Lead Digital Technical Specialist

Caterpillar Inc; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 128,000 - 193,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

401(k) savings plans

HSA

Tuition Reimbursement

Paid time off

Job summary

Caterpillar Inc. is seeking a PAL Digital Systems Engineer to own standards, governance and scalable delivery of the PAL system across domains. You will partner with engineering to ensure reliable execution and define the PAL data model and lifecycle.

In this role you will drive alignment on creation, update, and execution of PALs, ensuring consistency across dealers and use cases. Travel up to 15% is possible, relocation not offered.

Qualifications

• Experience as business-facing expert for a complex technical system
• End-to-end production ecosystem experience (data, logic, applications)
• Able to translate ambiguous business needs into scalable system terms
• Strong understanding of PAL system architecture and governance
• Ability to collaborate with product and engineering teams to ensure reliable execution

Responsibilities

• Define and enforce PAL system standards, including structure, attributes and lifecycle
• Ensure consistent PAL logic across domains (DNA, PSE, Service, etc.)
• Govern the PAL data model and canonical object definition
• Partner with engineering teams for scalable, reliable implementation
• Oversee integration with core components (PAL Engine, Applications, AI services)
• Ensure PALs are correct, operationally consistent and scalable across dealers/use cases
• Drive alignment on PAL lifecycle (creation, update, execution, feedback)
• Define governance for PAL updates, versioning and data consistency

Skills

Customer Focus

Effective Communications

Systems Thinking

Business Intelligence

Application Design

Data Warehousing

Systems Software Infrastructure

Technical Troubleshooting

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.

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.

One Funnel is Caterpillar's unified approach to delivering targeted, data-driven actions to dealers across sales, service, and operations workflows. PALs (Prioritized Action Lists) are the core of this system-curated, actionable insights delivered to drive specific dealer outcomes.

The PAL Digital Systems role owns the technical integrity, scalability, and consistency of the PAL system by defining standards, governing architecture, and ensuring reliable execution across all domains and products. This role ensures PALs are not only well-defined, but able to scale across products, channels, and dealers-enabling a single, consistent system rather than fragmented implementations.

What You Will Do:

• Define and enforce PAL system standards, including structure, attributes, and lifecycle
• Ensure consistent PAL logic and behavior across domains (DNA, PSE, Service, etc.)
• Govern the PAL data model and canonical object definition
• Partner with engineering teams to ensure scalable, reliable implementation
• Oversee integration with core components, including PAL Engine (logic execution), Applications (Control Center, Inform, Direct), and AI services
• Ensure PALs are technically correct, operationally consistent and scalable across dealers and use cases
• Drive alignment on the PAL lifecycle (creation, update, execution, feedback)
• Define and enforce governance for PAL updates, versioning, and data consistency

What you will have:

• Customer Focus: Knowledge of the values and practices that align customer needs and satisfaction as primary considerations in all business decisions and ability to leverage that information in creating customized customer solutions.
• Effective Communications: Understanding of effective communication concepts, tools and techniques; ability to effectively transmit, receive, and accurately interpret ideas, information, and needs through the application of appropriate communication behaviors.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Data Warehousing: Knowledge of how to collect data from different information sources and distribute them to users; ability to simplify information systems and make sound business decisions.
• Systems Software Infrastructure: Knowledge of computer architecture and system software interaction; ability to design and build a fundamental architecture of operating systems, database management systems, communications protocols, compilers and other development tools.
• Technical Troubleshooting: Knowledge of technical troubleshooting approaches, tools and techniques; ability to anticipate, recognize, and resolve technical issues on hardware, software, application or operation.

Consideration for top candidates:

• Proven ability to operate as the business-facing expert for a complex technical system - trusted by both product and engineering to explain how the system works and why it was designed that way
• Deep experience working across an end-to-end production ecosystem (data, logic, applications), with a working understanding of how information flows and dependencies behave at scale
• Has been the connective layer between product intent and technical execution - able to interpret ambiguous business needs and anchor them in how systems function, trade off, and scale

Additional Details:

• This position requires the candidate to be in Chicago, IL, Peoria, IL or Dallas, TX
• Relocation assistance is NOT available for this position
• Visa sponsorship is NOT available with this position
• This position will require up to 15% 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:

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

Visa Sponsorship is not available for this position.

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.