Lead Agentic AI Engineer – Connectivity

Caterpillar; Irving (TX); On-site; USD 128,000 - 193,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision benefits

Paid time off

401(k) with company match

Health Savings Account (HSA)

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)

Career development

Job summary

Caterpillar is seeking a Lead AI Engineer to architect and deploy agentic AI across its connected-product ecosystem. You will prototype, build scalable AI agents, and ensure secure, enterprise-grade production aligned with governance and data practices.

You will collaborate across Connectivity, Engineering, Cybersecurity, and AI governance teams to deliver end-to-end AI solutions from discovery to deployment and value realization.

Qualifications

• Experience designing agentic AI systems with practical production focus.
• Ability to prototype and translate ideas into reusable engineering patterns.
• Experience taking AI/ software solutions from prototype to production.

Responsibilities

• Research and prototype AI agents, frameworks, and models for enterprise use.
• Build secure, production-grade AI agents and services in Python.
• Apply AI to connected assets, IoT, and embedded systems within enterprise standards.
• Develop evaluation, observability, and testing for agent behavior and latency.
• Lead technical patterns with enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, and governance.

Skills

Python

Agent frameworks

RAG

Memory

Tool use

Multi-agent workflows

Human-in-the-loop controls

Security

Cloud technologies

Generative AI

AI governance

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

GitHub Copilot

Anthropic

OpenAI

xAI

Job description

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.

Define how AI agents are engineered and deployed across Caterpillar's connected-product ecosystem. As the Connectivity division's hands‑on technical lead for agentic AI, the Lead AI Engineer will research emerging technologies, rapidly prototype promising approaches, and translate the best ideas into reusable engineering frameworks, reference architectures, and secure, enterprise‑grade production solutions. Working at the intersection of agentic AI, software engineering, IoT, telematics, and connected machines, this role will improve how engineers build, diagnose, support, and operate connected products, partnering with Connectivity, Engineering, Cybersecurity, Enterprise AI, and business stakeholders across the full solution lifecycle, from use‑case discovery and architecture through integration, evaluation, deployment, observability, governance, and value realization. This is not a prompt‑engineering‑only or research‑only role. You will write code, build prototypes, make architectural decisions, and establish engineering patterns that take AI systems from concept to production, while ensuring alignment with enterprise standards for security, compliance, performance, and responsible AI. Caterpillar will equip this role with modern AI engineering tools, including GitHub Copilot and current models and platforms from Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, and other leading providers, based on enterprise approval and fit for purpose, as well as locally hosted and open models where they offer advantages in data control, latency, reliability, cost, or specialized performance. Experience in software engineering, cloud technologies, generative AI, agent‑based architectures, and enterprise‑scale solution delivery is essential.

What You Will Do:

• AI Research and Rapid Prototyping: Evaluate emerging LLMs, agent frameworks, protocols, and locally deployable models, and build prototypes using tools such as GitHub Copilot and offerings from Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, and other leading providers. Assess capability, cost, performance, security, and enterprise readiness to recommend Connectivity’s supported AI engineering stack.
• Agentic Frameworks and Production Engineering: Develop reusable components for agent orchestration, context engineering, RAG, memory, tool use, MCP integration, multi–agent workflows, and human‑in‑the‑loop controls. Design and build secure, maintainable, production‑grade AI agents and services in Python, from prototype through deployment and operations.
• Connected Product and System Integration: Apply AI to connected assets, telematics, embedded systems, device lifecycle management, remote services, and engineering workflows, integrating approved enterprise systems, APIs, documentation, and connectivity data while enforcing identity, access, and data‑protection requirements.
• Evaluation, Reliability, and Value Measurement: Create evaluation datasets, acceptance criteria, automated tests, tracing, and observability for agent behavior, retrieval quality, latency, and reliability. Measure gains in engineering productivity, troubleshooting, service responsiveness, quality, time, and cost to guide continued investment.
• Technical Leadership and Responsible AI: Serve as Connectivity’s technical point of contact for agentic AI, establishing reference architectures and engineering practices teams can adopt consistently. Partner with enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, privacy, legal, and AI governance teams to ensure secure, auditable, and responsible AI patterns.

