Strategic Sourcing Lead – Commodities (Machining & Forging)

Solar Turbines Incorporated; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 128,000 - 193,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision benefits

Paid time off

401(k) savings plans

Health Savings Account (HSA)

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)

Career Development

Incentive bonus

Parental leave

Tuition Reimbursement

Job summary

Caterpillar Inc. is seeking a seasoned supplier strategy professional to support a facility by aligning procurement with engineering, operations, and finance to drive excellence in supplier collaboration.

You will create and maintain roadmaps for assigned categories, identify sourcing opportunities, assess supplier capacity, and mitigate risks to ensure demand alignment and growth. This onsite role collaborates across teams to deliver cost savings and resilience.

Qualifications

• Business or Engineering degree.
• Extensive experience in a strategic sourcing role.
• Experience in supply chain sourcing, ideally in machining and forging.

Responsibilities

• Create, maintain, and continuously improve roadmaps for assigned categories.
• Ensure roadmaps align with organizational goals, future market trends, and global supply chain strategy.
• Drive standardization, automation, and consistency of supplier planning tools and systems across the organization.
• Maintain deep knowledge of global supplier markets, emerging technologies, and alternative manufacturing methods.
• Identify new sourcing opportunities, potential suppliers, and disruptive capabilities that enhance competitiveness and supply chain resilience.
• Assess and monitor supplier production capacity, scalability, and contingency capabilities to ensure alignment with demand forecasts and growth plans.
• Support sourcing decisions with robust capacity and risk evaluations as sourcing strategies mature.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate supply chain risks, including capacity constraints, geopolitical exposure, and supply continuity threats.
• Develop and maintain contingency and risk mitigation plans in collaboration with value‑stream and stakeholders.
• Work closely with Engineering, Operations, Finance, and other internal teams to align strategies with business needs, technical requirements, and financial objectives.
• Monitor supplier performance metrics.
• Implement best practices and continuous improvement initiatives to drive efficiency, resilience, and cost savings across the supply base.

Skills

Strategic sourcing

Supply chain sourcing

Education

Business or Engineering degree

Job description

Caterpillar Inc. is seeking a seasoned supplier strategy professional to support a facility by aligning procurement with engineering, operations, and finance to drive excellence in supplier collaboration.

You will create and maintain roadmaps for assigned categories, identify sourcing opportunities, assess supplier capacity, and mitigate risks to ensure demand alignment and growth. This onsite role collaborates across teams to deliver cost savings and resilience.