Procurement Buyer

Procurement Buyer

Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas

Procurement Operations

Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (hybrid; regular in-person time with agencies and suppliers across the Metroplex)

Hourly contract

$30-50ph (based on experience)

About Civic Marketplace

Civic Marketplace is the AI procurement platform built for local government, and it is free for every state, local and education agency to use. We connect public buyers to pre-vetted suppliers and competitively awarded cooperative contracts, with the compliance documentation built in.

North Texas is home turf. We are the technology behind TXShare, the cooperative purchasing program of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and we work with cities, counties, school districts and special districts across the Metroplex. Through TXShare and the Alliance for Innovation, agencies on our platform can reach more than 500 cooperative contracts under a single agreement.

We believe procurement staff are some of the most stretched people in public service. A three-person purchasing office should not lose a week chasing three quotes for a routine buy. Our job is to give that time back, and to make sure local, small and historically underutilized businesses get a fair shot at the work.

The Role

You will be the buyer DFW agencies rely on to turn a request into compliant, competitive quotes, fast. When a city, county or school district needs something, you scope the need, find the right suppliers, collect and compare quotes, and hand back a file the agency can award from and defend in an audit.

This is hands-on sourcing work, not account management. You will run requests end to end alongside our quoting agent, which handles much of the supplier matching and outreach. You supply the judgment: knowing which suppliers will actually respond, when a scope is too loose to quote, and when an existing cooperative contract is a better route than a fresh round of quotes.

You will also be our eyes in the field. What you learn from DFW buyers and suppliers feeds directly into how the product works.

What You Will Do

Run Quote Requests End to End

• Take in requests from DFW agencies and clarify scope, quantities, specs, delivery and budget before anything goes to market.
• Identify the right route for each buy: an existing TXShare or partner cooperative contract, or a competitive quote.
• Source and invite qualified suppliers, including local, small and HUB-certified firms, and follow up until you have real competition.
• Review quotes for completeness and comparability, build a clear side-by-side, and flag anything that looks off on price or terms.
• Deliver an award-ready package with the documentation each agency's purchasing policy and Texas procurement law require.

Be the Trusted Partner for DFW Buyers

• Build working relationships with purchasing staff and department requesters across the region's cities, counties, school districts and special districts.
• Learn each agency's thresholds, approval steps and preferences so requests move without rework.
• Spend time on site. Sit in on purchasing team meetings, regional procurement events and NCTCOG gatherings.

Grow and Sharpen the Supplier Base

• Recruit and onboard North Texas suppliers in the categories agencies ask for most.
• Track which suppliers respond, win and deliver, and use that to improve who gets invited.
• Coach suppliers new to the public sector work on what a compliant quote looks like.
• Collect feedback from suppliers who didn't bid or didn't win, and use it to make future quotes more competitive

Make the Product Better

• Work the queue alongside our quoting agent, correct it where it gets things wrong, and tell the product team why.
• Turn repeat requests into templates and playbooks others can reuse.
• Report on turnaround time, quotes per request, supplier response rate and savings.

What Success Looks Like

You will have:

By 30 days: Learned the platform and quoting workflow, met the purchasing leads at our active DFW agencies, and closed your first requests with support.

By 90 days: Taken ownership of the DFW quote queue, hitting our turnaround target of [X business days] with at least three comparable quotes on most requests.

By 180 days: Become the first call for DFW buyers, with a deeper local supplier bench in the top categories and a playbook the next buyer we hire can pick up.

What You Bring

Must-Haves

• Three or more years as a buyer, purchasing agent or procurement specialist, ideally inside a Texas city, county, school district or other public entity.
• Working knowledge of Texas public purchasing rules, including competitive thresholds, informal quote requirements, HUB outreach and cooperative purchasing under interlocal agreements.
• A track record of getting quotes back quickly from suppliers and turning them into clean, defensible comparisons.
• Clear, friendly communication. You can get a straight answer from a busy public works director and a small supplier in the same hour.
• Comfort with new tools. You are curious about AI, happy to work alongside it, and quick to say when it is wrong.
• The ability to treat roadblocks as problems to solve: rescope, re-source or restructure a buy to get agencies what they need.
• Based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and able to travel around the region regularly.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience buying across a mix of categories, such as facilities, fleet, public works, IT and professional services.
• An existing network among North Texas purchasing professionals or suppliers.
• CPPB, CPPO, NIGP-CPP or CTCD certification.
• Experience using TXShare or other cooperative contracts.
• Time spent at a startup or in a role where you built the process as you went.

If you have done this job inside an agency and wished you had better tools and more hours in the day, we would like to hear from you, even if you do not tick every box.

How We Work

• Agencies first. We are free to government and we act like it. If something does not serve the buyer, we do not do it.
• Compliance is the product. Speed only counts if the file stands up in an audit.
• Small team, real ownership. You will see your work show up in the product and in how DFW agencies buy.
• Humans and agents together. We use AI to remove the busywork and keep people on the decisions that need judgment.

What We Offer

• A competitive hourly rate, paid on a contract basis.
• Flexible hours that follow agency demand, with a steady queue of DFW requests.
• The chance to extend or grow the engagement as our North Texas work expands.
• A direct line to the founders and the product team.

How to Apply

Send your resume and a short note on a purchase you are proud of sourcing here. Tell us what was needed, how you found the suppliers, and what the agency got.

Civic Marketplace is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants from every background, and particularly encourage people with public sector experience to apply.

Civic Marketplace is the AI procurement platform built for local government. We connect public buyers with pre-vetted suppliers and competitively awarded cooperative contracts, at no cost to any state, local or education agency. Learn more at civicmarketplace.com.