Lead Data Scientist - Search Intelligence & Advanced Evaluation Frameworks

Career Area:

Technology, Digital and Data

Job 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.

Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc.

Cat Digital is the digital and technology arm of Caterpillar Inc., leveraging the latest technologies to build industry leading digital solutions for our customers and dealers. With over 1.5 million connected assets worldwide, our teams use data, technology, advanced analytics, telematics, and AI capabilities to help our customers build a better, more sustainable world.

Job Summary:

eCommerce is a key digital enabler to Caterpillar’s aftermarket parts and services growth strategy. Delivering on the Caterpillar brand promise of premium, high-quality solutions is an important element in accelerating the development and deployment of Caterpillar’s expanded capabilities in eCommerce.

The Lead Software engineer – Ecommerce Search is responsible for setting the technical direction and overseeing the execution of advanced search solutions. This role combines strategic vision, hands-on technical expertise, and leadership to build scalable, high-performance search platforms that deliver exceptional user experiences.

What You Will Do:

• Technical Strategy: Define and implement a long-term technical vision for the search platform to ensure scalability and adaptability to growing data volumes and query complexity.

• Team Leadership: Mentor and guide a team of search engineers through technical reviews, best practices, and collaborative problem-solving.

• Feature Development: Introduce advanced capabilities such as NLP, vector search, and personalization to enhance relevance and accuracy.

• Data Analysis & Optimization: Build search capabilities with measurable KPIs (e.g., CTR, Query Distribution, Zero Search) and leverage analytics to continuously improve search performance.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with product managers, data scientists, and engineering teams to align search initiatives with business objectives

Considerations For Top Candidates:

• Progressively complex professional experience.

• Experience as a lead software engineer, Architect , engineering manager.

• Experience leading technical teams and managing multiple projects simultaneously.

• Experience working within ITSM processes (incident, change, problem).

• Strong communication, organization, and stakeholder management skills.

• Ability to handle sensitive, complex, or high-visibility issues.

• Excellent written and verbal communication abilities.

Technical expertise required for the role  

• Experience in eCommerce Search deployments.

• Previous experience with Search products such as OpenSearch, Elastic Search, SOLR, Lucene, Coveo, and LucidWorks Fusion.

• Strong expertise in building head-less frameworks to integrate with ecommerce applications

• Distributed Systems: Proven experience building large-scale, highly available systems.

• Programming:

  • Proficiency in Java, Python, or Scala, including source control tools and practices for managing code and changes to it.

  • Proficiency in software debugging and problem-solving techniques.

  • Proficiency in AI code generation tools such as Claude Code, ChatGPT, or GitHub Copilot.

  • Familiarity with DevOps tools and techniques for cloud deployment.

  • Producing and consuming APIs

• Data Technologies: Familiarity with event streaming and cloud platforms.

• Machine Learning: Practical experience applying ML to improve search relevance.

Considerations for Top Candidates:

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science or related field.

• Experience in search engineering.

• Experience in a technical leadership role.

• Strong understanding of modern search technologies and frameworks.

• Working experience with heavy equipment engineering or data analysis.

• Working experience with building Low-latency API in AWS using Memory-storage solutions.