Manager Engineering - Product Development Testing

Caterpillar Inc.•Clayton, NC

21h•Onsite

About The Position

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. Caterpillar’s BCP division is hiring an Engineering Manager - Product Development Testing supporting product development testing activities at the Clayton Machine Development Center (CMDC) and Sanford Machine Development Center (SMDC). Role Summary: The Engineering Manager – Product Development Testing leads a technically focused team of test engineers and instrumentation professionals at the CMDC and SMDC, responsible for delivering safe, high-quality, and cost-effective product development testing across the full product lifecycle, from concept through production. The team is responsible for planning, execution, results, and communication of instrumented testing on machines, attachments, and components to support product, system, and technology programs. This position provides both day-to-day leadership and longer-term strategic direction for product development testing capabilities. Key responsibilities include talent and skill development; test and instrumentation quality, calibration, and asset management; workload and resource forecasting; and continuous improvement of testing processes, tools, and procedures. The role partners closely with Validation, Product Development Operations, Facilities, Quality, EHS, and other stakeholders to align priorities, resources, and schedules, resolve issues, and ensure responsive execution. A critical element of this role is unifying testing and instrumentation across CMDC and SMDC into a single, cohesive team. You will use change-management principles to drive common processes, tools, and training, while maintaining the responsiveness and flexibility required in a product development environment. This role requires visible leadership and regular presence at both sites to enable effective communication, cross-site collaboration, and strong engagement.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related fields.
Managing People: Proven people leadership capability, including coaching and mentoring, performance management, talent development, change management, and building engaged, high performing teams across multiple locations.
Effective Communication: Ability to communicate clearly and credibly with teams, leaders, customers, and partners, translating technical results, requirements, and feedback into aligned actions and priorities.
Customer / Market Focus: Strong focus on understanding external customer and internal stakeholder needs and ensuring testing results and recommendations support product requirements, quality expectations, and customer satisfaction.
Decision Making & Critical Thinking: Strong capability to assess complex technical and operational situations, evaluate risks and tradeoffs, and make timely, data driven decisions with a clear understanding of downstream impacts.
Planning (Tactical & Strategic): Ability to lead day-to-day operations while developing and executing tactical and multi-year plans that align resources, workloads, and investments with business and customer priorities.
Project & Program Management: Ability to plan, coordinate, & deliver complex test activities across multiple programs, balancing scope, schedule, cost, & resources.
Technical Excellence: Deep technical expertise in product development and testing, enabling sound technical direction, high-quality execution, and continuous improvement of processes, tools, and outcomes.

Nice To Haves

Progressive engineering experience in product development & testing environment.
Experience in Project Leadership or Management
Experience in Test and/or Instrumentation Quality (incl ISO17025)
Experience managing and driving standardization and continuous improvement across multiple sites and teams.

Responsibilities

Unify Testing Organization: Utilize change management principles to unify CMDC and SMDC test engineering and instrumentation teams into a single, cohesive, and engaged team. Drive alignment and efficient use of resources while keeping the flexibility and responsiveness required during product development.
Leadership & Team Development: Lead, coach, and develop team leaders, test engineers, and instrumentation technicians. Set clear goals and expectations, with strong coaching and timely performance feedback. Drive a safe work environment, lead constructive conflict resolution, and build technical capability and leadership.
Product Development Testing Excellence: Create an instrumentation and test engineering culture of consistent execution, quality & excellence, continuous improvement, and focus on customer satisfaction. Develop supporting resources to enable world class product development (talent, systems, tools, & processes)
Customer Engagement & Communication: Communicate clearly with leadership; product, system, & technology teams; other stakeholders; and suppliers. Translate customer, stakeholder, and leadership feedback into actionable plans. Engage proactively to ensure alignment, transparency, and stakeholder satisfaction.
Operational & Project Management: Define and manage overall test plan and timelines based on priority, requirements, capability, and available resources. Actively manage execution across all locations and groups, ensuring high quality and timely delivery. Lead improvement projects. Create and maintain budgets.
Technical Direction & Decision Making: Provide expert technical direction and make informed decisions in all aspects of testing. Use critical thinking to identify and assess risk and improvement opportunities, evaluate alternatives, prioritize and execute. Positively influence stakeholder product decisions and direction.
Cross Functional Partnership: Partner closely with Product Dev. Operations, Facilities, Quality, EHS, and others to align resources, schedules, processes; resolve issues, and ensure responsive, safe, and compliant test execution. Collaborate externally and across Caterpillar to effectively influence outcomes.
Strategic Planning & Capability Building: Set and execute section level strategic direction, manage operating expense budgets, and develop multiyear roadmaps to improve team performance, efficiency, capacity, and cost effectiveness through workload forecasting and investment capability.