Senior Autonomy Engineer

Caterpillar; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Caterpillar Inc. seeks a Senior Autonomy Engineer to define and deliver resilient connectivity solutions for connected, autonomous, and uncrewed machines in demanding field environments.

You will lead architecture across wireless networking, edge computing, cloud connectivity, telemetry, and data pipelines, guiding implementation, validation, and operational support while shaping platform standards. Candidates should have a degree in engineering or related field and 5+ years in software,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, Computer Science, Telecommunications, or related field.
• 5+ years of relevant experience in software, connectivity, networking, cloud engineering, or distributed systems.
• Hands-on experience with connected or autonomous vehicles and remote operations.
• Experience with wireless bonding, multi-WAN, satellite communications, and 5G technologies.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, development, testing, deployment, and support of connectivity solutions across machine, site, edge, and cloud environments.
• Design resilient communication and telemetry platforms for remote and autonomous operations, including cellular, satellite, Wi‑Fi, multi-link failover, and high-throughput data transfer.
• Translate product and business needs into scalable technical solutions, evaluating tradeoffs across reliability, security, performance, cost, and maintainability.
• Lead complex technical investigations, architecture reviews, and root-cause analysis across networking, connectivity, and data pipelines.
• Establish reusable engineering patterns, mentor engineers, and identify emerging technologies that improve platform capability and customer value.

Skills

Autonomy

Connectivity

Wireless networking

Cloud computing

Edge computing

Telemetry

Distributed systems

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering or related field

Job description

Career Area

Engineering

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.

Senior Autonomy Engineer

The Senior Autonomy Engineer defines and delivers resilient connectivity solutions that keep connected, autonomous, and uncrewed machines operating reliably in demanding field environments. This role provides technical leadership across wireless networking, edge computing, cloud connectivity, telemetry, and data pipelines. You will guide architecture, implementation, validation, and operational support while shaping engineering standards and long-term platform decisions.

What You Will Do

• Lead the architecture, development, testing, deployment, and support of connectivity solutions across machine, site, edge, and cloud environments.
• Design resilient communication and telemetry platforms for remote and autonomous operations, including cellular, satellite, Wi-Fi, multi-link failover, and high-throughput sensor data transfer.
• Translate product and business needs into scalable technical solutions, evaluating tradeoffs across reliability, security, performance, cost, and maintainability.
• Lead complex technical investigations, architecture reviews, and root-cause analysis across networking, connectivity, and data pipelines.
• Establish reusable engineering patterns, mentor engineers, and identify emerging technologies that improve platform capability and customer value.

What You Will Have

• Communicating Complex Concepts: Knowledge of effective presentation tools and techniques to ensure clear understanding; ability to use summarization and simplification techniques to explain complex technical concepts in simple, clear language appropriate to the audience.
• 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. Strong technical leadership, including architecture reviews, design guidance, documentation, mentoring, and collaboration across engineering and stakeholder teams.
• Managing Multiple Priorities: Knowledge of effective self-management practices; ability to manage multiple concurrent objectives, projects, groups, or activities, making effective judgments as to prioritizing and time allocation. Ability to troubleshoot complex, cross-stack networking issues and present recommendations supported by technical evidence and operational data.
• Technical Excellence: Knowledge of a given technology and various application methods; ability to develop and provide solutions to significant technical challenges. Experience designing scalable telemetry, event-streaming, real-time, batch, and cloud-native solutions for large volumes of machine and sensor data.
• Strategic Thinking: Knowledge of the importance of "big picture" thinking and planning; ability to apply organizational acumen and competitiveness to identify and maintain focus on key success factors for the organization. Ability to communicate complex connectivity and platform concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Influencing Through Expertise: Knowledge of effective influencing tactics and strategies; ability to use these to deepen own expertise and impact or challenge decisions within and outside own organization.
• Software Product Design/Architecture: Knowledge of software product design; ability to convert market requirements into software product design. Demonstrated expertise in connectivity and distributed-system architecture, including cellular, satellite communications, edge computing, industrial networking, and edge-to-cloud data flows.
• Artificial Intelligence: Knowledge of the concepts, technologies and methodologies of artificial intelligence (AI); ability to develop, implement and/or apply artificial intelligence products and services in specific industry domain to achieve business goals.

Top Candidate Will Have

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, Computer Science, Telecommunications, or a related field, plus 5 or more years of relevant experience in software, connectivity, networking, cloud engineering, or distributed systems.
• Hands-on experience with connected or autonomous vehicles, uncrewed aerial, maritime, or ground systems, remote operations, or comparable safety-relevant platforms.
• Experience with wireless bonding, multi-WAN link aggregation, redundant-path design, Starlink or other satellite communications, and LTE, LTE-M, NB-IoT, private LTE, or 5G technologies.
• Experience moving high-bandwidth camera, LI