Senior Physical AI Engineer - Digital Twins & Autonomous Machines

Caterpillar; Irving (TX); On-site; USD 148,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

401(k) plan

Health Savings Account (HSA)

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)

Career Development

Job summary

Caterpillar is seeking a Lead Physical AI engineer to develop high-fidelity machine models and digital twins for Caterpillar construction equipment, using NVIDIA Newton, Isaac Sim, Omniverse, and OpenUSD. You will set modeling standards and advance physics-based simulation across the enterprise.

Collaborating with autonomy, robotics, and AI teams, you will enable reinforcement learning, synthetic data generation, and software-in-the-loop validation, driving ROM development and long-term digital

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• 8+ years of experience in simulation, robotics, autonomous systems, digital twins, or machine dynamics.
• Demonstrated expertise in NVIDIA Newton or similar tools and physics simulation.
• Strong knowledge of vehicle dynamics, hydraulics, powertrain, and machine-terrain interaction.
• Proficiency in Python and C++; experience with model development and validation.
• Experience leading technical projects and collaborating across engineering teams.
• Excellent communication and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead NVIDIA Newton technical leadership across the enterprise, defining standards and best practices.
• Develop high-fidelity machine models, ROMs, and physics-based representations for Caterpillar equipment.
• Collaborate with autonomy, robotics, and AI teams to enable reinforcement learning and AI-enabled workflows.
• Establish validation processes and correlate simulations with real-world data and telemetry.
• Drive ROM development, virtual validation, and lifecycle management for scalable deployment.
• Shape technology strategy and long-term roadmaps for digital twins and simulation.

Skills

NVIDIA Newton

Python

C++

Simulation

Robotics

Autonomous systems

Digital twins

Machine dynamics

Vehicle dynamics

Kinematics

Problem solving

Communication skills

Education

Engineering degree

Tools

NVIDIA Isaac Sim

Omniverse

Warp

OpenUSD

ROS2

GitHub Copilot

Job description

Caterpillar is seeking a Lead Physical AI engineer to develop high-fidelity machine models and digital twins for Caterpillar construction equipment, using NVIDIA Newton, Isaac Sim, Omniverse, and OpenUSD. You will set modeling standards and advance physics-based simulation across the enterprise.

Collaborating with autonomy, robotics, and AI teams, you will enable reinforcement learning, synthetic data generation, and software-in-the-loop validation, driving ROM development and long-term digital