Senior Engineering Manager

Career Area:

Engineering

Job Description:

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.

Senior Engineering Manager, MineStar

Your Work Shapes the World

Whether it is groundbreaking products, best-in-class solutions or creating a lifelong career, you can do work that matters at Caterpillar. When you join Caterpillar, you join a global team of makers, innovators and doers who turn progress and innovation into outcomes for customers and communities.

Job Summary

Caterpillar is seeking a Senior Engineering Manager to provide product and technical leadership for MineStar development. This role leads engineering teams responsible for developing, integrating, enhancing, maintaining and supporting mining technology solutions that deliver measurable value for customers.

The Senior Engineering Manager operates across a broader product and organisational scope than an Engineering Manager while providing direct leadership to engineering managers and supervisors in the organization.    The role translates MineStar product strategy into executable engineering priorities, develops leaders and technical talent, and ensures teams deliver safe, reliable, supportable and competitive solutions.

This leader will partner closely with product management, commercial and product support organisations, process owners, suppliers, dealers and mining customers. Success requires strong engineering judgement, disciplined program execution, customer focus, global collaboration and the ability to influence complex decisions through technical and business expertise.

What You Will Do

• Lead a portfolio of MineStar product development, integration, enhancement, maintenance work, aligning engineering outcomes with product strategy and business priorities.
• Translate strategic direction into department objectives, roadmaps, resource plans, budgets and measurable delivery commitments across multiple teams or technical workstreams.
• Provide leadership and performance management for engineering managers, technical leaders and product development staff. Build succession strength and a high-performing leadership pipeline.
• Coordinate technical feasibility assessment, architecture and design optimisation, validation planning, cost and schedule management, risk assessment, mitigation and ongoing production support.
• Own or influence engineering investment decisions and manage the research and development budget for the assigned MineStar portfolio, balancing new capability, modernisation, quality, reliability and customer support.
• Establish governance and operating rhythms that provide stakeholders with clear visibility into scope, decisions, dependencies, risks, financial performance and delivery status.
• Guide the resolution of complex, cross-component and field issues by bringing together internal experts, suppliers, dealers and customer teams. Ensure that lessons learned improve future product and process decisions.
• Champion systems and software engineering discipline, technical excellence, cybersecurity, safety, quality, reliability, scalability and lifecycle support across MineStar solutions.
• Monitor customer needs, market dynamics, competitor movement and technology developments. Recommend product, capability and engineering responses that strengthen MineStar customer value and competitive position.
• Build strong partnerships across Caterpillar business units and functions and with external suppliers. Reconcile competing priorities and create shared accountability for outcomes.
• Represent MineStar with customers, dealers, suppliers and senior leaders, communicating complex technical and business issues clearly and serving as a trusted engineering adviser.
• Foster innovation, operational excellence, inclusion and continuous improvement while maintaining urgency and accountability for commitments.

Education Requirement

• Bachelor’s degree in an accredited Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering or closely related technical curriculum.
• An advanced technical or business degree is preferred.

What Skills You Will Have

Planning: Tactical and Strategic

Develops integrated plans across multiple teams; converts product strategy into sequenced engineering priorities; allocates people and funding against the highest-value outcomes; and adjusts plans using data, risks and changing business conditions.

Technical Excellence

Creates an environment that rewards technical excellence; provides recognised leadership on complex systems and software challenges; engages the appropriate subject-matter experts; and ensures decisions reflect sound architecture, engineering evidence and lifecycle considerations.

Decision Making and Critical Thinking

Frames ambiguous problems, evaluates alternatives with multiple stakeholders, distinguishes facts from assumptions, anticipates second-order effects and makes timely decisions during high-impact or customer-critical situations.

Product Design and Development

Leads cross-functional development from concept through production and support; strengthens development methods and governance; and balances customer value, speed, quality, cost, reliability and technical debt.

Customer and Market Focus

Maintains a direct understanding of mining customer needs and success criteria; responds proactively to market and competitive shifts; resolves difficult customer issues; and converts field insight into prioritised product and engineering action.

Influencing Through Expertise

Explains complex concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences; challenges decisions constructively with evidence; builds trust across organisational boundaries; and develops others as credible technical advisers.

Collaborating Globally

Builds networks across functions, regions, dealers, suppliers and customers; reconciles conflicting interests; uses collective expertise to solve complex problems; and creates shared ownership for business results.

People Leadership and Career Development

Develops managers and technical leaders, establishes business-driven development plans, identifies mission-critical capability gaps, supports targeted rotations and learning, and links talent decisions to long-term MineStar needs.

Program, Financial and Risk Management

Manages a portfolio of commitments, budgets, dependencies and risks; establishes transparent operating mechanisms; and intervenes early when delivery, quality, cost or customer outcomes are at risk.

Troubleshooting and Production Support

Directs the structured resolution of complex and non-recurring failures, coordinates internal and external experts, establishes mechanisms for problem tracking and organisational learning, and ensures corrective actions address root causes.

Basic Qualifications

• Typically fifteen or more years of progressively responsible experience in engineering, software, systems or product development, including significant leadership responsibility. Equivalent combinations of education and experience will be considered.
• Demonstrated experience leading managers, technical leaders or multiple engineering teams delivering complex products or integrated systems.
• Experience managing product development scope, schedules, budgets, risks and production-support priorities.
• Experience working across organisational boundaries and communicating with senior leaders, customers and external partners.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through ambiguity, make evidence-based decisions and deliver outcomes through others.

Top Candidates Will Also Have

• Experience with MineStar, mining technology, autonomy, fleet management, site systems or related digital products.
• Experience with software-intensive and systems-of-systems product development, including cloud and on-premises deployments and integration with machine or site technology.
• Experience implementing Gen AI development tools and practices. 
• Knowledge of Caterpillar product development and new product introduction processes, or comparable lifecycle governance in a complex industrial environment.
• Experience modernising established products while maintaining compatibility, quality and customer continuity.
• Demonstrated success developing engineering managers and senior technical talent across global teams.
• Direct experience engaging mining customers, dealers, suppliers and product support organisations.

Additional Information

• Location, relocation support and travel requirements will be confirmed for the final posting.
• The role is expected to include regular interaction with global teams, suppliers, dealers and mining customers.
• Final experience requirements and internal job classification should be validated with Human Resources before posting.

What You Will Get

A career with a global team whose engineering work helps customers build a better, more sustainable world, together with Caterpillar total rewards and development opportunities applicable to the position and location

Posting Dates:

November 9, 2026 - November 16, 2026

Caterpillar is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  Qualified applicants of any age are encouraged to apply

Not ready to apply? Join our Talent Community.