Making the right procurement recruitment decision can have a significant impact on your organisation’s performance, cost efficiency, and strategic agility. As procurement continues to evolve from a transactional function to a strategic business partner, the question of whether to hire permanent or interim procurement professionals has become increasingly nuanced.
We’ve worked with hundreds of organisations across the UK facing this exact decision, and we understand that there’s rarely a one-size-fits-all answer. The right choice depends on your business context, immediate needs, long-term goals, and the current state of the procurement job market. In this guide, we’ll help you navigate these considerations to make the most informed decision for your business.
The Strategic Role of Procurement in Modern Businesses
Before diving into the permanent versus interim debate, it’s worth reflecting on how procurement’s role has transformed. Today’s procurement function goes far beyond placing purchase orders. Modern procurement teams drive strategic value through transformation initiatives, supplier relationship management, risk mitigation, sustainability goals, and significant cost optimisation.
This elevated strategic importance means that procurement recruitment decisions carry more weight than ever. The professionals you bring into your team will influence everything from your supply chain resilience to your ESG commitments, making it crucial to choose the right hiring model for your specific circumstances.
When Interim Procurement Hires Make Sense
Interim procurement professionals offer a flexible, specialist solution for organisations facing specific challenges or time-bound opportunities. Here are the scenarios where interim hiring typically delivers the best results:
Transformation and Change Programmes
When you’re implementing a new procurement system, restructuring your category management approach, or driving a major cost-reduction programme, interim hires bring immediate expertise without the long-term commitment. These professionals have often managed similar transformations multiple times across different organisations, allowing them to hit the ground running with proven methodologies.
Project-Based Requirements
Whether you’re launching a complex tender, managing a major supplier rationalisation project, or leading a one-off strategic sourcing initiative, interim procurement specialists can provide the exact skills you need for the project duration. Once the project concludes, there’s no need to find ongoing work to justify the role.
Covering Unexpected Gaps
When a senior procurement professional leaves suddenly, goes on extended leave, or when you’re between permanent hires, interim procurement recruitment provides an immediate solution. Rather than leaving critical supplier relationships unmanaged or rushing into a permanent hire, an interim can maintain continuity while you conduct a thorough search for the right long-term candidate.
Testing New Roles or Structures
If you’re considering expanding your procurement function but aren’t certain about the exact shape that should take, bringing in an interim allows you to test the waters. You can assess whether a new specialism like digital procurement or sustainability sourcing delivers the expected value before committing to a permanent headcount.
Accessing Scarce Expertise
Some procurement specialisms remain in short supply in the permanent market. Talent shortages continue to challenge procurement leaders, with areas like indirect procurement, IT category management, and procurement analytics particularly affected. Interim markets often provide better access to these niche skill sets, as experienced specialists prefer the variety and autonomy that interim work offers.
When Permanent Procurement Hires Are Better
While interim solutions offer flexibility, permanent procurement hiring remains the foundation of most successful procurement teams. Here’s when permanent recruitment makes the most sense:
Building Long-Term Capability
If you’re investing in developing your procurement function’s strategic maturity, permanent hires are essential. They’ll develop deep knowledge of your business, build trusted relationships with internal stakeholders, and understand the nuances of your supply base in ways that take time to cultivate.
Creating Team Stability and Continuity
Strong procurement performance relies on consistent supplier relationships, institutional knowledge, and collaborative stakeholder partnerships. Permanent team members provide the stability needed to nurture these relationships over time, ensuring that hard-won improvements don’t disappear when a contract ends.
Succession Planning and Career Development
A healthy procurement organisation needs clear career pathways and succession plans. Permanent hires allow you to develop talent internally, mentor junior team members, and build a sustainable pipeline of future leaders. This continuity protects your organisation from knowledge loss and maintains consistent procurement standards.
Managing BAU Operations
For day-to-day procurement activities, category management responsibilities, and ongoing supplier relationship management, permanent hires typically deliver better value. They’re embedded in your culture, understand your processes, and have the time to optimise continuously rather than focusing on defined deliverables.
Cost-Effectiveness Over Time
While interim day rates may seem high, permanent salaries often represent better value when you need someone for the long haul. When you factor in recruitment fees, onboarding costs, and the learning curve, a permanent hire working for several years typically costs less per day than successive interim arrangements.
