Software Engineering Manager, Cybersecurity

Lead cybersecurity engineering at Caterpillar by strengthening security-by-design across a division’s application and product portfolio. This onsite role in Peoria, IL (with additional location options) combines team leadership with practical application security outcomes, measurable risk reduction, and scalable security controls embedded throughout the software development lifecycle.

Compensation: $147,760 - $240,110 per year. Travel: up to 20%. Work setup: onsite five days a week.

What you’ll do

• Lead, hire, coach, and develop an engineering team, setting clear goals and managing performance.
• Build a network of security champions across delivery teams to strengthen ownership and consistent secure delivery.
• Own the division’s application security improvement roadmap in partnership with central cybersecurity.
• Turn business needs and enterprise policy into prioritized initiatives, work plans, schedules, resource estimates, and progress reviews.
• Manage team capacity, budgets, tools, and supplier relationships.
• Review technical standards, architecture, and design conformance; resolve delivery constraints; drive continuous improvement in quality and service effectiveness.
• Embed security-by-design across the SDLC, including threat modeling, secure code practices, pull-request review, and security testing.
• Guide secure handling of secrets, cloud configuration, and third-party dependency management.
• Establish documented security release gates using approved enterprise processes.
• Ensure API and endpoint authentication, authorization, and access-control reviews are completed and approved before code advances through environments.
• Accelerate adoption of shared security tools and preventive controls within CI/CD pipelines.
• Use automation and AI-assisted scanning with appropriate oversight, validated findings, and clear accountability.
• Lead vulnerability triage with security experts by validating accuracy, removing duplicates, applying a consistent severity rubric (such as CVSS), assessing business impact, and prioritizing high-risk issues.
• Assign remediation owners, agree timelines, and track findings to verified closure; escalate risk through governance and prioritize systemic root-cause fixes.
• Maintain accurate application, asset, and repository inventories with clear ownership mapping.
• Build trustworthy portfolio dashboards covering scan coverage, validated findings, remediation aging, agreed service-level performance, and risk reduction.
• Conduct security progress reviews and communicate decisions, trade-offs, and support needs with stakeholders.
• Coordinate audit evidence, policy alignment, and remediation with central cybersecurity and application security teams.
• Create a shared home for division security guidance, training, and documentation; coach teams and suppliers to make security practices sustainable.

What you bring

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, cybersecurity, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong experience as a Software Engineering Manager or similar lead experience.
• Deep knowledge across software development, architecture, integration, and testing, with practical secure development experience for modern applications, APIs, and cloud environments.
• Broad cybersecurity knowledge and hands-on application security judgment, including threat modeling, authentication and authorization, vulnerability validation, remediation, and automated security controls.
• Experience translating security policies and frameworks into engineering controls, supporting audits, and managing risk-based improvement programs with measurable outcomes.
• Practical knowledge of OWASP guidance and security testing tools, including static and dynamic analysis, dependency and secret scanning, and integrating controls into delivery pipelines.
• A proven track record of building security champions, improving engineering practices, and using reliable metrics to drive adoption and recurring risk reduction.
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and program leadership skills, including the ability to explain technical risk in business terms and balance security, quality, cost, and delivery speed.
• Experience scaling application security across complex or global enterprise environments, with product-centric or Agile delivery and collaboration with central security preferred.
• Relevant certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CSSLP, or GIAC application security credentials; a related master’s degree; or comparable advanced expertise demonstrated through practice preferred.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits*
• Paid time off plan (Vacation, Holidays, Volunteer, etc.)*
• 401(k) savings plans*
• Health Savings Account (HSA)*
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)*
• Health Lifestyle Programs*
• Employee Assistance Program*
• Voluntary Benefits and Employee Discounts*
• Career Development*
• Incentive bonus*
• Disability benefits*
• Life Insurance*
• Parental leave
• Adoption benefits
• Tuition Reimbursement

Additional details

• Candidate must be in Chicago, IL, Peoria, IL, Denver, CO, or Dallas, TX.
• Relocation assistance: not available.
• Visa sponsorship: not available.
• Onsite requirement: five days a week.
• Travel: up to 20%.
• Employment is conditioned upon successful completion of a drug screen.

Career area: Technology, Digital and Data