Program Specialist

Caterpillar Inc.•Lafayette, IN

4d•$112,710 - $169,060•Onsite

About The Position

As a Program Specialist, you will leverage data, analytics, and digital solutions to drive business performance and support strategic initiatives. This role focuses on developing reporting tools, improving processes, and delivering actionable insights that enable informed decision-making across the organization. Working closely with cross-functional teams, you will identify opportunities to enhance visibility, streamline workflows, and implement innovative technologies that improve operational efficiency. Success in this role requires strong analytical capabilities, systems thinking, and a passion for continuous improvement.

Requirements

Analytical Thinking: Extensive experience and knowledge of techniques and tools that promote effective analysis; ability to determine the root cause of organizational problems and create alternative solutions that resolve these problems.
Seeks discrepancies and inconsistencies in available information; explains variances.
Organizes and prioritizes the sequence of steps to be taken to remedy the situation.
Identifies many possible causes for a problem based on prior experience and current research.
Quantifies the costs, benefits, risks and chances for success before recommending a course of action.
Approaches a complex problem by breaking it down into its component parts.
Chooses among a diverse set of analytical tools according to the nature of the situation.
Flexibility and Adaptability: Working knowledge of successful approaches and techniques for dealing with change; ability to adapt to a changing environment and be comfortable with change.
Creates processes with provisions to accommodate change.
Helps others adapt to changing environments and accept new situations.
Recovers from disappointments and setbacks.
Works effectively with unstructured teams, situations, or environments.
Leverages prior experience as a help towards handling changing situations.
Makes progress in an atmosphere of ambiguity and uncertainty.
Managing Multiple Priorities: Working knowledge of effective self-management practices; ability to manage multiple concurrent objectives, projects, groups, or activities, making effective judgments as to prioritizing and time allocation.
Clarifies and handles multiple concurrent and diverse activities.
Shifts focus among several efforts as required by changing priorities.
Addresses potential conflicts that impact current delivery commitments.
Works with or leads others to re-prioritize work and reschedule commitments as necessary.
Responds to shifting priorities while maintaining progress of regularly scheduled work.
Demonstrates an expectation that there will be ongoing shifts in demands and priorities.
Project Management: Extensive experience and knowledge of effective project management strategies and tactics; ability to plan, organize, monitor, and control projects, ensuring efficient utilization of technical and administrative resources to achieve project objectives.
Utilizes preferred tools, techniques and methods for estimating project cost and time.
Plans, estimates, staffs, organizes and monitors significant projects.
Identifies risks and vulnerabilities; creates contingency plans.
Conducts regular and ad-hoc project reviews with project team, sponsors, and clients.
Maintains open communication among project participants and interested parties.
Communicates reporting requirements; creates monitoring and control mechanisms.
Requirements Analysis: Working knowledge of tools, methods, and techniques of requirement analysis; ability to elicit, analyze and record required business functionality and non-functionality requirements to ensure the success of a system or software development project.
Follows policies, practices and standards for determining functional and informational requirements.
Confirms deliverables associated with requirements analysis.
Communicates with customers and users to elicit and gather client requirements.
Participates in the preparation of detailed documentation and requirements.
Utilizes specific organizational methods, tools and techniques for requirements analysis.
Experience supporting projects, programs, operations, supply chain, demand planning, analytics, or related business functions.
Demonstrated experience working with large datasets and performing data analysis.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills.
Experience creating reports, metrics, dashboards, or data visualizations.
Ability to present information and recommendations to business leaders and stakeholders.
Experience collaborating across multiple functions and teams.
Strong proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Excel and PowerPoint.
Ability to learn and adapt to new systems, technologies, and business processes quickly.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing dashboards and reporting solutions using Power BI or similar business intelligence tools.
Experience utilizing Microsoft Copilot, AI-enabled technologies, or other automation tools to improve business processes.
Knowledge of supply chain, demand planning, order management, or manufacturing operations.
Experience developing tools, workflows, or systems that improve business visibility and operational efficiency.
Strong data visualization and data storytelling capabilities.
Experience leading project plans, tracking deliverables, and holding stakeholders accountable to commitments.
Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including data modeling, analysis, and reporting.
Experience identifying and implementing process improvements through technology and automation.

Responsibilities

Manage and support program and project execution by coordinating timelines, deliverables, and stakeholder activities.
Develop reporting tools, dashboards, and visualizations that provide insight into project and operational performance.
Analyze large datasets to identify trends, risks, opportunities, and business improvement initiatives.
Create and maintain tools that improve visibility into project progress, resource utilization, and overall business performance.
Partner with cross-functional teams to understand business challenges and recommend process improvements.
Evaluate and benchmark systems, tools, and best practices across functions and organizations to identify improvement opportunities.
Support the implementation and adoption of new digital solutions, reporting capabilities, and business processes.
Prepare and present project updates, performance metrics, and analytical findings to leadership teams.
Monitor project progress and ensure adherence to established processes, methodologies, and reporting standards.
Utilize data-driven insights to support strategic decision-making and help manage business demand.