At a sawmill, paper mill, forest-products company, or specialty timber-procurement operation, you handle senior timber-buying work — leading major timber-supply contracts, managing senior supplier relationships, supporting strategic timber-supply decisions, and the senior timber-buying work substantial forest-products operations require.
Senior timber-buyer work runs across the strategic-supply layer of forest-products operations — leading major timber-supply contracts (multi-year arrangements with timber-management firms, large landowners, or government timber-sale programs), managing senior supplier relationships across the forestry community, supporting strategic decisions about mill-feedstock supply across species, grades, and regions, and mentoring junior timber buyers. The senior buyer works timber-pricing references at depth, the operation's procurement framework, and the cross-functional partnerships with mill operations, forestry consultants, and timber-industry-relationships. Volume-secured outcomes, supply-strategy results, and senior-relationship outcomes drive the operating measures.
What distinguishes senior timber-buying is the strategic-supply dimension combined with industry-relationship work — senior buyers shape feedstock strategy across years and decades, with significant timber-procurement decisions affecting mill economics over substantial periods. Variance is wide: at integrated forest-products companies (Weyerhaeuser, Georgia-Pacific, Domtar, Resolute) the role works within structured procurement organizations; at smaller mills or specialty operations it tilts more entrepreneurial with broader senior responsibility.
This role fits people who are deeply forestry-fluent, commercially sophisticated, and comfortable with the rural-and-industry-relationship work senior timber procurement involves. SAF senior credentials, forest-products industry experience, and ongoing CE anchor seniority. The trade-off is the substantial rural field-time senior timber buying involves and the timber-market volatility senior procurement decisions navigate across business cycles.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Business Operations roles →At a sawmill, paper mill, forest-products company, or specialty timber-procurement operation, you handle senior timber-buying work — leading major timber-supply contracts, managing senior supplier relationships, supporting strategic timber-supply decisions, and the senior timber-buying work substantial forest-products operations require.
Median pay for a Senior Timber Buyer is about $47K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $35K to $63K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Negotiation, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Speaking, and Complex Problem Solving.
Most people in this role hold a high school diploma.
Employment in this field is projected to decline about 0.7% through 2034, with roughly 3,310 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Timber Buyer, Senior Departmental Buyer, and Senior Contract Analyst.
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