If you have an affinity for crunching numbers and improving efficiency, the supply chain field is rich with opportunities. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, supply chain experts are in steady demand through 2029, meaning this is a career path worth investing time and energy into.
As a supply chain expert, you may deal primarily with staffing optimization, or be focused on securing domestic sources of goods. Transportation route planning may be a major part of your work efforts, or you may be engaged with assessing the company’s overall supply chain to identify places for improvement.
Accordingly, it helps to know what skills hiring managers are looking for when they’re recruiting for specific positions in the supply chain field. You should start by reviewing the job listing and the position title, which can both offer clues as to what the position entails.
Below, we’ve compiled six templates for supply chain applicants at different stages of their career, and highlighted how you can tailor your resume to fit the position you’re applying for. At the bottom, we’ve listed the primary skills and action verbs you should be using to help your resume stand out.
Any organization needs a smooth logistics process to provide efficient and consistent delivery services to its customers. That’s why the supply chain analyst evaluates a company’s supply chain operations to identify areas that need improvement.
One of your responsibilities as a supply chain analyst is to provide solutions, which often involves seeking and negotiating with business partners to get the best deals. That’s why it’s a good idea to highlight your negotiation skills on your resume.
Supply chain analysts design and carry out large projects to improve operations efficiency, so having strategic planning skills is essential in this role. This includes determining goals, resources, budgets, and priorities. You can show your strategic planning skills by simply discussing how you planned a project or owned a project's budget.
Supply chain analysts leverage data to discover patterns in logistics operations and forecast a company’s product delivery. This research provides them with actionable insights that help stakeholders make better decisions in terms of the supply chain. Talk about the types of data you analyzed, and how you used them to come to decisions at work.
Supply chain analysts are specifically concerned with product inventory and supply, with a goal of ensuring their company is able to run efficiently. Hiring managers will therefore want to see that you are familiar with quantitative analysis. Any internal promotions can be a boon to include, too.
Analysts need to have the ability to quantitatively compare vendors, routes, and inventory, as a few examples, and that means having a strong capacity for numbers. Your data points should be backed by numerical data to show hiring managers that you have a background in working with figures.
If you have been promoted within the same company at previous positions, be sure to list your earlier positions (especially if they informed your work as an analyst). Doing so gives the hiring manager the impression that you have performed your duties well enough to earn the position of analyst.
At the entry level, you can demonstrate your familiarity with the supply chain field by referencing specifically relevant courses you completed as part of your degree. Additionally, including volunteer work or extracurricular clubs will show hiring managers that you are committed to the field and have applied it in real life settings.
If you’re an entry level supply chain specialist with an academic background, you should aim to include the name of the program you graduated from as well as relevant examples of courses you completed. Since degrees can change over time or between universities, it can be helpful for hiring managers to know you have studied Inventory Analytics, for example.
Even without significant field experience, you can demonstrate your capacity for supply chain work by including notable class projects or student clubs that relate to supply chain activities. Outside of school scenarios, you should include any relevant volunteer work you've done (such as finding new vendors for a local company).
Logistics and supply chain analysts are primarily focused on assessing the shipment and delivery of goods and identifying ways to improve efficiency. You should aim to keep your accomplishments on point, along with utilizing strong verbs that are relevant to the position.
As your goal is to demonstrate your capacity as an analyst in the logistics and supply chain field, you should aim to specifically include accomplishments that support it. While it is important to reference any personnel management you’ve done, the bulk of your bullet points should be along the lines of handling tickets or improving delivery speeds.
Every bullet point should lead off with a verb that relates to a logistics and supply chain analysis skill (“analyzed”, “devised”, “determined”, “expedited”) when possible. This helps reinforce to the hiring manager that you have a solid background in the field, and makes it easier for your resume to get past applicant screening programs.
Supply chain directors hold more responsibility within a company and will be expected to ensure smooth inventory operations at each step. You’ll want to emphasize your leadership ability in past positions and to demonstrate that you have the ability to positively impact your employer at a company wide level.
As the director of your company’s supply chain department, you will be expected to have a significant background in working with personnel. You should highlight your work leading teams, conducting trainings, or managing employees in any fashion to indicate that you have sufficient leadership skill.
