Mission Release Train Engineer

Caterpillar Inc.•Irving, TX

17d•$128,470 - $192,710

About The Position

The Mission Release Train Engineer operates the mission lane of the cross-mission execution system for one or two assigned mission teams. The role keeps each assigned mission’s contribution to the integrated plan, dependencies, critical-path segments, and Milestone readiness evidence current, credible, and connected. The Mission RTE prepares missions for integrated planning, drives mission-level dependency and action follow-through, compiles readiness evidence ahead of reviews, and supplies a reconciled mission feed to program reporting. The role applies the program execution standard and works day to day with Mission Leads, TPMs, TPOs, Engineering Leads, and Scrum Masters. It supports technology and autonomy work at the intersection of physical and digital systems, including solutions involving machines, data, software, connectivity, autonomy, and AI.

Requirements

Ability to translate Objectives and Milestones into a credible mission-level plan with sequencing, dependencies, checkpoints, and early recovery triggers, and connect near-term sprint signals to the integrated release plan.
Ability to report dependencies, conflicts, and date status accurately; surface problems to the right owners; and manage action, decision, and escalation follow-through.
Ability to monitor execution across multiple teams, use critical-path and dependency views, rework plans so intermediate dates remain attainable, and report position and buffer separately.
Ability to distinguish facts, forecasts, assumptions, and owner judgments; recognize when escalation is needed; and frame the decision needed.
Ability to review and verify execution data, reconcile Azure DevOps records with plans and reports, and make data-quality exceptions visible without manufacturing status.
Knowledge of agile and scaled-agile delivery, release planning, Milestone readiness, and risk management across interdependent technical teams.
Ability to facilitate focused working sessions and hold Mission Leads, TPMs, TPOs, and engineers to commitments without direct authority or taking over their decisions.
Ability to write concise, traceable mission updates and escalations that technical teams and program leaders can act on.

Nice To Haves

Experience coordinating delivery across multiple interdependent engineering or technical teams, ideally as an RTE, program manager, project manager, or senior Scrum Master with cross-team scope.
Demonstrated ability to maintain plans, dependency registers, and critical-path views and keep them current enough to drive decisions.
Experience preparing teams for scaled or cross-team planning events and capturing committed versus uncommitted outcomes.
Experience compiling Milestone or release readiness evidence, entry and exit criteria, and gap lists ahead of Go/No-Go reviews.
Working knowledge of Azure DevOps, including work-item hierarchy, dependency links, queries, tags, and history; familiarity with Power BI, Confluence, Microsoft Project, and Excel.
Experience with autonomy, connected-machine, hardware and software integration, data-collection programs, supplier-dependent builds, or customer-site deployments.
Comfort challenging dates and dependency claims constructively and escalating early, with the decision needed, impact, owner, and due date clearly stated.
Ability to follow and strengthen an existing operating standard rather than introducing parallel meetings, trackers, or reports.

Responsibilities

Sanitize mission plan data before it enters the integrated plan by resolving duplicates, stale dates, unowned work, broken links, and unsupported criticality with the record owner.
Maintain the integrated execution plan lane for assigned missions, including baseline, forecast, forecast-as-of date, float, owners, and evidence links, reconciled to Azure DevOps.
Prepare assigned missions for integrated planning by confirming Objective and Customer Market Requirement inputs, Epic and Feature ownership, capacity inputs, and known dependencies; facilitate mission breakouts and record committed versus uncommitted outputs.
Maintain dependency records for assigned missions as suppliers or consumers, including Cat Digital, partner, supplier, and customer-site dependencies, with supplier, consumer, Need By, forecast, status, aging, and next checkpoint.
Resolve mission-to-mission dependencies with peer Mission RTEs and escalate aged, conflicting, or cross-cluster items to the Senior RTE.
Maintain mission segments of the critical-path register with Mission Lead and TPM validation; report date movement separately from remaining buffer and provide early warning on float consumption and recovery triggers.
Ensure Mission Team Sync and mission planning forums produce recorded actions, decisions, risks, and escalations with owners and dates, and that these flow into Cross-Team Integration, Mission Lead Sync, and defined escalation tiers.
Compile entry and exit evidence status, gaps, and mitigations for mission Milestones before readiness reviews and Go/No-Go preparation.
Prepare mission change requests with schedule, dependency, and Milestone impacts and route them through RTE-operated change control.
Supply a reconciled mission feed covering plans, dependencies, readiness, and exceptions to program reporting, including sprint report-outs, Mission Lead Sync, weekly program reviews, and stakeholder updates.
Route mission-level impediments to accountable owners using Ways of Working escalation paths, recording the decision needed, impact, owner, and due date; escalate systemic patterns to the Senior RTE.
Provide per-team capacity and load signals for planning, contribute findings to Inspect and Adapt, and propose improvements to the Atlas execution standard without creating mission-specific variants.