Autonomy Validation Lead — Lead Validation for Autonomy

Caterpillar Inc.; Irving (TX); On-site; USD 128,000 - 209,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision benefits

401(k) plan with retirement matching

Health Savings Account (HSA)

Relocation assistance

Career development opportunities

Incentive bonus

Job summary

Caterpillar Inc. in Irving, TX seeks a Validation Lead to drive end-to-end validation for autonomous machine products within the SI&V organization.

You will define validation strategies, coordinate cross-functional testing, and guide a team of Validation Engineers across software, hardware, and simulation environments. You will integrate validation into Agile release cycles, advance test automation, and ensure safety, quality, and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• Leading validation efforts for complex systems, software, controls, or autonomous products.
• Defining validation strategies, test plans, acceptance criteria, and release readiness measures.
• Managing validation metrics, test results analysis, requirements traceability, and readiness assessments.
• Coordinating validation deliverables within Agile release cycles using Scrum, SAFe, Kanban, or similar methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Lead validation strategy and execution for autonomous machine products and supporting technologies.
• Manage end-to-end validation processes, including requirements traceability, test execution, defect management, and validation reporting.
• Provide technical leadership, guidance, and mentoring to Validation Engineers across projects and validation environments.
• Integrate validation deliverables into Agile release cycles, including sprint planning, backlog refinement, release planning, reviews, and retrospectives.
• Collaborate with software, controls, systems, simulation, product, and TPM teams to ensure validation coverage aligns with program priorities.
• Support validation across SIL, HIL, simulation, laboratory, and machine-level test environments.
• Drive root cause investigations, bug triage, BIQ analysis, corrective actions, and validation issue resolution.
• Support development and implementation of test automation frameworks and AI-enabled validation solutions.
• Ensure validation activities comply with quality, safety, regulatory, and organizational standards.
• Drive continuous improvement to increase validation efficiency, effectiveness, scalability, and product quality.

Skills

Validation leadership

Test automation

AI-enabled validation

Data-driven validation

Agile/SAFe

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Azure DevOps

Jira

Simulation platforms

NVIDIA Isaac Sim

Job description

Caterpillar Inc. in Irving, TX seeks a Validation Lead to drive end-to-end validation for autonomous machine products within the SI&V organization.

You will define validation strategies, coordinate cross-functional testing, and guide a team of Validation Engineers across software, hardware, and simulation environments. You will integrate validation into Agile release cycles, advance test automation, and ensure safety, quality, and regulatory compliance.