Hiring managers want to see how much of an impact you’ve made in affecting a company’s bottom line, particularly if you’ve been a supply chain director before. You should include any accomplishments that indicate how much you’ve reduced risks, improved performance, or increased award fees, for example, noting specific numerical values each time.
A supply chain manager is responsible for coordinating the entire logistics operations regarding the company’s goods. This includes procurement, production, distribution, and storage of industrial materials. You can demonstrate your business acumen in your resume by mentioning strategic sourcing experience.
Supply chain managers ensure that everything is delivered safely and at the right time. That’s why you should have excellent time management skills and industry knowledge. You might have to negotiate with vendors to get the best deals.
Having some knowledge of supply chain regulatory compliance is essential for this role because it helps the company mitigate risks. The exact regulations you need to be aware of will likely vary by company or industry, but in general, you should be aware of the best practices to protect employees’ integrity and sensitive information. Supply chain compliance also regulates operational processes to mitigate their impact on the environment. To emphasize your knowledge of regulatory compliance, you can include specific certifications at the bottom of your resume, or discuss how you trained others.
Essentially, a supply chain manager has a leadership role. You are responsible for your team’s success. Therefore, you will oversee employees’ performance, identify issues in the operations, and provide feedback accordingly. You can demonstrate your leadership skills through measurable results using relevant metrics of your achievements.
Supply chain managers are responsible for overseeing the daily operations of inventory flow. Focus on including relevant skills throughout your resume to emphasize to hiring managers that you have an understanding of various supply chain activities and have successfully handled them in the past. Any additional certifications or volunteer work you can include will further improve your credibility.
Along with referencing skills that are appropriate for supply chain managers in the summary and throughout the body of the resume (such as managing, forecasting, reducing costs), you can include a list in a skills bank at the bottom or side. This helps hiring managers see that you are proficient in Inventory Management, for example, or that you have a background in Fast-Moving Consumer Goods.
If you have certifications in the supply chain field, or as a manager (such as being Six Sigma certified), you should also list these at the side or the bottom of your resume. Additionally, any volunteer work that you’ve done in the field should be included. By including certifications and outside work efforts, you’ll be demonstrating to hiring managers that your affinity for supply chain management goes above and beyond.
A supply chain business analyst collects relevant data to evaluate an organization’s supply chain performance and provide actionable insights to mitigate risks and improve efficiency. Their goal is to ensure the business meets its customers’ demands by making operations smoother. As a business analyst, you should have excellent data analytic skills.
Essentially, a supply chain business analyst helps organizations generate more profit and improve customer satisfaction. That’s why it is important to focus more on your achievements than your responsibilities in your resume.
Raw data doesn’t tell much unless you are an expert in data analytics. So you may understand the patterns and trends in your insights, but other team members might get lost in the results. That’s where data visualization skills come into play. They help you illustrate your discoveries, and other team members can understand what you are trying to communicate. Show this on your resume by highlighting a project you worked on where you dealt with a lot of data.
If you want your potential employer to see you as a competitive candidate, you should focus on your technical skills relevant to supply chain and logistics. These are your quantifiable qualifications that would set the business up for success. That’s why it is so relevant to highlight your technical competencies in the 'Skills' section of your resume.
A supply chain business analyst is specifically experienced with business processes. You can show that you have an understanding of the business analyst field by starting your resume with a short summary and including any projects that you’ve worked on that led to improved operations.
As a supply chain business analyst, part of your job may involve writing reports with a goal of conveying information rapidly and accurately. By including a summary at the top of your resume that encapsulates your background, it provides the hiring manager with a scannable introduction while simultaneously demonstrating your ability to write efficient reports.
If you have put in additional time at a previous employer to devise a method of improving efficiency at a company wide scale - or any comparable efforts - you should include it. Even if the project was completely internal, it indicates your ability to take a broad perspective of a company’s inner workings and improve them.
A director of supply chain management is a senior role, and one that is responsible for overseeing the entire supply chain ops of a company. They typically have several supply chain managers reporting to them, each of you manage the supply chain of a specific part of the process.
You should ensure you highlight various parts of the supply chain in your resume, as that shows strong responsibility/leadership and knowledge of different stages of the supply chain process.
Since this is a director-level position, recruiters will want to see evidence of how you impacted the bottom line of the companies you have worked at. Use numbers such as how you increased revenue or profits, or how you reduced costs of your entire department or company.
