Mission Release Train Engineer

Career Area:
Technology, Digital and Data

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.

Help Build the Future of Caterpillar

At Caterpillar, technology always has a purpose, which is to solve our customers’ toughest challenges. Through Cat Technology, we are solving problems by building the intelligence layer that connects machines, data, and people to make jobsites safer, more productive, and more sustainable. By combining deep domain expertise in physical systems with software, connectivity, autonomy, and AI, we deliver solutions that work in the real world—on real jobsites, at global scale.

You’ll build and deploy against one of the most unique data foundations—over 1.6 million connected assets generating real-world data daily. These data and platform capabilities are enabling the development of AI models, edge computing architectures, and software systems that scale across fleets, products, and industries. The result will be a new generation of machines that continuously learn, improve, and deliver performance at scale.

Be Part of What’s Next in Autonomous Construction Sites

Construction autonomy is one of the most complex challenges in applied AI, and at Caterpillar, advancements in physical AI, simulation, sensing, and edge computing are turning things that once felt impossible—intelligent machines operating in dynamic jobsites—into reality.

Our connected ecosystem brings together massive volumes of high-quality data to create a foundation where engineers like you can build and deploy against.

If this work motivates you, we invite you to join our team. In these roles, you’ll work at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. You’ll help design and deliver intelligent systems that enable machines to perceive their environment, make informed decisions, and support safer, more productive operations.

Role summary: The Mission Release Train Engineer operates the mission lane of the cross-mission execution system for one or two assigned mission teams. This role keeps the assigned missions’ part of the integrated plan, their dependencies, critical-path segments, and Milestone readiness evidence current, credible, and connected. The Mission RTE prepares missions for integrated planning, drives mission-level dependency and action follow-through, compiles readiness evidence ahead of reviews, and supplies one reconciled mission feed to program reporting. The applies one program execution standard, and works day to day with Mission Leads, TPMs, TPOs, Engineering Leads, and Scrum Masters.

What You Will Do

- Sanitize mission plan data before it reaches the integrated plan: resolve duplicates, stale dates, unowned work, broken links, and unsupported criticality with the record owner rather than around them.
- Maintain the mission lane of the integrated execution plan for assigned missions, including baseline, forecast, forecast-as-of date, float, owners, and evidence links, reconciled to Azure DevOps.
- Prepare assigned missions for lightweight integrated planning by confirming Objective and Customer Market Requirement inputs, Epic and Feature ownership, capacity inputs, and known dependencies; facilitate mission breakouts and capture committed versus uncommitted outputs.
- Maintain dependency records where assigned missions are a supplier or consumer, including Cat Digital, partner, supplier, and customer-site dependencies, with supplier, consumer, Need By, forecast, status, aging, and next checkpoint.
- Resolve mission-to-mission dependencies with peer Mission RTEs and escalate aged, conflicting, or cross-cluster items to the Senior RTE.

Maintain the mission segments of the critical-path register with Mission Lead and TPM validation; report date movement separately from remaining buffer and give early warning on float consumption and recovery triggers.
- Ensure Mission Team Sync and mission planning forums produce recorded actions, decisions, risks, and escalations with owners and dates, and that these flow into Cross-Team Integration, Mission Lead Sync, and the defined escalation tiers.
- Compile entry and exit evidence status, gaps, and mitigations for mission Milestones ahead of readiness reviews and Go/No-Go preparation, so Mission Leads can make completion judgments on current evidence.
- Prepare mission change requests with schedule, dependency, and Milestone impacts and route them through RTE-operated change control.
- Supply one reconciled mission feed covering plan, dependencies, readiness, and exceptions to program reporting, including sprint report-outs, the Mission Lead Sync, the weekly program review, and stakeholder updates.
- Route mission-level impediments to accountable owners using the Ways of Working escalation paths, recording the decision needed, impact, owner, and due date; escalate systemic patterns to the Senior RTE.
- Provide per-team capacity and load signal for planning, contribute findings to Inspect and Adapt, and propose improvements to the Atlas execution standard without creating mission-specific variants.

What You Will Have

- Planning: Tactical and Strategic: Ability to translate Objectives and Milestones into a credible mission-level plan with sequencing, dependencies, checkpoints, and early recovery triggers, and to connect near-term sprint signal to the integrated release plan.
- Project Administration: Ability to report dependencies, conflicts, and date status accurately; surface problems to the right owners; and run disciplined action, decision, and escalation follow-through.
- IT Project Control and Reporting: Ability to monitor execution signal across multiple teams, use critical-path and dependency views, rework plans so intermediate dates remain attainable, and report position and buffer separately.
- Decision Making and Critical Thinking: Ability to distinguish facts, forecasts, assumptions, and owner judgments; recognize when an item needs escalation; and frame the decision needed rather than forwarding raw status.
- Data Gathering and Reporting: Ability to review and verify execution data for accuracy, reconcile Azure DevOps records with plans and reports, and make data-quality exceptions visible without manufacturing status.
- IT Project Management: Knowledge of agile and scaled-agile delivery, release planning, Milestone readiness, and risk management across interdependent technical teams.

Facilitation and Influence: Ability to run focused working sessions and hold Mission Leads, TPMs, TPOs, and engineers to commitments without direct authority or taking over their decisions. Ability to write concise, traceable mission updates and escalations that technical teams and program leaders can act on.

Top Candidates Will Have