Data Science Pod Lead - Autonomy Engineer

Caterpillar Inc.•Irving, TX

1d•$97,530 - $158,480•Onsite

About The Position

The Data Science Pod Lead guides a multidisciplinary team of data scientists, machine learning engineers, and analysts through the design, development, validation, and deployment of data science and AI solutions. The role translates product and business objectives into executable technical plans, promotes best practices and responsible AI principles, and mentors pod members. It partners with AI Product Owners, AI Architects, engineering teams, users, and business stakeholders to deliver measurable value. Within the Agentic Services & Metrics pod, the role combines technical leadership, AI enablement, and data-driven decision-making to expand adoption of AI-assisted engineering tools. The Pod Lead works with users and product stakeholders to integrate AI tooling into development workflows, measure adoption and productivity, and help shape enterprise AI enablement initiatives as usage scales. The position is onsite five days a week at the Irving, Texas office and requires up to 10% travel.

Requirements

Knowledge of relevant programming languages and tools, including the ability to test, write, design, debug, troubleshoot, and maintain source code and programs.
Prompt engineering knowledge.
Programming literacy sufficient to collaborate effectively with engineering teams; hands-on coding is not a primary responsibility.
Knowledge of the software development lifecycle and ability to use a structured methodology to deliver and manage software products.
Experience working in Agile teams, with hands-on ownership of product backlogs and sprint planning.
Knowledge of AI and generative AI concepts, risks, and opportunities, and ability to guide AI product development toward business outcomes while adhering to responsible AI principles.
Working knowledge of AI/ML and generative AI concepts sufficient to make informed product trade-off decisions; model design or coding is not expected.
Knowledge of technical troubleshooting approaches, tools, and techniques, including diagnosing and resolving hardware, software, application, or operational issues.
Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to think critically and creatively to develop solutions.
Ability to identify and document problems and resolution alternatives, consider stakeholder perspectives, assess risks and benefits, use diagnostic and fact-finding techniques, analyze code and logs, and report troubleshooting processes and tools.
Ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders through excellent verbal and written communication.

Nice To Haves

Ability to interpret analytics, experiments, and model performance metrics to guide prioritization and roadmap decisions.
Ability to translate business strategy into outcome-driven product goals and measurable value hypotheses.

Responsibilities

Lead the technical direction, execution, and continuous evolution of the Agentic Services & Metrics pod, delivering scalable AI enablement and analytics solutions.
Develop onboarding strategies, implementation approaches, and best practices to increase adoption of AI-assisted engineering tools and improve developer productivity and software delivery outcomes.
Partner with users and engineering teams to deploy, integrate, troubleshoot, and optimize AI tooling across the software development lifecycle.
Lead pod-level planning and execution, balancing user enablement, operational support, analytics, experimentation, and delivery commitments.
Report actionable insights on AI tool effectiveness, user engagement, and productivity outcomes.
Provide technical leadership, coaching, and mentorship across data science, machine learning, generative AI, and software engineering disciplines.
Stay current with agentic AI, developer productivity tools, and AI-assisted software engineering, and help define future services and capabilities.