Scenario Framework & Simulation Orchestration Lead

Caterpillar Inc.•Irving, TX

1d•$128,470 - $208,770•Onsite

About The Position

At Caterpillar, technology always has a purpose, which is to solve our customers' toughest challenges. Construction autonomy is one of the most complex challenges in applied AI, and at Caterpillar, advancements in physical AI, simulation, sensing, and edge computing are turning things that once felt impossible—intelligent machines operating in dynamic jobsites—into reality. Role Definition: The Scenario Framework & Simulation Orchestration Lead will provide hands-on technical leadership for the framework used to define, configure, execute, and evaluate simulation scenarios and campaigns supporting automation and robotics. The role will turn autonomy, controls, product, and verification needs into reusable scenario capabilities. The Lead will own scenario architecture, orchestration patterns, interfaces, execution workflows, and integration with simulation platforms, digital twins, SIL, and HIL environments.

Requirements

Strong software engineering background with experience building simulation frameworks, orchestration systems, workflow engines, test frameworks, or distributed execution platforms.
Hands-on expertise in Python and C++, including API design, reusable libraries, debugging, and production-quality software development.
Experience with scenario generation, campaign execution, lifecycle management, configuration systems, and deterministic or repeatable simulation workflows.
Knowledge of simulation architecture and integration with NVIDIA Omniverse, Isaac Sim, Unreal Engine, ROS2, Gazebo, CARLA, AirSim, or comparable technologies.
Experience designing APIs, SDKs, schemas, contracts, workflow definitions, and extensible plugin architectures.
Understanding of SIL, HIL, system integration, test automation, verification and validation, regression testing, and requirements traceability.
Experience with distributed systems, containers, Kubernetes, CI/CD, artifact management, and cloud or on-premises execution environments.
Knowledge of metrics, KPIs, evaluation pipelines, experiment tracking, scenario coverage, and automated result analysis.
Experience with simulation packaging, versioning, release workflows, and dependency management.
Ability to lead technical delivery, mentor engineers, and coordinate implementation across autonomy, controls, digital twin, platform, and QA teams.
Strong troubleshooting, communication, technical decision-making, and system integration skills.
Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Software Engineering, or a related discipline; master's degree preferred.
Typically 8+ years of software engineering experience, including leadership of simulation, orchestration, or complex integration initiatives.

Responsibilities

Lead the architecture and implementation of a reusable scenario framework supporting digital twin, robotics, autonomy, controls, and verification use cases.
Define scenario schemas, APIs, SDKs, contracts, configuration models, and extension points for scenario authoring and execution.
Build orchestration services for single-run simulations, parameter sweeps, campaign execution, parallel workloads, retries, lifecycle management, and results collection.
Translate autonomy and system-level test requirements into executable scenarios, reusable behaviors, measurable outcomes, and validation workflows.
Integrate the scenario framework with NVIDIA Omniverse, Isaac Sim, Unreal Engine, ROS2, vehicle and machine models, sensor systems, and external simulation tools.
Define developer workflows and tooling for creating, reviewing, debugging, versioning, packaging, and publishing scenarios.
Partner with the platform team to deploy and operate scenario workloads across local, cloud, GPU, HPC, SIL, and HIL environments.
Establish campaign engineering patterns for large-scale execution, deterministic replay, experiment configuration, and reproducibility.
Define evaluation interfaces for metrics, KPIs, pass/fail criteria, coverage, results comparison, and automated reporting.
Support continuous integration of simulation by connecting scenario execution to build, test, artifact, and release workflows.
Partner with QA and verification teams to build system-level regression suites and trace scenarios to requirements and acceptance criteria.
Lead technical design reviews, code reviews, troubleshooting, performance analysis, and resolution of integration issues.
Guide engineers delivering framework components and promote modular design, documentation, testability, and backward compatibility.
Coordinate with principal engineers and architects on standards, governance, technology choices, and long-term framework evolution.
Identify technical risks and dependencies across scenario content, simulation runtimes, platform services, models, sensors, and test systems.