A logistics supervisor is someone with strong leadership skills and operational knowledge. These individuals are the front-line managers who provide guidance to ensure supplies and employees in the logistics chain are performing well. As a logistics supervisor, you may be responsible for many tasks including shipment routing, warehousing organization and operations, and monitoring supply-chain performance metrics.
A bachelor's degree in management, logistics, or MIS will give you the best chance at landing the role. Hiring managers will be looking for someone with a mix of experience and industry knowledge. Hiring managers may look for someone that is certified in OSHA, has prior experience in logistics and operations, and understands the technical software needed to manage logistics.
An OSHA certification is a must-have in most warehouse environments. Apart from OSHA, there are several optional certifications one can obtain to diversify themselves and verify that they have the knowledge and skill needed to become a logistics supervisor. The Six Sigma Green Belt and Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) are the most commonly listed on logistics supervisor resumes.
In logistics, a lot of software will be used to help visualize data and improve operations. Having experience using software like SAP ERP, Trandek Compass ERP, Radio Beacon WMS and more will make your resume stand out to employers. You may become proficient in these tools at a prior role, or you can take a training course to obtain in-depth knowledge of these programs.
On the left, we’ve listed the most common skills that hiring managers are looking for when hiring a supply chain expert. While this isn’t a comprehensive list, including these skills in your resume will demonstrate to hiring managers that you are familiar with what the supply chain field entails. It will also improve your ranking on automatically scored screening systems.
There are several ways you could choose to integrate these skills into your resume. Two of the resume templates we looked at above utilized summaries at the start of their resumes, and this can be an excellent way to work in your background with supply chain management. In the body of your resume, each of your bullet points should include a relevant supply chain skill. Lastly, by including a skills bank in your resume, you can emphasize your background with specific aspects of the position.
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Supply Chain job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
To keep your resume engaging and demonstrate to hiring managers that you are comfortable in the supply chain field, you should lead each one of your bullet points with a relevant action verb whenever possible. Each bullet point should be a short, succinct summary of a single accomplishment, keeping them hard-hitting and informative. Try not to duplicate the action verbs too many times throughout the resume, though including some of them two or three times can help reinforce your experience in that role.
Remember to keep in mind that relevant skills can vary based on the particular position you’re applying for. Analysts, for example, should emphasize accomplishments in which they “analyzed”, “evaluated”, “identified”, or performed similar skills for previous employers.
For more related action verbs, visit Sales Action Verbs.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
If you're a senior-level employee, or you're changing careers to become a Supply Chain, it's useful to add a paragraph at the top of your resume highlighting your most impressive accomplishments. This is called a resume summary.
Here's an example of a summary that can be used on a Supply Chain resume.
A resume summary is a totally optional section, and in most cases, it's better to leave it out of your resume than include it. For example, if you're a student or mid-level hire, you should not include a summary, and instead use the space to add to your work experience.
To learn how to write an effective resume summary for your Supply Chain resume, or figure out if you need one, please read Resume Summary Examples for Job Seekers: When To Include One.
You should use bullet points to describe your achievements in your Supply Chain resume. Here are sample bullet points to help you get started:
Assessed 25 investment opportunities and presented conclusions to senior members of the investment team, resulting in the submission of 5 first round bids
Generated insights on customer churn and renewal rates from data tables with 100M rows in SQL
Doubled new user acquisition from 10-15 users to 20-25 through the implementation of new marketing strategies focused on online advertising and improving the company's web presence, social media, and search engine optimization.
Collaborated with fundamental long/short portfolio managers and analysts to evaluate the predictive power of unique data sources for single stock selection.
Optimized budget allocation of the increased marketing spend of $10MM across 5 cities
For more sample bullet points and details on how to write effective bullet points, see our articles on resume bullet points, how to quantify your resume and resume accomplishments.
Exceptional supply chain managers are also expected to improve efficiency, save time, and increase customer satisfaction. For example:Optimized warehousing system using fast chain model to lower bonding periods, reducing storage costs and taxes by 17%.
While listing your accomplishments, always start your bullet points with strong action verbs such as “Optimized”, “Developed” and “Managed”. Back up your achievements with hard numbers and metrics.Developed logistics process map that cut average product delivery time from 3 days to 12 hours, leading to 100% customer satisfaction.
