Senior Supply Chain Planning Engineer

Caterpillar Inc.•Peoria, IL

1d•$128,470 - $192,710•Onsite

About The Position

Responsible for the design, standardization, and deployment of a common, demand driven S&OP process across machines, engines, and components. This role enables consistent, constraint based planning and decision-making by integrating demand signals, long-term forecasts, capacity drivers, and analytics within the enterprise S&OP framework.

Requirements

Effectiveness Measurement: Interprets and reports performance metrics against benchmarks to support improvement initiatives. Establishes improvement goals and develops action plans using assigned measurement tools.
Analytical Thinking: Breaks down complex problems to identify root causes using appropriate analytical tools. Evaluates alternatives by assessing costs, risks, and likelihood of success before recommending solutions.
Cross Team Integration: Builds strong internal networks that promote information sharing and collaboration across teams. Identifies synergies and integration barriers to improve cross functional effectiveness.
Decision Making & Critical Thinking: Applies structured decision-making techniques to analyze issues and prioritize concerns. Gathers and organizes relevant data to evaluate risks, benefits, and alternatives.
Project Management: Plans, staffs, and monitors complex projects using established cost, schedule, and risk management tools. Communicates project status and conducts reviews to ensure alignment with objectives and stakeholders.
Standard Operating Procedures: Reviews and updates SOPs to improve efficiency and ensure regulatory compliance. Monitors adherence to procedures and evaluates effectiveness for continuous improvement.
Supplier Management – Manufacturing: Manages routine supplier interactions to ensure delivery, quality, and issue resolution. Supports supplier selection and collaborates with vendors to meet operational requirements.
Supply Chain Management – Manufacturing: Participates in supply chain analysis to identify trends and improvement opportunities. Supports defined segments of the supply chain using appropriate systems and processes.
Planning Systems & ERP Experience: Familiarity with enterprise grade ERP platforms (e.g., SAP, Oracle) including demand/supply, BOMs, routings, and planning parameters. Strong ability to translate planning needs into system requirements within SAP IBP or Kinaxis.
Planning & Analytics Platforms Experience: Experience with cloud based planning tools for forecasting, S&OP modeling, and scenario development (SAP IBP, Kinaxis, o9, Anaplan, etc.).
Data & Visualization Tools: Proficiency with Power BI, Tableau, or equivalent for dashboards and KPI reporting. Data modeling and analytics skills preferred (SQL, Python, Databricks).
Data Integration & Engineering Familiarity: Exposure to SQL, Python, Databricks, or similar tools used in planning model development and analytics workflows.
Manufacturing & Capacity Knowledge: Understanding of manufacturing capacity drivers (labor cells, machining centers, test stands, supplier constraints). Ability to work across portfolios with varying levels of planning maturity and product complexity.
Collaboration Tools: Experience using SharePoint, Teams, and similar tools for governance documentation, standard work, and S&OP meeting content.

Nice To Haves

Strong background in manufacturing planning disciplines such as S&OP, Integrated Business Planning (IBP), and/or capacity planning.
Proven experience deploying and sustaining standardized planning processes across multiple product portfolios or value streams.
Solid understanding of demand driven planning principles and constraint based decision-making.
Demonstrated success working cross functionally in complex manufacturing environments.
Experience improving organizational planning maturity and leading S&OP evolution.
Exposure to enterprise planning platforms such as SAP IBP, Kinaxis, o9, or Anaplan.
Professional certification such as APICS CPIM, CSCP, or comparable credential.

Responsibilities

Lead deployment of a standard enterprise S&OP operating model, including planning horizons, cadence, inputs/outputs, and decision rights.
Standardize S&OP processes across machines, engines, and components, ensuring structural alignment of demand, supply, and capacity plans.
Integrate demand driven planning principles (signal based demand, buffers, decoupling points, flow based metrics) into S&OP execution.
Own long-term demand planning (12–36+ months), translating demand into capacity, labor, tooling, and capital requirements.
Enable constraint based S&OP by making supply, material, and capacity constraints explicit and decision ready.
Develop and support scenario analyses to evaluate tradeoffs across service, inventory, margin, and capacity recovery.
Ensure capacity plans are synchronized across machines, engines, and components, with clear visibility to bottlenecks and dependencies.
Interpret order behavior, backlog trends, and demand signals to shape planning recommendations.
Support executive S&OP forums with data driven insights, modeled options, and decision implications.
Define and reinforce S&OP governance, standard work, and adoption metrics.
Collaborate with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Finance, IT, and Commercial teams to ensure alignment and execution readiness.