C

Caterpillar

Makes heavy machinery, engines and gas turbines

AI Runtime Engineer

Applied Machine LearningConfirmed live in the last 24 hours
Full-timeNo salary listedIn-person

About the Job

Requirements

  • A master's degree or higher in computer science, artificial intelligence, electronic engineering, automation, embedded systems, or a related field.
  • Approximately eight or more years of research and development experience in software systems, machine learning systems, embedded platforms, or high-performance computing, with deep practical experience in AI runtime or inference optimization.
  • Proficiency in C++ and Python, with strong system software, concurrency, memory management, performance analysis, and debugging capabilities.
  • Familiarity with PyTorch model deployment and one or more inference technologies such as ONNX Runtime, TensorRT, or TensorRT-LLM.
  • Familiarity with GPU, NPU, and SoC architectures and CUDA or other acceleration technologies, with experience in model quantization, performance analysis, and resource optimization.
  • Understanding of Linux, containers, real-time or embedded systems, and integration of models with middleware, operating systems, and vehicle software.
  • Ability to independently own key technical directions across models, hardware, or machine platforms, and to drive cross-team work and communicate in English.

Responsibilities

  • Design and develop unified AI runtime capabilities for model loading, execution, version switching, resource management, health monitoring, and diagnostics, supporting Perception, Prediction, VLA, and edge LLM models.
  • Convert, optimize, and integrate trained models such as PyTorch models into target runtime environments, supporting ONNX, TensorRT, TensorRT-LLM, or other inference frameworks.
  • Optimize end-to-end inference latency, throughput, memory, bandwidth, power consumption, and compute resource use using techniques such as FP16/INT8, quantization, distillation, pruning, and kernel optimization.
  • Adapt the runtime to GPUs, NPUs, SoCs, and other AI accelerators, and support deployment on different DCUs, field edge servers, and future machine platforms.
  • Build runtime environments for Vision-Language-Action systems and local LLMs, supporting multimodal input, context and state management, real-time action output, and interfaces with traditional planning and control.
  • Establish runtime performance baselines, fault diagnosis, model health monitoring, anomaly recovery, and rollback interfaces to support safe, controlled incremental integration and validation.
  • Work with onboard middleware, operating systems, Perception, Prediction, Planning, Control, AI Platform, Cybersecurity, Functional Safety, and Validation teams to integrate models reliably into production-grade autonomous-driving systems.
  • Lead key technical solutions and resolve difficult technical problems in the AI Runtime area; guide related engineering practices and technical reviews.

Desired Qualifications

  • Experience deploying AI on vehicle or edge platforms for autonomous driving, robotics, industrial control, or safety-critical systems.
  • Engineering experience with NVIDIA Orin, Jetson, Drive, GPU clusters, edge servers, or other AI accelerators.
  • Experience with VLM/VLA, world models, end-to-end autonomous driving, or local LLM inference and optimization.
  • Knowledge of Functional Safety, Cybersecurity, watchdogs, fallback mechanisms, or safety-controlled AI Runtime design.

About the Company

Caterpillar

Makes heavy machinery, engines and gas turbines

Caterpillar makes construction and mining machines, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and locomotives for contractors, mines, energy companies and data center builders. It is the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, and its yellow Cat bulldozers and excavators work in nearly every country. Customers buy or rent machines through independent Cat dealers, while its engines and turbines generate electricity and push natural gas through pipelines. Caterpillar earns money from equipment sales and from the parts and repairs that dealers supply over a machine's working life. It was formed in 1925 when California's Holt and Best tractor companies merged, and it is based in Irving, Texas.

Company size
10,001+
Company stage
IPO
Headquarters
Irving, TX
Founded
1925

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