Principal Digital Program Manager

Caterpillar Inc.•Irving, TX

3d•$147,760 - $221,640•Onsite

About The Position

Cat Technology’s Physical AI Platform & Construction Autonomy organization is seeking a Principal Digital Program Manager to lead financial program management, portfolio governance, and business operations across a complex portfolio of digital, engineering, and autonomy investments. The role establishes an operating model that provides timely insight into financial performance, workforce plans, purchasing activity, and investment decisions, while helping directors and technical leaders focus on delivery and ensuring risks, variances, and resource needs are identified early. The position combines complex program leadership with financial planning, portfolio analysis, workforce administration, cloud and compute cost management, capital coordination, purchasing support, and executive decision support. The successful candidate will translate detailed financial and operational information into clear insights, options, and recommendations for leadership. The role works across financial planning and forecasting, portfolio governance, cloud and compute financial management, workforce and position management, capital and asset management, purchasing, and executive reporting.

Requirements

Extensive demonstrated professional experience leading complex digital, technology, engineering, financial, or enterprise transformation programs.
Strong people management experience, including the ability to lead, coach, and mentor team members.
Extensive experience with program planning, governance, execution, risk management, and stakeholder communication.
Demonstrated experience managing budgets, forecasts, actuals, financial variances, or investment portfolios.
Ability to integrate financial, workforce, operational, and delivery information into a coherent portfolio view.
Experience preparing and presenting recommendations to senior leadership.
Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills, including the ability to evaluate alternatives and recommend productive decisions.
Proven ability to influence directors, technical leaders, Finance, Human Resources, Procurement, and other stakeholders without relying on direct authority.
Ability to establish standards, procedures, governance mechanisms, and repeatable operating practices.
Strong written, verbal, and executive-presentation skills.
Ability to manage multiple complex priorities in an evolving environment.
Ability to work full-time onsite at the Irving, Texas office.

Nice To Haves

Experience managing financial operations for a large digital or engineering portfolio.
Extensive and successful people management and leadership experience.
Experience with annual planning, quarterly forecasting, rolling forecasts, or comparable enterprise financial-planning processes.
Experience with cloud FinOps, GPU or compute cost management, reservation planning, tagging, or chargeback.
Experience with workforce planning, position control, hiring forecasts, or headcount administration.
Experience coordinating capital requests, purchasing, time reporting, asset management, or software licensing.
Experience working with engineering, autonomy, simulation, architecture, infrastructure, or product-management organizations.
Experience developing executive dashboards and automated portfolio reporting.
Familiarity with Agile, SAFe, Lean Portfolio Management, or product and mission-team operating models.
Project, program, financial-management, Agile, or FinOps certification.

Responsibilities

Lead financial planning, governance, and operational management of the portfolio, connecting strategy and funding with forecasts, actual expenditures, workforce plans, capital investments, purchasing activity, and delivery outcomes.
Establish reliable financial and operational information across the portfolio and consolidate cross-portfolio forecasts throughout the business planning cycle.
Identify financial variances and recommend corrective actions before leadership reviews.
Improve the speed and consistency of purchasing and capital activities, and provide leadership with options, risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
Establish a consistent financial and business-operations cadence; integrate roadmaps, investment plans, delivery milestones, forecasts, and workforce assumptions.
Lead cross-functional reviews of financial performance, operational risks, and portfolio dependencies; ensure material risks, decisions, assumptions, and corrective actions have clear owners.
Develop repeatable templates, reporting standards, controls, and governance practices, and monitor initiatives for alignment with approved scope, timing, resources, and financial expectations.
Own consolidated portfolio forecasts, actuals, run-rate analysis, and financial reporting; coordinate quarterly forecast collection and prepare business-planning updates, variance analyses, financial outlooks, and supporting materials.
Compare expenditures with approved plans and current forecasts; identify financial risks and corrective actions; support ROM estimates and financial assumptions for new initiatives and investment decisions.
Develop decision-ready reporting explaining changes, causes, and required leadership actions, and maintain appropriate job-code structures and financial reporting relationships.
Lead financial governance for cloud, GPU, compute, and infrastructure investments; support forecasts, reservation planning, cost tagging, and program chargeback.
Partner with technical and financial stakeholders to improve visibility into utilization, commitments, and expected demand, and develop forward-looking cloud and infrastructure requirements.
Administer and govern portfolio headcount and position-control information; coordinate workforce forecasts with directors, mission teams, Finance, Human Resources, and Business Resource Management.
Track planned and open positions, hiring activity, onboarding, and changes to workforce assumptions; support hiring and requisition processes with accurate position and funding information.
Connect workforce plans to financial forecasts and delivery priorities.
Coordinate capital requests and related financial information; establish a consistent process for developing, reviewing, and tracking capital investments.
Support time-reporting tools and processes, monitor compliance, and address portfolio-level reporting gaps.
Coordinate capital and asset tracking for laboratory, simulation, field-trial, infrastructure, and deployment activities.
Coordinate purchasing activities and improve transparency for purchase requests, purchase orders, software licensing, laboratory operations, and field-trial support.
Maintain visibility into financial commitments and upcoming purchasing requirements; support operational activities and partner with Procurement and other functions to resolve process issues.
Coordinate software license planning, true-ups, renewals, and related financial impacts.
Prepare concise executive-ready materials for business reviews, quarterly reviews, and senior leadership discussions; present portfolio performance, forecast changes, investment requirements, resource risks, and corrective actions.
Translate detailed financial information into business implications and recommendations, develop scenario analyses, and provide directors with forward-looking information.