Autonomy Validation Engineer

Caterpillar Inc.•Mossville, IL

3d•$97,530 - $158,480•Onsite

About The Position

This position will work on the Caterpillar Autonomous program - the role will include system integration and validation (SI&V) activities primarily conducted in Lab focused and occasionally on Test Track and Proving Grounds with Hardware & Software installation, integration, and validation of the various autonomous onboard and offboard technology components in Hardware-in-the-Loop environment. The Autonomy Validation Engineer position installs, integrates, validates, and troubleshoots autonomy hardware and software systems used for Autonomous machines. This generally includes onboard and offboard systems validation work that integrates with current machine systems and includes the autonomy sub-system areas of Planning, Perception and Positioning technologies, as well as infrastructure areas supporting development of these sub-systems (calibration, simulation, analytics, machine learning development pipelines).

Requirements

Knowledge of mining technology, trends, directions, major issues, regulatory considerations, and trendsetters; ability to apply industry knowledge appropriately to diverse situations.
Knowledge of approaches, tools, techniques for recognizing, anticipating, and resolving organizational, operational or process problems; ability to apply knowledge of problem solving appropriately to diverse situations.
Knowledge of software product testing; ability to design, plan, and execute testing strategies and tactics to ensure software product quality and adherence to stated requirements including application of workflow tools (ex. HP Quality Center, Azure DevOps).
Knowledge of relevant programming languages and tools; ability to test, debug, troubleshoot software algorithms.
Knowledge of technical troubleshooting approaches, tools, and techniques; ability to anticipate, recognize, and resolve technical issues on hardware, software, application, or operation.
Bachelor’s degree in engineering or computer science, or an advanced degree (Masters or Ph.D.) in related field.
Experience with design, development, validation, or product support role of complex autonomous vehicle systems
Knowledge in iterative testing using agile methodologies.
Understanding of V-model for verification & validation
Experience with model-based simulation programs.
Extensive experience with electrical systems including harness & electrical integration, interface and sensors.
Advanced data analysis and systems analysis efforts and skills are needed to help troubleshoot complex issues from test or customer sites, and to examine information from test sites to improve overall systems performance.
Good communication is expected for technical status updates, test plan reviews, and when working closely with other autonomy validation engineers, support teams and product support.
Knowledge of AI concepts, technologies and methodologies to develop and implement/apply AI products in specific industry domain to achieve business goals.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain MATLAB/Simulink real-time models for machine dynamics, including actuator/ECM I/O behaviors, to enable closed-loop validation, fault injection, and regression testing on HIL benches.
Configure, operate, and troubleshoot dSPACE SCALEXIO benches using ConfigurationDesk, and ControlDesk, including deployment, parameter/variant management, automated test execution, and bench bring-up activities supporting Autonomous system integration.
Design, build, and validate wiring harnesses and interconnects; document and communicate end-to-end electrical interfaces between multiple ECMs supporting machine and technology integration, including power distribution, grounding/shielding, and subsystem-to-subsystem connectivity.
Apply electrical engineering fundamentals to verify harness integrity and bench interface circuitry (power/protection, isolation, filtering, shielding, signal integrity) for reliable integrated HIL operation across multiple controllers, components, actuator loads and signal types.
Integrate and validate communications across CAN/J1939 plus Ethernet/TCP-IP within an integrated architecture, including troubleshooting of bandwidth, timing, and interoperability issues affecting autonomy functions and data transport where applicable.
Integrate and validate workflows that interface with back office (client/server connectivity, site configuration, and operational readiness) to support end-to-end autonomy validation scenarios on HIL benches and test environments.
Integrate and validate sensor simulation for autonomous machines—LiDAR point clouds, Radar detections/tracks, and Camera, GPS, IMU—ensuring correct interfaces, timing/synchronization, calibration alignment, and controllable fault modes (dropouts, noise, occlusions, latency) to exercise perception and system behaviors in HIL.
Drive structured troubleshooting to isolate and resolve issues spanning full system level integration—software defects, interface mismatches, timing/network conflicts, sensor simulation fidelity or synchronization gaps, workflow issues, and HIL bench design shortcomings—then implement corrective actions with traceable evidence (logs, captures, test artifacts, documentation).