Sales & Operations Planning Manager

Overview

As the Sales & Operations Planning Manager, you will steer global demand and orders governance to deliver stable outcomes and high customer satisfaction. You’ll lead a cross-border team, align with Product Groups, Operations, and the product configuration team, and influence priorities and timelines. You will drive continuous improvement and establish quality standards and KPIs to meet business goals. This role marries strategic leadership with hands-on governance of product configuration and order fulfillment in a world-class industrial context. You’ll work in a mission-driven, collaborative environment at Caterpillar, shaping how we serve customers and scale impact.

Pay / Benefits

• 27 days annual leave + bank holidays
• up to 20% annual bonus
• Car allowance
• Private Medical, Healthcare, Vision & Dental
• Share Scheme (50% Company Matched)
• Contributory Pension Scheme (Company matches up to 10%)

Responsibilities

• Set demand and order team strategy, governance, and service standards aligned with business goals
• Partner with product configuration, Product Groups, and Operations as escalation point
• Govern demand intake for NPI, NMI, NSI forecasts from Product Groups
• Drive order stability, quality, and continuous improvement while developing a high-performing team
• Influence stakeholders to align on priorities, requirements, risks, and timelines
• Validate priority, readiness, and requirement quality before entering product configuration value stream
• Identify, resolve, and prevent recurring order/configuration issues using data and corrective actions
• Establish quality standards, SOPs, and monitor KPIs against objectives
• Lead priority planning, succession planning, performance management, and capability development

Key requirements

• Leadership experience with coaching, performance management, and succession planning
• Customer-focused approach to solutions and satisfaction
• Decision making and critical thinking with data-informed judgment
• Effective communications skills for cross-functional clarity
• Negotiation capability across internal and external stakeholders
• Problem solving with tools to address operational or process issues
• Relationship management to maintain healthy stakeholder connections
• Project management ability to plan, monitor, and deliver projects
• Value selling mindset to articulate product/service value

• leadership
• customer focus
• communication
• SAP Variant configuration
• MSF
• COO

…