Director, Modern Manufacturing IT Capabilities

Career Area:
Technology, Digital and Data
Job Description:
Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc.
When you join Caterpillar, you're joining a global team who cares not just about the work we do - but also about each other. We are the makers, problem solvers, and future world builders who are creating stronger, more sustainable communities. We don't just talk about progress and innovation here - we make it happen, with our customers, where we work and live. Together, we are building a better world, so we can all enjoy living in it.
This is Caterpillar
The Director of Modern Manufacturing IT Capabilities is a global platform owner responsible for architecting, delivering, and scaling the digital systems that power world class manufacturing. This leader defines and executes the enterprise strategy for modern ERP (SAP S/4HANA + QAD), MES, plant systems, and integration platforms, transforming a complex, heterogeneous legacy landscape into a modern digital foundation that enables high precision, high velocity operations at global scale.
This role is accountable for building and institutionalizing deep ERP and manufacturing systems expertise across the enterprise, ensuring capabilities are not only deployed but embedded as durable, repeatable, globally consistent competencies. You will operate as a principal builder, shaping digital factories, unifying fragmented systems, simplifying architecture, and delivering solutions that directly elevate safety, quality, throughput, sustainability, and cost competitiveness.
What You Will Do:
Global Manufacturing Platform Strategy

• Own the multiyear technical strategy and capability roadmap for ERP, MES, plant systems, and enterprise grade integration, ensuring scalability, standardization, and operational resilience
• Accelerate the transition from legacy and highly customized systems to modern, harmonized platforms with global patterns, reusable assets, and cloud ready architectures
• Tie platform evolution directly to measurable business outcomes: OEE, first pass yield, cost per unit, lead time, sustainability measures, and supply chain resilience

ERP Depth, Expertise Building & Enterprise Institutionalization

• Build ERP capability - deep functional and technical expertise across Plan to Produce, manufacturing engineering, scheduling, execution, quality, maintenance, and inventory
• Create global capability models: standards, development pathways, certification, playbooks, deployment kits, and architectural guardrails
• Lead enterprise enablement for SAP S/4HANA and QAD - shifting the culture from "vendor dependent" to "enterprise expert"

MES and Plant Systems Modernization

• Define and execute the global MES strategy - workflow orchestration, traceability, digital operator experience, real time manufacturing insights, automated quality, and digital maintenance
• Deliver platform standards for OT/IT convergence, IIoT, PLC and SCADA integration, equipment connectivity, and digital work instructions
• Advance plant systems modernization through secure, resilient, scalable, and data rich architectures

Enterprise Integration & Connected Manufacturing

• Partner to build an end-to-end integration strategy across ERP, MES, plant systems, OT/PLC, IIoT, cloud analytics, and enterprise platforms
• Drive implementation of global integration patterns (APIs, event driven architectures, data streams) ensuring synchronized and intelligent factory operations
• Partner with Architecture, Cybersecurity, Data, and Product Engineering to ensure solutions reflect world class design and enterprise compliance

Operational Excellence & Mission Critical Reliability

• Ensure always on reliability of all manufacturing digital platforms supporting 24/7 global operations
• Instill operational rigor - proactive stability engineering, observability, automation, zero defect releases, and lifecycle management
• Reduce technical debt, eliminate legacy fragmentation, modernize interfaces, and strengthen cyber resilience across plant technology stacks

Global Deployment Leadership

• Lead multi region ERP/MES deployments with global template governance, end to end change management, and high velocity execution
• Apply Go See Act and structured operational diagnostics to identify capability gaps and accelerate plant readiness
• Balance enterprise standardization with local operational nuance, ensuring adoption at scale

People Leadership & Organizational Capability Building

• Lead global, multi sourced, high performing teams across architecture, operations, and manufacturing IT
• Hire, develop, and retain top digital manufacturing talent; build succession pipelines for critical roles
• Foster a culture of innovation, technical excellence, accountability, design simplicity, and enterprise first decision making

What You Have:

• Business Acumen: Knowledge of business concepts, tools, and processes that are needed for making sound decisions in the context of the company's business; ability to apply this knowledge appropriately to diverse situations
• Decision Making and Critical Thinking: Knowledge of the decision-making process and associated tools and techniques; ability to accurately analyze situations and reach productive decisions based on informed judgment
• Influencing: Knowledge of effective influencing tactics and strategies; ability to impact decisions within and outside own organization
• Continuous Transformation: Knowledge of evolving the business to remain competitive; ability to understand, adapt oneself to, respond to and proactively seek changes and innovation in the business environment to improve the competitive advantage of an organization
• Organizational Leadership: Knowledge of leadership concepts and ability to use strategies and skills to enlist others in setting, embracing and achieving objectives
• Talent Management: Knowledge of the critical competencies required to achieve intended results; ability to generate consistent approaches for hiring, selection, retaining and leveraging talent across the organization
• Matrix Management: Understanding of the importance of being able to leverage external resources when required and ability to build and use effective working relationships within own department and across department, functional, and geographic reporting lines
• IT Systems Management: Knowledge of Information Technology (IT) systems; ability to utilize a variety of system tools, guarantee service availability, and ensure optimal IT system performance

Additional Info:

• The primary locations for this position are Irving, Texas or East Peoria, Illinois
• Domestic relocation assistance is available for those who qualify
• Sponsorship is not available
• International and Domestic travel up to 20%
• This position is eligible for stock or other equity grants pursuant to Caterpillar's long-term incentive plan

About Caterpillar
For more than a century, Caterpillar has helped build a better, more sustainable world. With 2025 sales and revenues of $67.6 billion, Caterpillar Inc. is shaping the future as the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. Backed by one of the largest independent global dealer networks and financing services through Cat Financial, the company's primary business segments: Power & Energy, Construction Industries and Resource Industries are solving customers' toughest challenges through commercial excellence and advanced technology, driven by a highly skilled, dedicated global team.
Final details:
Please frequently check the email associated with your application, including the junk/spam folder, as this is the primary correspondence method. If you wish to know the status of your application - please use the candidate log-in on our career website as it will reflect any updates to your status.
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Summary Pay Range:
$189,080.00 - $283,630.00
Compensation and benefits offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, job level, market location, job-related knowledge, skills, individual performance and experience. Please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Caterpillar.
Benefits:
Subject to plan eligibility, terms, and guidelines. This is a summary list of benefits.

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits*
• Paid time off plan (Vacation, Holidays, Volunteer, etc.)*
• 401(k) savings plans*
• Health Savings Account (HSA)*
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)*
• Health Lifestyle Programs*
• Employee Assistance Program*
• Voluntary Benefits and Employee Discounts*
• Career Development*
• Incentive bonus*
• Disability benefits
• Life Insurance
• Parental leave
• Adoption benefits
• Tuition Reimbursement

* These benefits also apply to part-time employees
This position requires working onsite five days a week.
Relocation is available for this position.
Visa Sponsorship is not available for this position. This employer is not currently hiring foreign national applicants that require or will require sponsorship tied to a specific employer, such as, H, L, TN, F, J, E, O. As a global company, Caterpillar offers many job opportunities outside of the U.S which can be found through our employment website at www.caterpillar.com/careers.
Posting Dates:
February 13, 2026 - March 1, 2026
Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of a drug screen.
Caterpillar is an Equal Opportunity Employer, Including Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities. Qualified applicants of any age are encouraged to apply.
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