Author Archives: Sebastian Waengler

Questions you should ask in a job interview with a potential Procurement Engineer


I expect that you as a reader of that blog are working in an environment where you either are running a Procurement Engineering Organization or you are interested in that topic because you want to build up such an Organization. In both cases there are job interviews are waiting for you and the following overview with some questions might help you.

These questions have been extensively used in various interviews and helped us to identify whether the candidate was or is the right one. Beside the focus on Procurement Engineering I would always recommend preparing a list of questions you want to ask as a kind of checklist to ensure that you ask the different candidates the same. Make notes during the interview. So more details you have so better. At the end of the interview make a summary. After you had all the interviews, sit down and review all interviews with your written notes. This prevents that you automatically select one of the last candidates as they are more present in your memory. I added to every question some background information why you should ask exactly this question and what is the expectation.

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Procurement tasks prior to the start of a R&D project

The work of Procurement Engineering does not start with the kick-off of a R&D project. There are tons of tasks prior to the design work. The following post will provide a crisp list of necessary activities and tasks before the real design work starts. Before we go into the details we need to say goodbye to the idea that procurement buys stuff engineering has designed and the we start to work once the design is finished. When procurement is invited to discuss how to set up a cross-functional team to support the newest development project the responsible procurement engineer has already a full list with different home work activities. So, what is to do …?

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When is the right time to involve Procurement in the R&D Process?

If someone is asked when certain organizations shall be involved in a new project, normally the standard answer is “as early as possible”? But  why? Parts are procured once they are designed and not earlier. So why should there be an additional interface in the R&D organization, which makes the whole development process more complex, time consuming, and in certain cases more difficult for the designer ;-)? 

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What is Procurement Engineering?


If you search the web for “Procurement Engineering” you will find different job descriptions on websites like Stepstone or Monster but no further information about that function in procurement or engineering organizations around the globe. This is somehow surprising has the need for systematic involvement of procurement and supply chain management in the early phase of product development is emerging and gets more and more relevance. There is hardly no procurement conference where this topic is not on the agenda.  

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Cost Engineer vs. Procurement Engineer

In the course of my different positions within procurement pretty often people asked what is actually the difference between a Procurement Engineer and a Cost (Value) Engineer. Why Value in brackets? Cost Engineer is more common, but in some organizations the position of a Cost Engineer is also designated as Cost Value Engineer. Where does the confusion come from?

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