Manager Procurement - Supply Assurance & Control Tower

Caterpillar•Mossville, IL

3d•Onsite

About The Position

The Manager Procurement, supporting RISM’s Assurance of Supply Capacity and Demand, leads highly visible, enterprise-wide efforts focused on assurance of supply, supplier constraints, and control tower execution. The role leads control tower experts and brings together Procurement, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Engineering, suppliers, and other stakeholders to resolve urgent constraints while minimizing disruption to Caterpillar customers. The position manages a portfolio of supplier and supply challenges, consolidates large volumes of information into clear priorities, facilitates decisions across a matrixed organization, and leads through influence. It also helps shift the organization from reactive responses to supply issues toward earlier identification, escalation, prevention, and proactive supplier risk management. The role is based onsite in Mossville, Illinois, five days a week, with occasional travel of less than 25%. Relocation assistance and visa sponsorship are not available.

Requirements

Knowledge of category management and ability to use spend analysis, market analysis, procurement data, goals, and KPIs to support procurement decisions.
Knowledge of supplier-management processes and ability to manage relationships and transactions with manufacturing suppliers, investigate alternatives, resolve supplier issues, facilitate supplier decisions, and ensure purchases meet delivery and quality requirements.
Extensive knowledge of purchasing policies, processes, technologies, and practices, with the ability to manage complex purchasing activities and solve difficult procurement problems.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex information, communicate priorities and decisions clearly, listen to multiple perspectives, and adapt communication to different audiences.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated success leading complex, high-visibility initiatives with multiple workstreams, competing priorities, dependencies, and stakeholders.
Ability to organize significant amounts of detail, distinguish key information, and turn ambiguity into clear priorities and actions.
Proven ability to mobilize teams, facilitate difficult decisions, and drive outcomes across a matrixed organization without direct reporting authority.
Experience managing supplier constraints, capacity challenges, shortages, delivery issues, material availability, supplier recovery, or other supply-continuity risks in a manufacturing environment.
Experience in category procurement, strategic sourcing, site purchasing, facility procurement, manufacturing procurement, supplier management, or a related purchasing environment.
Ability to build alignment across Procurement, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Quality, Engineering, and other functions while balancing competing enterprise priorities.
Experience working directly with suppliers to resolve complex quality, delivery, capacity, or performance issues, identify root causes, and develop sustainable corrective actions.
Ability to recognize patterns across supplier challenges and translate them into longer-term mitigation strategies, supporting earlier identification and prevention of supply risks.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to consolidate complex information, articulate risks and recommendations, and tailor messages to suppliers, business partners, and senior leaders.
Previous people-leadership experience is preferred; success leading complex projects, influencing stakeholders, and driving results through others is also highly valued.

Responsibilities

Coordinate a portfolio of urgent and emerging supplier constraints, connecting stakeholders, clarifying priorities, and ensuring actions progress with urgency.
Provide leadership and direction to control tower leads and cross-functional stakeholders across the enterprise, fostering collaboration and alignment without relying solely on formal reporting relationships.
Identify trends and recurring issues across control towers and use insights to improve processes, escalation mechanisms, supplier management, and assurance-of-supply strategies.
Apply project and program management practices to maintain visibility into actions, owners, dependencies, escalations, decisions, and risks across concurrent supply issues.
Structure and manage ambiguous, fast-moving supplier challenges involving multiple suppliers, facilities, procurement teams, and business stakeholders.
Make or facilitate difficult decisions when competing priorities require trade-offs.
Support high-impact purchasing and supplier decisions, including supplier qualification, market analysis, negotiation, supplier quality, supplier delivery, and issue resolution.
Facilitate collaboration across Procurement, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Quality, Engineering, and other functions to resolve supplier constraints and minimize downstream customer impact.