This article presents the issue of the competence of purchasing specialists. The research was initiated after noticing a gap in the existing studies in the field of purchasing competence management. The purpose of the work is to answer the question of what are the required competencies of employees when recruiting for the position of purchasing specialist in a modern enterprise. The analysis was carried out using a quantitative research method. At the beginning, a literature review was made in the area of employee competencies. Subsequently, the results of own research are presented. The conclusions characterize the overall picture of job offers for positions in the purchasing department in the context of the implementation of an effective recruitment process. The methods of literature review and comparative studies were used.