Steve Jamieson, Director of Contracting at Jigsaw Talent Management, explains why Melbourne’s procurement sector is currently operating as four markets at once, with sharply different conditions depending on experience, seniority and employment type.
Right now, there’s no shortage of good procurement people in Melbourne. Redundancies have widened the pool considerably, but “plenty of talent available” hides a messier reality underneath, because the market isn’t treating everyone in that pool the same way.
At one end, the strongest contractors I speak with are still moving fast, picked up almost as quickly as they surface.
Just below them, solid, genuinely experienced professionals are finding it far more competitive than they’re used to. Good CVs are sitting in inboxes for longer than they would have 12 months ago.
Then there’s a group I think gets overlooked in most of these market updates: people who’ve spent years at CPO, head of procurement or genuine executive level.
There simply aren’t enough roles at that altitude to go around and stepping down into a hands-on contract isn’t the easy landing it sounds like. Plenty are being told, politely, that they’re now too senior for the work.
Twenty years of strong procurement experience, genuinely available and no obvious seat in the current market that fits where their career has actually landed.
The permanent hiring process is where most of the frustration is coming from: AI screening, psychometrics, panel interviews, stakeholder interviews. One client recently described a process with six separate interview stages!
I understand the instinct to de-risk a senior appointment, but at some point the process stops protecting the decision and starts becoming the obstacle to it.
These are people who’ve spent their careers hiring others, managing teams and negotiating hard commercial outcomes. Several have told me, plainly, that the process itself is what’s wearing them down.
Contracting is moving at a completely different pace. Most of the assignments I’m working right now have a hiring cycle of around two weeks, which tracks, given the ask is usually someone walking in and delivering something specific over three or six months.
So, the honest picture of Melbourne procurement isn’t one market; it’s four running at once: a deeper talent pool overall, top contractors still moving quickly, strong professionals facing real competition for the first time in years and senior leaders finding fewer seats than their experience would suggest.
Where you sit in that mix determines whether this feels like a tight market or a slow one, and right now, those experiences barely resemble each other.
For interim or contracting support or assistance with entering the contracting market, Steve can be reached at steve@jigsawtm.com.
