Manager Procurement - Supply Assurance & Control Tower

Caterpillar Inc.•Mossville, IL

4d•$112,710 - $169,060•Onsite

About The Position

As a Manager Procurement supporting RISM’s Assurance of Supply Capacity and Demand, you will lead highly visible, enterprise-wide efforts focused on assurance of supply, supplier constraints, and control tower execution. You will lead control tower experts and coordinate Procurement, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Engineering, suppliers, and other stakeholders to resolve urgent constraints while minimizing disruption to Caterpillar customers. The role involves managing a portfolio of supplier and supply challenges, turning large volumes of information into clear priorities, facilitating decisions across a matrixed organization, and leading through influence. You will help shift the organization from reacting to supply issues toward earlier identification, escalation, prevention, and proactive supplier risk management. The position is based onsite in Mossville, Illinois, five days per week, with occasional travel of less than 25%.

Requirements

Knowledge of category management, including using spend analysis, market analysis, procurement data, goals, and KPIs to support procurement decisions.
Knowledge of supplier-management processes and the ability to manage relationships and transactions with manufacturing suppliers, investigate alternatives, resolve supplier issues, facilitate supplier decisions, and ensure delivery and quality requirements are met.
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 tailor 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 detail, identify key information, and turn ambiguity into priorities and actions.
Proven ability to mobilize teams, facilitate difficult decisions, and drive outcomes across a matrixed organization without relying on 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 business 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; demonstrated success leading complex projects, influencing stakeholders, and driving results through others is highly valued.

Responsibilities

Coordinate urgent and emerging supplier constraints, connecting stakeholders, clarifying priorities, and ensuring actions move forward with urgency.
Provide leadership and direction to control tower leads and cross-functional stakeholders across the enterprise, fostering collaboration and alignment.
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 track 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 priorities compete.
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.