Supplier Development Engineer

Caterpillar•Clayton, NC

11d•Onsite

About The Position

Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc. When you join Caterpillar, you're joining a global team who cares not just about the work we do – but also about each other. We are the makers, problem solvers, and future world builders who are creating stronger, more sustainable communities. We don't just talk about progress and innovation here – we make it happen, with our customers, where we work and live. Together, we are building a better world, so we can all enjoy living in it. Caterpillar is seeking a highly skilled and collaborative Supplier Development Engineer to strengthen performance within our NonMetallics supply base to ensure quality, capacity, and resilience needed to support current and next generation product. This role bridges engineering, procurement, and supplier operations – driving quality, capacity, and delivery excellence through proactive engagement and technical leadership. What you can look forward to in this role: Developing supplier inspection, testing, and evaluation mechanism to ensure all products are free from defects and are following manufacturing specifications and legal standards. Generating reports on supplier quality by monitoring their defect rates and areas that can lead to potential flaws; Guiding suppliers to reduce these defect rates. Supporting suppliers in improving their performance through process enhancements, implementing process controls, and developing quality assurance plans. Lead supplier capability assessments, process validation, and performance improvement initiatives to drive world-class quality and delivery. Collaborate closely with NonMetallics engineering teams, buyers, and supply chain performance engineers to align sourcing decisions with technical and capacity requirements. Support new product introductions through supplier qualification, tooling readiness, and production validation activities. Facilitate structured problem-solving, root cause analysis, and implementation of corrective/preventive actions with suppliers. Provide guidance on manufacturing process control, advanced, product quality planning (APQP) and continuous improvement initiatives. Develop strong partnerships that balance cost, risk, and long-term value creation across the global supply base.

Requirements

Effective Communications: Understanding of effective communication concepts, tools and techniques; ability to effectively transmit, receive, and accurately interpret ideas, information, and needs through the application of appropriate communication behaviors.
Problem Solving: Knowledge of approaches, tools, techniques for recognizing, anticipating, and resolving organizational, operational or process problems; ability to apply knowledge of problem solving appropriately to diverse situations.
Process Improvement: Understanding and insight into evaluating current product quality and production methods and ability to maintain focus on the continuous improvement of processes, products and services.
Quality Orientation: Knowledge of quality management methods, tools, and techniques; ability to create and support an environment that meets the quality goals of the organization.
Production Part Approval Process (PPAP): Knowledge of Production Part Approval Processes (PPAP) elements, submissions, and objectives; ability to determine whether a supplier can manufacture products that meet the quality requirements and standards of their customers consistently.
Manufacturing Standards, Procedures and Policies: Knowledge of organizational standards, procedures and policies in manufacturing activities; ability to plan, guide, and monitor manufacturing processes for compliance.
Supplier Management - MFG: Knowledge of processes and methods to effectively manage business relationships and transactions with suppliers of raw materials or product components; ability to apply related knowledge, experience and skills into real practice.
Supplier Evaluations and Certification: Knowledge of supplier evaluations and certification; ability to identify the methods, tools and documentation for evaluating, selecting and certifying vendors, suppliers and partners.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in manufacturing or industrial engineering
5+ years of experience in NonMetallics supplier development, quality, and/or manufacturing engineering.
Proven ability to collaborate with cross-functional global teams to deliver measurable performance improvements.
Strong project management skills with demonstrated success leading initiatives across diverse teams in a global environment.
Willingness to travel globally as needed to engage suppliers and support on-site performance improvement initiatives.

Responsibilities

Developing supplier inspection, testing, and evaluation mechanism to ensure all products are free from defects and are following manufacturing specifications and legal standards.
Generating reports on supplier quality by monitoring their defect rates and areas that can lead to potential flaws; Guiding suppliers to reduce these defect rates.
Supporting suppliers in improving their performance through process enhancements, implementing process controls, and developing quality assurance plans.
Lead supplier capability assessments, process validation, and performance improvement initiatives to drive world-class quality and delivery.
Collaborate closely with NonMetallics engineering teams, buyers, and supply chain performance engineers to align sourcing decisions with technical and capacity requirements.
Support new product introductions through supplier qualification, tooling readiness, and production validation activities.
Facilitate structured problem-solving, root cause analysis, and implementation of corrective/preventive actions with suppliers.
Provide guidance on manufacturing process control, advanced, product quality planning (APQP) and continuous improvement initiatives.
Develop strong partnerships that balance cost, risk, and long-term value creation across the global supply base.