If you’re curious about current market rates for different procurement roles, our 2026 salary guide provides comprehensive benchmarking data across the UK market. If you would like early access to the guide, email info@talentdrive.co.uk
Comparing Cost, Speed, Risk, and Flexibility
Let’s examine the key factors side by side:
Cost Considerations
Interim professionals command premium day rates, often equivalent to £500-£1,200+ per day depending on seniority and specialism. However, you avoid notice periods, holiday pay, pension contributions, and ongoing employment costs. Permanent hires have lower daily rates when you calculate salary across working days, but come with additional employment costs and long-term financial commitments.
For short-term needs (under six months), interim usually proves more cost-effective. For longer-term requirements, permanent hiring delivers better value.
Speed to Hire
Interim procurement recruitment typically moves faster. Experienced interim professionals can often start within 1-2 weeks, sometimes even sooner. Permanent recruitment processes usually take 6-12 weeks from briefing to start date, including notice periods.
When you need someone urgently, interim hiring wins hands down. But if you have the luxury of time, a thorough permanent recruitment process allows you to find the perfect long-term fit.
Risk and Flexibility
Interim arrangements offer significantly more flexibility. If the fit isn’t right, the assignment can end quickly. If your business needs change, you can adjust your interim resource accordingly. This flexibility proves invaluable during uncertain times or when requirements are difficult to define precisely.
Permanent hires carry more risk. Poor hiring decisions can be costly and time-consuming to rectify. However, successful permanent hires deliver compounding value as their knowledge and relationships deepen over time.
Integration and Impact
Permanent employees integrate more fully into your culture and long-term strategy. Interim professionals focus on defined objectives and may remain somewhat separate from the broader organisation. Both approaches have merit depending on what you’re trying to achieve.
Common Mistakes When Choosing Between Interim and Permanent
Through our work in procurement recruitment across the UK, we’ve observed several recurring mistakes that organisations make:
Defaulting to Permanent Hire by Habit
Many organisations automatically post a permanent vacancy when someone leaves, without considering whether an interim would better suit the current business context. This can lead to rushed permanent hires or extended vacancies during lengthy recruitment processes.
Viewing Interim as “Just a Temp”
Some businesses treat interim professionals as temporary workers rather than the senior specialists they are. This misunderstanding leads to poor onboarding, unclear briefs, and underutilised expertise. The best interim arrangements involve clear objectives, proper integration, and respect for the professional’s experience.
Making Cost the Only Consideration
Focusing purely on day rate comparisons without considering speed to impact, risk mitigation, or strategic value leads to poor decisions. The cheapest option rarely delivers the best outcome in procurement recruitment.
Neglecting Hybrid Approaches
It doesn’t have to be all one or the other. Many successful procurement teams combine a permanent core with interim specialists for specific projects or to manage peaks in demand. This hybrid model offers both stability and flexibility.
Underestimating the Importance of Cultural Fit
Whether hiring interim or permanent, cultural alignment matters. An interim professional who understands your industry and culture will deliver far better results than a technically brilliant candidate who doesn’t mesh with your ways of working.
Market Trends Driving Increased Interim Demand in Procurement
The procurement job market has seen significant shifts in recent years, with interim hiring growing in popularity:
Post-Pandemic Flexibility
The pandemic accelerated remote working in procurement, making it easier for organisations to engage interim professionals from anywhere in the UK. This geographic flexibility has expanded the interim talent pool significantly.
Transformation and Digitalisation
Many organisations are simultaneously managing multiple procurement transformation initiatives, from system implementations to supplier sustainability programmes. These projects naturally suit interim expertise.
Economic Uncertainty
In uncertain economic times, organisations often prefer the flexibility of interim arrangements over permanent headcount commitments. This allows procurement teams to scale up or down based on business conditions.
The Specialist Skill Gap
As procurement becomes more specialised, organisations increasingly need expertise that doesn’t exist internally and may not be required full-time. Interim professionals fill these specialised needs efficiently, whether that’s IT procurement expertise, sustainability and risk management, or digital platforms knowledge.
Changing Professional Preferences
More experienced procurement professionals are choosing interim careers for the variety, autonomy, and work-life balance they offer. This growing pool of talented interim specialists makes it easier for organisations to find high-quality candidates.
Real-World Scenarios: Making the Right Choice
Let’s explore some practical examples to illustrate how different organisations might approach this decision:
Scenario 1: Growing Retail Business
A retail company scaling rapidly needs to expand from a two-person procurement team to five people within 18 months. They’re also implementing a new source-to-pay system over the next year.
Best approach: Hire 2-3 permanent category managers for long-term team building, plus a senior interim to lead the system implementation. This provides permanent capacity for BAU growth while bringing in specialist change management expertise for the transformation.
