Principal Software Engineer
Caterpillar
Principal Software Engineer
Caterpillar
Makes heavy machinery, engines and gas turbines
Career Area:
Technology, Digital and DataJob Description:
Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc.
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.
Summary
At Caterpillar, technology has a purpose: to solve our customers' toughest challenges. Construction autonomy and Physical AI require trusted digital twins, high-fidelity simulation, scalable GPU computing, intelligent automation, and rigorous validation.
This Principal Engineer role is a hands-on technical leadership position responsible for architecture, critical implementation, engineering standards, cross-team alignment, and mentoring.
Role Purpose
Lead production-grade agentic AI and automation capabilities that help engineers create environments, configure experiments, execute simulations, analyze results, and make informed engineering decisions.
What You Will Do
● Define the architecture for agentic simulation and multi-agent engineering workflows.
● Build agents that interact with simulation engines, digital twins, APIs, datasets, and engineering tools.
● Lead automated map-to-simulation, site-to-simulation, scenario-generation, and experiment-planning workflows.
● Apply foundation models and multimodal AI to simulation configuration, monitoring, troubleshooting, analysis, and reporting.
● Establish tool calling, workflow state, memory, human approvals, guardrails, observability, and auditability.
● Create evaluation frameworks for accuracy, reliability, reproducibility, latency, cost, safety, and task completion.
● Integrate AI services with NVIDIA Omniverse, Isaac Sim, OpenUSD, Cosmos, databases, knowledge systems, and cloud services.
● Deploy and scale GPU inference and agent workloads on CoreWeave and Kubernetes
Principal-Level Leadership Expectations
● Own a major technical capability across multiple teams and programs.
● Translate ambiguous business and engineering problems into scalable architectures and production software.
● Lead architecture reviews, technical investigations, design decisions, and engineering standards.
● Balance research and prototyping with secure, maintainable, production-ready delivery.
● Mentor senior and developing engineers and support technical hiring and onboarding.
● Partner across simulation, robotics, autonomy, controls, AI, data, cloud, product, and customer-facing organizations.
Required Skills and Experience
● Advanced software engineering experience using Python and one or more of C++, C#, Java, Go, or Node.js.
● Experience with APIs, distributed systems, containers, automated testing, CI/CD, source control, and observability.
● Experience with cloud platforms and cloud-native architectures, including Docker and Kubernetes.
● Demonstrated ability to lead architecture and technical delivery across multiple teams.
● Strong communication, mentoring, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
● Experience using AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude, or Cursor.
● Experience designing and delivering production agentic AI, generative AI, or intelligent automation systems.
● Experience with NVIDIA NIM, NeMo, Nemotron, or comparable foundation-model and inference ecosystems.
● Experience with NVIDIA Cosmos or comparable world foundation models for Physical AI, scenario generation, and simulation augmentation.
● Experience connecting AI agents to NVIDIA Omniverse, Isaac Sim, OpenUSD, or other engineering simulation platforms.
● Strong Python, API, distributed systems, event-driven workflow, and backend services experience.
● Experience with RAG, embeddings, vector search, knowledge graphs, semantic data models, structured outputs, and multimodal models.
● Experience with AI evaluation datasets, test harnesses, security controls, observability, and human-in-the-loop governance.
● Experience deploying GPU inference using Docker, Kubernetes, NVIDIA GPUs, and CoreWeave or comparable GPU cloud infrastructure.
Top Candidate / Preferred Experience
● Seven or more years of software development and three or more years developing ML, generative AI, or intelligent automation systems.
● Experience delivering an AI-enabled capability from prototype through production.
● Experience integrating agents with simulation, robotics, scientific computing, or enterprise engineering tools.
● Working knowledge of Newton, physics simulation, and robotics workflows sufficient to orchestrate and evaluate tool use.
Preferred Technology Stack
NVIDIA Cosmos | NIM | NeMo | Nemotron | Omniverse | Isaac Sim | OpenUSD | Agentic AI | RAG | Python | CUDA | Docker | Kubernetes | CoreWeave
Success Measures
● Establish a clear reference architecture and technical roadmap for the capability area.
● Deliver reusable platform components and measurable engineering outcomes within the first 12 months.
● Improve quality, automation, scalability, and cross-team adoption while reducing duplicated solutions.
● Develop technical depth across the broader engineering organization through mentoring and standards.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
Summary Pay Range:
$147,760.00 - $240,110.00Compensation and benefits offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, job level, market location, job-related knowledge, skills, individual performance and experience. Please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Caterpillar.
Benefits:
Subject to plan eligibility, terms, and guidelines. This is a summary list of 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
* These benefits also apply to part-time employees
Posting Dates:
Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of a drug screen.
Caterpillar is an Equal Opportunity Employer, Including Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities. Qualified applicants of any age are encouraged to apply.
Not ready to apply? Join our Talent Community.
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.
Explore more opportunities at Caterpillar