Principal Software Engineer; Autonomy Services

Career Area:

Technology, Digital and Data

Job Description:

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.

At Caterpillar, technology always has a purpose, which is to solve our customers’ toughest challenges. Through Cat Technology, we are solving problems by building the intelligence layer that connects machines, data, and people to make jobsites safer, more productive, and more sustainable. By combining deep domain expertise in physical systems with software, connectivity, autonomy, and AI, we deliver solutions that work in the real world—on real jobsites, at global scale.

You’ll build and deploy against one of the most unique data foundations - over 1.6 million connected assets generating real-world data daily. These data and platform capabilities are enabling the development of AI models, edge computing architectures, and software systems that scale across fleets, products, and industries. The result will be a new generation of machines that continuously learn, improve, and deliver performance at scale.

The Principal Software Engineer provides technical leadership to define architecture and integration strategies for Physical AI services, digital twin integration, simulation data exchange, and cloud-native backend platforms. The role focuses on building scalable microservices and APIs, while establishing engineering standards and driving platform consistency across teams.

• Define and drive architecture for backend microservices and APIs (Java, Spring Boot, Python) supporting integration, data exchange, and platform services
• Lead design and delivery of scalable, secure, and high-performance cloud-native services and integration adapters
• Establish and enforce API standards, service contracts, and integration patterns (REST, gRPC, event-driven) across distributed systems
• Provide technical leadership on complex system design, service scalability, and integration challenges
• Review architecture, designs, code, APIs, and data contracts to ensure reliability, performance, security, observability, and maintainability
• Drive engineering excellence across architecture, testing, CI/CD, observability, and operational readiness
• Mentor engineers and elevate team capability in microservices design, API development, and backend engineering best practices
• Guide teams in building robust integration services, adapter layers, and artifact/data exchange workflows
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define API interfaces, integration contracts, and platform service boundaries
• Identify and drive platform simplification, reuse, and organizational efficiency improvements

• Software Product Design/Architecture: Knowledge of software product design; ability to convert market requirements into software product design and strategic technical direction.
• Software Product Technical Knowledge: Knowledge of technical aspects of software products; ability to design, configure, and integrate technical aspects of software products.
• Decision Making and Critical Thinking: Knowledge of the decision-making process and associated tools and techniques; ability to accurately analyze situations and reach productive decisions based on informed judgment.
• Effective Communications: Understanding of effective communication concepts, tools, and techniques; ability to effectively transmit, receive, and accurately interpret ideas, information, and needs through appropriate communication behaviors.

• Strong experience building backend microservices and APIs (REST, gRPC, event-driven) for autonomy or real-time systems
• Experience in autonomy systems, robotics, simulation, or real-time control platforms
• Expertise in designing scalable…