Scenario 2: Manufacturing Business with Senior Vacancy
A manufacturing company’s Procurement Director has resigned suddenly, and they need someone immediately to manage a critical supplier negotiation. They expect their permanent search to take three months.
Best approach: Engage a senior interim procurement leader immediately to maintain continuity and manage the negotiation. Run a thorough permanent search in parallel. The interim can then support a structured handover to the permanent hire.
Scenario 3: Public Sector Cost-Reduction Programme
A public sector organisation has a mandate to deliver £5 million in procurement savings over the next 12 months through category management improvements.
Best approach: Bring in 2-3 interim category managers with proven track records in public sector savings delivery. Once savings are embedded and processes improved, consider whether permanent category management roles should be created to sustain the benefits.
Scenario 4: Tech Company Building Procurement Function
A technology scale-up has grown to 500 employees and needs to establish a proper procurement function from scratch. Currently, purchasing is handled ad hoc by various departments.
Best approach: Hire a permanent Senior Procurement Manager to build the function’s foundations, define the strategy, and create the team structure. Consider interim support for specialist projects like implementing the first procurement technology or establishing key category strategies.
How Specialist Procurement Recruiters Help You Choose the Right Model
Navigating these decisions becomes significantly easier when you work with recruitment specialists who understand procurement deeply. Here’s how the right recruitment partner adds value:
Market Intelligence
We maintain close relationships across both the permanent and interim procurement markets. This means we can provide honest guidance on availability, realistic timelines, and current market rates for your specific requirement.
Objective Advice
Unlike generalist recruiters who might push whatever solution fills a role quickest, procurement specialists can provide impartial guidance on whether interim or permanent makes most sense for your circumstances. Our success comes from making recommendations that deliver long-term value, not quick placements.
Access to Hidden Talent
The best interim professionals often work on referral and reputation rather than actively job-seeking. Similarly, many high-quality permanent candidates are passive rather than actively looking. Specialist recruiters have relationships with this hidden talent pool, giving you access to professionals you wouldn’t find through job boards.
Understanding Procurement Nuances
Generic recruiters struggle to differentiate between a strong indirect category manager and a direct procurement specialist, or to understand why a candidate’s experience in FMCG might not translate to construction procurement. Specialists understand these nuances, ensuring better-quality candidates and higher success rates.
Blended Solutions
Sometimes the answer isn’t purely interim or permanent but a carefully constructed combination. Experienced recruiters can help you design team structures that balance stability with flexibility, matching your immediate needs with long-term goals.
Our team at Talent Drive has placed hundreds of procurement professionals across permanent and interim roles, giving us deep insight into what works in different business contexts.
Current Opportunities Across Different Procurement Specialisms
To give you a sense of the diverse procurement roles organisations are currently hiring for, here are some examples of live opportunities:
- Category Manager roles in construction and operations
- Senior Category Manager positions in the public sector
- Procurement Category Specialist roles in logistics
- Assistant Procurement Manager positions in indirect procurement
Browse our full range of current procurement vacancies to see the variety of opportunities available across different specialisms and seniority levels.
Making Your Decision: Key Questions to Ask
Before finalising your approach, consider these questions:
- How urgent is the need? If you need someone in post within 2-3 weeks, interim is likely your only viable option.
- What’s the expected duration? Under six months typically favours interim; over 18 months usually justifies permanent.
- Is this a defined project or ongoing role? Projects suit interim; BAU operations suit permanent.
- Do you need transformation or stability? Change and transformation often benefit from interim expertise; building capability favours permanent.
- What’s your budget structure? Do you have operational budget for interim day rates but frozen headcount? Or permanent headcount available but limited day-rate budget?
- How will you measure success? Defined deliverables suit interim arrangements; ongoing performance improvement suits permanent.
- What happens when the person leaves? If it creates significant knowledge risk, permanent is usually better.
Getting Expert Guidance on Your Procurement Recruitment Strategy
The permanent versus interim decision is just one aspect of building an effective procurement recruitment strategy. You also need to consider role design, competitive positioning in the talent market, assessment approaches, and onboarding plans that set new hires up for success.
Whether you’re building your procurement team from the ground up, replacing a senior leader, or scaling to meet growing demands, having an experienced recruitment partner who understands both your business context and the procurement job market makes the process significantly smoother.
If you’re considering your next procurement hire and want expert guidance on whether an interim or permanent solution is right for your business, reach out to the Talent Drive team at info@talentdrive.co.uk for a confidential conversation.
We’ll take the time to understand your specific circumstances, share our insights from working across hundreds of similar situations, and help you make the decision that delivers the best outcome for your organisation.
