Automation Strategy Lead

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Primary

Location:

United States (US) - Illinois - Moline

Function: Product and Process Mgmt (CA)

Title: Automation Strategy Lead - 122653

Onsite/Remote:Onsite Position

The Automation Strategy Lead is responsible for defining and driving the automation strategy for the Ag & Turf US/Mexico division located in Moline, IL or Waterloo, IA. This role partners with factory leadership, engineering, operations, Smart Connected Factory, and enterprise stakeholders to identify, prioritize, standardize, and scale automation capabilities that deliver measurable business value across the manufacturing network. The successful candidate will own a portfolio of automation opportunities and capabilities, translating factory needs and business priorities into a cohesive roadmap that advances safety, quality, productivity, flexibility, and operational excellence.

The role serves as the bridge between factory demand, enterprise strategy, and emerging technologies, ensuring automation investments are strategically aligned, governed, scalable, reusable, and sustainable.

This position provides leadership through influence, driving alignment across factories and functions while establishing the standards, governance processes, and operating models necessary to accelerate adoption of automation capabilities and advance the evolution toward increasingly autonomous manufacturing systems. Additionally, you will:

• Define and continuously evolve the divisional automation strategy and multi-year roadmap aligned to business priorities and manufacturing objectives.
• Identify, evaluate, and prioritize automation opportunities across the Ag & Turf US/Mexico manufacturing network based on business value, scalability, and strategic alignment
• Partner with factory leadership and cross-functional teams to understand operational challenges, define future-state capabilities, and align automation investments to business priorities.
• Lead governance processes that ensure consistent prioritization, portfolio transparency, risk management, and effective investment decisions across automation initiatives.
• Establish and promote automation standards, architectural principles, and reusable solutions that enable consistency, maintainability, and scalability across manufacturing locations.
• Define and evolve automation operating models, capability roadmaps, and organizational approaches required to sustain and scale automation capabilities across the division.
• Collaborate with operations, engineering, IT, OT, quality, maintenance, safety, finance, and Smart Connected Factory teams to develop and deploy integrated automation capabilities.
• Represent the voice of the factory through structured demand intake, stakeholder engagement, and prioritization processes that ensure automation investments address the most valuable operational opportunities.
• Track business outcomes and ensure automation investments achieve expected value in areas such as safety, quality, productivity, cost, delivery, and operational performance.
• Monitor industry trends, benchmark peer organizations, and evaluate emerging technologies to inform future automation strategy and capability development.
• Support business case development, capital planning, and portfolio investment decisions related to automation strategy and deployment.
• Champion organizational adoption of automation capabilities and foster alignment across factories and functional teams

• 8 or more years of experience in manufacturing, automation, engineering, operations, digital manufacturing, technology strategy, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing automation, manufacturing technology, operational excellence, or digital transformation strategies.
• Demonstrated experience leading strategy, governance, or transformational initiatives that span multiple manufacturing sites, business units, or enterprise functions.
• Experience managing complex portfolios of automation, manufacturing technology, operational excellence, or transformation initiatives from concept through deployment and sustainment, including prioritization, governance, and value realization.
• Proven ability to influence and align stakeholders across multiple functions, organizations, and leadership levels without direct authority.
• Experience translating business needs into…