Principal IT Architect - Manufacturing and Quality

Career Area:

Technology, Digital and Data

Job Description:

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.

The Principal Architect for Manufacturing & Quality is a senior enterprise architecture leader responsible for defining and governing the technology architecture that enables modern manufacturing across global operations for over 200 facilities.

This role partners with manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and digital platform leaders to architect scalable solutions that support smart factories, advanced analytics, predictive quality, automation and digital twins.

The role ensures that the manufacturing technology ecosystem, including ERP, MES, manufacturing applications, data platforms and industrial IoT, evolves toward a simplified, interoperable, and future‑ready architecture capable of enabling AI‑driven operations and next generation manufacturing innovation.

The mission of this role is to enable a digital manufacturing architecture that supports smart factories transformation, predictive and autonomous quality systems, real‑time operational visibility, digital twin simulation environments, event‑driven manufacturing operations, and scalable data platforms supporting AI and advanced analytics.

This role ensures that manufacturing systems evolve into a high‑velocity digital platform supporting operational excellence, quality leadership, and business flexibility.

Manufacturing Architecture Leadership:

• Define target state for modern manufacturing platforms including MES, plant integration, Industrial IoT, and manufacturing analytics.
• Establish architecture frameworks enabling digitally connected factories and standardized manufacturing platforms.
• Guide the evolution of manufacturing systems toward scalable, composable and event driven architectures.

Quality Systems Architecture

• Architect next‑generation quality management systems supporting predictive quality, defect analytics, and automated inspection.
• Enable integration of quality data across design, manufacturing, and supplier ecosystems.
• Support adoption of AI‑driven quality insights and closed‑loop quality management

Enterprise Integration & Data Architecture

• Define architecture patterns that integrate: MES, ERP, quality systems, Industrial IoT, and manufacturing analytics.
• Ensure manufacturing data flows through standardized data contracts and event streams supporting enterprise data platforms and digital twins.

Technology Standardization & Simplification: Drive rationalization of landscapes and enable global scale while support plant‑level flexibility

Cross‑functional Architecture Alignment: Partner across a broad range of stakeholders to ensure architectural alignment.

Architecture Governance: Serve as the architecture authority for manufacturing and quality domains,

• Business Assessment: Knowledge of the activities, tasks, practices and deliverables for assessing and documenting business opportunities; ability to assess the benefits, risks, and success factors of potential applications.
• Analytical Thinking: Knowledge of techniques and tools that promote effective analysis; ability to determine the root cause of organizational problems and create alternative solutions that resolve these problems.
• Architecture Modelling: Knowledge of Architecture Modelling; ability to develop and modify enterprise architecture through conceptual, logical and physical approaches.
• Core Application Systems: Knowledge of major production application systems used for delivery of services to internal and external clients; ability to leverage major production application systems in diverse situations.
• Software Product Design/Architecture: Knowledge of software product design; ability to convert…