Industrial Manufacturing Project Engineer

Caterpillar•Pontiac, IL

23h•Onsite

About The Position

The Industrial Manufacturing Project Engineer serves as a technical and operational leader within a large-scale manufacturing facility, focusing on end-to-end process flow, throughput optimization, and workforce alignment. This role operates as an individual contributor without direct reports but requires strong informal leadership, coordination across functions, and ownership of key operational outcomes. The person in this role will be responsible for designing and improving material flow, balancing production systems, and ensuring efficient pull-through of work across the value stream.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and significant relevant experience.
Capacity Planning & Management – MFG: Knowledge of tools, approaches and practices for determining production demand and ability to manage resources needed to provide satisfactory levels of service. Works with R&D (research & development) staff to plan resource and capacity requirements for products under development. Creates consolidated forecasts for multiple product lines and production facilities. Advises on multiple cycles of short- and long-term capacity planning for product or site. Compares and contrasts alternative approaches and tools for capacity planning. Develops estimates and costs for incremental capacity requirements. Translates demand forecasts into production and capacity requirements.
Project Management: Knowledge of effective project management strategies and tactics; ability to plan, organize, monitor, and control projects, ensuring efficient utilization of technical and administrative resources to achieve project objectives. Utilizes preferred tools, techniques and methods for estimating project cost and time. Plans, estimates, staffs, organizes and monitors significant projects. Identifies risks and vulnerabilities; creates contingency plans. Conducts regular and ad-hoc project reviews with project team, sponsors, and clients. Maintains open communication among project participants and interested parties. Communicates reporting requirements; creates monitoring and control mechanisms.
Lean Manufacturing: Knowledge of the philosophy, principles and implementation approaches of lean manufacturing; ability to integrate and implement lean manufacturing philosophy into existing production and management processes. Discusses considerations for work cell design and effectiveness monitoring. Finds solution for key technical and people problems associated with transformation to lean. Explains issues and considerations of implementing lean in own function or area. Selects and utilizes tools, techniques and measurements associated with a lean assessment. Explains benchmarks and measures of effectiveness of lean.
Judgment and Decision Making: Knowledge of the decision-making process; ability to carefully evaluate the impact of emerging business situations and choose the best path forward communicating actions and activities that maximize organizational performance. Seeks input from multiple sources to generate diverse ideas for decision making. Sustains organization strategies over time by accurately analyzing tradeoffs in changing direction or staying the course. Makes decisions that remain defensible beyond the short term. Communicates decisions confidently and resolutely. Remains steadfast in championing others' decisions that later come under scrutiny. Coaches others to improve judgment and confidence in decision making skills.
Problem Solving: Knowledge of approaches, tools, techniques for recognizing, anticipating, and resolving organizational, operational or process problems; ability to apply knowledge of problem solving appropriately to diverse situations. Identifies and documents specific problems and resolution alternatives. Examines a specific problem and understands the perspective of each involved stakeholder. Develops alternative techniques for assessing accuracy and relevance of information. Helps to analyze risks and benefits of alternative approaches and obtain decision on resolution. Uses fact-finding techniques and diagnostic tools to identify problems.

Nice To Haves

Power Apps experience for workflow automation.
Data analytics skills with a focus on actionable insights.
Working knowledge of AI tools.
Leadership or team guidance experience.
MODAPTS certification.

Responsibilities

Design, analyze, and optimize end-to-end material and process flows across the manufacturing value stream.
Drive throughput improvements by reducing WIP, minimizing lead time, and eliminating bottlenecks.
Lead value stream mapping initiatives and implement future-state flow improvements.
Monitor and improve key performance metrics including throughput, on-time delivery, lead time, and capacity utilization.
Lead digital transformation initiatives, including production KPI digitization and integration of autonomous robotics.
Develop and optimize staffing models, labor utilization, and workforce planning aligned to production demand.
Act as a lead engineer, influencing cross-functional teams to achieve flow, productivity, and performance goals.
Lead Lean and continuous improvement initiatives using structured problem-solving (A3, DMAIC) to eliminate waste.
Partner with production, supply chain, quality, and maintenance teams to align materials, staffing, and execution with operational priorities.