Principal Software Engineer (Nvidia Platform)

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.

Help Build the Future of Caterpillar

At Caterpillar, technology always has a purpose, which is to solve our customers’ toughest challenges. Through Cat Technology, we are solving problems by building the intelligence layer that connects machines, data, and people to make jobsites safer, more productive, and more sustainable. By combining deep domain expertise in physical systems with software, connectivity, autonomy, and AI, we deliver solutions that work in the real world—on real jobsites, at global scale.

You’ll build and deploy against one of the most unique data foundations - over 1.6 million connected assets generating real-world data daily.  These data and platform capabilities are enabling the development of AI models, edge computing architectures, and software systems that scale across fleets, products, and industries. The result will be a new generation of machines that continuously learn, improve, and deliver performance at scale.

What You Will Do:

The Principal Software Engineer provides technical leadership for Physical AI / Digital Twin Integration, shaping architecture and integration strategies across simulation platforms, digital twin systems, and cloud-native services. This role defines engineering standards, drives large-scale system design, and enables teams to deliver secure, scalable, and high-performance platform capabilities.

• Define and drive end-to-end architecture and integration strategy for simulation platforms, digital twin systems, and backend microservices APIs
• Lead design and delivery of scalable cloud-native services, integration adapters, and data/asset exchange systems
• Establish and enforce design patterns, service contracts, and integration standards (REST, gRPC, event-driven) across distributed systems
• Provide technical leadership on complex system design and platform scalability challenges
• Review architecture, designs, code, APIs, and data contracts to ensure reliability, performance, security, observability, and maintainability
• Drive engineering excellence across architecture, testing, CI/CD, observability, and operational readiness
• Lead adoption of AI-assisted and agentic development workflows, defining standards for prompt quality, validation, and code generation practices
• Mentor engineers and elevate team capability in system design, backend engineering, and integration best practices
• Guide platform and full-stack trade-offs, with primary focus on backend microservices and integration layers
• Collaborate with cross-functional and external teams to define APIs, integration patterns, and data exchange models

WHAT YOU WILL HAVE

• Software Product Design/Architecture: Knowledge of software product design; ability to convert market requirements into software product design and strategic technical direction.
• Software Product Technical Knowledge: Knowledge of technical aspects of software products; ability to design, configure, and integrate technical aspects of software products.
• Decision Making and Critical Thinking: Knowledge of the decision-making process and associated tools and techniques; ability to accurately analyze situations and reach productive decisions based on informed judgment.
• Effective Communications: Understanding of effective communication concepts, tools, and techniques; ability to effectively transmit, receive, and accurately interpret ideas, information, and needs through appropriate communication behaviors.

TOP CANDIDATES WILL HAVE

• Strong experience designing cloud-native microservices and distributed systems with APIs (REST, gRPC, event-driven)
• Experience in simulation, NVIDIA ecosystem, robotics, digital twin, or industrial automation platforms
• Expertise in defining scalable integration architectures, service contracts, and observability patterns
• Strong backend development using Python (preferred) or Java for production-grade APIs and platforms
• Experience with AI-assisted/agentic develop