposal and bidding processes to researching vendors and preparing contracts, procurement coordinators ensure projects receive all the materials necessary for the timely delivery of cost-efficient and legally compliant goods and services. As the “coordinator” part of the job title infers, this position involves acting as a liaison between a company and its vendors. Increasingly, procurement coordinator roles and responsibilities are now using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to automate tasks and boost workplace efficiency. 

What Are the Duties and Responsibilities of Procurement Coordinators?

Procurement coordinator roles and responsibilities can be summarized as follows:

• Developing and implementing processes for vendor bidding, qualifying, and reviewing proposals—which is done on a daily basis.

• Researching new procurement areas, assessing industry changes, and advising the company on issues that must be resolved before procurement begins. This is typically performed on a weekly basis, though not necessarily every day.
  
  
• Researching, developing, and reviewing procurement requests, spec drafts, and contracts for content, clarity, risk analysis, and compliance. Procurement serves as a consulting role, often sending drafts back for reworks and supervising as the top authority.
  
  
• Researching vendors and inquiring into their availability, quality assurance, technical specs, and pricing. Maintaining all information in an organized database. Scheduling vendor presentations and preparing meeting materials also comprise the weekly workflow.
  
  
• Developing policies and procedures for updating departmental resources and objectives.
  
  
• Recording, reporting, and preparing data for state, local, and federal regulators to ensure procurement programs are in compliance.
  
  
• Reviewing past contracts and renegotiating terms with vendors as needed—often consulting with legal counsel and requesting contract modifications. Procurement coordinators oversee contract renewals and extensions.
  
  
• Supervising and coordinating elements of construction, permitting, facility design, environmental review, or contractor/vendor compliance.

How To Become a Procurement Coordinator

To be a successful procurement coordinator, a person should possess excellent reading, comprehension, communication, project management, and multitasking skills. A natural problem-solver and tough negotiator, a procurement coordinator is a meeting powerhouse, combining interpersonal skills with shrewd analysis and leadership qualities.  

This position requires a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration or a related field. Most employers require 2-5 years of experience, so seeking internship opportunities prior to graduation can be helpful. 

Certification is not necessary to work in the field, but individuals may pursue a Purchasing Coordinator Experience certificate or seek accreditation as a Certified Purchasing Professional by the American Purchasing Society. 

Commonly, a procurement coordinator may advance to chief procurement officer, purchasing buyer, or purchasing manager.

Streamlining Procurement Coordinator Roles and Responsibilities With AI Technology

While only 15% of a procurement coordinator’s time is spent on contract work alone, it can quickly add up and equate to 6 hours/week or 24 hours/month. But AI-based technology developed within the last five years has made it possible to reduce time spent reviewing and renegotiating contracts by about 90%, saving procurement coordinators nearly 22 hours a month.

With LexCheck’s contract review and negotiation platform, for example, procurement coordinators can easily:

• Digitize their company’s legal playbook.
  
  
• Auto-compare a current draft to past agreements and playbook standards.
  
  
• Identify areas of risk, errors, omissions, and inconsistencies.
  
  
• Accept context-based suggestions that aid in decision making.
  
  
• Fully automate the contract markup process.
  
  
• Complete hours or days’ worth of legal review work in less than five minutes.

The best procurement coordinators understand that keeping step with the march of technology is a necessity in today’s fast-moving business world. Streamlining procurement with an AI-powered platform helps procurement departments save time, money, and training while ensuring compliance and accuracy across a portfolio of agreements.