What You Will Have:

• Application Design, Architecture: Knowledge of application design and architecture principles and practices; ability to utilize application design methodologies, tools, and techniques to convert business requirements and logical models into a technical application design.
• Design and build secure, maintainable, production‑grade AI agents and services in Python, including RAG, tool calling, context engineering, memory, MCP integration, multi‑agent workflows, and human‑in‑the‑loop controls.
• Evaluate emerging LLMs, agent frameworks, protocols, and locally deployable models and develop prototypes using leading AI tools and platforms.
• Experience taking software or AI solutions from prototype through production deployment and support.
• Systems Thinking: Knowledge of the critical interdependencies among individual system elements that help and hinder performance; ability to plan and design solutions that synchronize resources to achieve business results. Apply AI to connected assets, telematics, embedded systems, device lifecycle management, remote services, and engineering workflows.
• Integrate enterprise systems, APIs, documentation, and connectivity data while considering identity, access, security, privacy, and data‑protection requirements. Partner with enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, privacy, legal, and AI governance teams to establish secure and responsible AI patterns.
• Technical Troubleshooting: Knowledge of technical troubleshooting approaches, tools and techniques; ability to anticipate, recognize, and resolve technical issues on hardware, software, application or operation. Create automated tests, tracing, and observability for agent behavior, retrieval quality, latency, and reliability. Assess AI models and solutions for capability, performance, security, reliability, cost, and enterprise readiness. Familiarity with cloud deployment, software testing, source control, and production monitoring.
• Business Intelligence: Knowledge of business intelligence; ability to utilize business processes and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data that helps the organization make better business decisions. Create evaluation datasets, acceptance criteria, and measurement approaches for AI solutions. Measure gains in engineering productivity, troubleshooting, service responsiveness, quality, time, and cost to guide continued investment. Translate business problems into technical solutions and explain results to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.

Considerations For Top Candidates:

• Deep hands‑on experience designing agentic AI systems using frameworks such as LangGraph, LangChain, Semantic Kernel, CrewAI, or similar technologies, including tool calling, RAG, memory, MCP, multi‑agent orchestration, and human‑in‑the‑loop patterns.
• Experience evaluating, optimizing, and deploying open‑weight or locally hosted LLMs, including model selection, inference optimization, security, observability, latency, and lifecycle management.
• Experience architecting and operating AI workloads on Azure, AWS, or GCP using Docker, Kubernetes, infrastructure‑as‑code, CI/CD, and production monitoring.
• Experience designing LLM evaluation and observability systems, including retrieval and response quality evaluation, automated testing, tracing, latency measurement, hallucination detection, and reliability monitoring.
• Experience integrating AI agents with enterprise APIs, data sources, authentication and authorization systems, and production services.
• Experience with IoT, telematics, embedded systems, connected equipment, or industrial digital platforms, including protocols and technologies such as MQTT, HTTPS, cellular, satellite, and device‑to‑cloud communication.
• Experience rapidly evaluating emerging models and AI development platforms such as GitHub Copilot, Anthropic Claude, OpenAI models, xAI models, or comparable technologies and determining their suitability for enterprise production environments.

Additional Information:

This position requires the candidate to work full‑time at the Irving, TX office. Domestic relocation assistance is available for this position. Visa sponsorship is NOT available with this position. This position will require up to 10% travel.

Summary Pay Range:

$128,470.00 - $192,710.00 Compensation 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:

• 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.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Caterpillar is an Equal Opportunity Employer, Including Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities. Qualified applicants of any age are encouraged to apply.

Cultivating Our Culture:

There’s more to work at Caterpillar than just the work itself. We hire smart, friendly people and it shows in our culture. We hold ourselves to high standards and make sure our values of integrity, excellence, teamwork, commitment and sustainability come to life in the way we work. We make sure our employees feel continuously challenged while also supported. We provide professional growth opportunities, including leadership programs. We celebrate the diversity of our team, while also working together as one Caterpillar. Our culture, like everything at our company, is made possible by each employee’s contribution. Person by person, we create the environment we work in, and we are proud of the Caterpillar we’ve built.