Senior Autonomy Development Engineer

Caterpillar•Irving, TX

3h•Onsite

About The Position

The Operator Safety Systems Senior Developer develops and delivers production-quality software that helps protect operators, personnel, and equipment in heavy equipment environments. This role applies strong software engineering practices to design, implement, integrate, validate, and support software for operator safety capabilities used in mining, construction, and other demanding applications. Working with a high degree of independence, this developer contributes hands-on technical expertise to the Operator Safety Systems team, with responsibility for robust C++ software, sensor and camera integration, operator awareness features, machine interaction logic, diagnostics, and field-supportable software solutions. The role collaborates closely with systems, validation, product, UI/UX, hardware, and field teams to translate safety-system needs into reliable software that can be deployed and supported across machine platforms.

Requirements

Advanced C/C++ development experience for production software in embedded, edge, robotics, perception, machine control, or safety-oriented systems
Ability to interpret system designs, software requirements, interface definitions, and test expectations for complex operator safety features
Strong engineering practices, including modular design, debugging, profiling, code review, static analysis, and maintainable implementation
Ability to apply structured software design practices in systems with real-time, reliability, usability, and field-support constraints
Experience contributing across software development phases from requirements and design through implementation, integration, validation, and release
Ability to interpret product development plans, software requirements, functional documentation, and validation expectations
Experience working with cross-functional development processes, issue tracking, configuration management, and release readiness activities
Ability to identify and document software or system problems and develop resolution alternatives
Ability to analyze risks and benefits of alternative approaches and support decisions on technical resolution
Uses fact-finding techniques, diagnostic tools, logs, traces, and test data to identify root causes and verify corrective actions
Discovers, analyzes, and resolves software, application, integration, or system behavior issues
Analyzes code, logs, sensor data, system traces, and current software behavior as part of advanced troubleshooting
Records and reports specific technical problems, solving processes, tools used, and recommended corrective actions
Ability to clearly communicate technical concepts, software designs, risks, and trade-offs to engineering and non-engineering audiences
Ability to collaborate effectively with systems, validation, hardware, product, UI/UX, supplier, and field teams
Ability to simplify complex technical information and adapt communication to the audience
Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Robotics, Engineering, or related field — or commensurate industry experience.

Nice To Haves

Extensive experience as a software developer supporting engineering projects on operator safety, robotics, autonomous, semi-autonomous, embedded, perception-enabled, or machine-control systems
Strong experience with C++ software development for real-time, embedded Linux, edge computing, or field-deployed compute platforms
Experience developing or integrating operator awareness, driver monitoring, personnel detection, collision mitigation, proximity awareness, in-cab alerting, or other operator safety features
Experience with camera, radar, LiDAR, ultrasonic, GNSS/GPS, inertial, thermal, stereo vision, or other machine sensing technologies
Experience developing machine vision or perception software, including camera calibration, image processing, object detection, tracking, model integration, or performance tuning on edge hardware
Experience using GStreamer or similar frameworks to build, debug, optimize, or integrate camera and video-processing pipelines
Experience developing operator-facing software, displays, configuration workflows, alerts, or event-reporting features
Some experience with UI/UX design and implementation preferred, including working from wireframes, collaborating with UX designers, implementing user workflows, and improving usability of operator-facing or technician-facing software
Experience with Figma, HTML5, Angular, Qt, or similar UI technologies for embedded, web, or onboard applications preferred
Experience with CI/CD pipelines, Git, automated testing, Linux-based development environments, and modern DevOps practices
Experience troubleshooting software on machines, benches, simulators, hardware-in-the-loop environments, or field-deployed systems
Experience in construction, mining, off-highway, automotive, industrial automation, robotics, or heavy equipment industries preferred

Responsibilities

Design, implement, test, and release production-quality C/C++ software for Operator Safety Systems on heavy equipment
Develop and integrate software components that support operator awareness, personnel detection, collision mitigation support, in-cab alerts, event capture, diagnostics, and safety-oriented machine responses
Build and maintain camera, sensor, perception, and data-processing pipelines for real-time or near-real-time safety applications
Participate across the full software development lifecycle including design, documentation, coding, unit testing, integration, validation support, and release readiness
Collaborate with systems engineering, validation, product, UI/UX, hardware, and field teams to translate operator safety needs into clear software requirements and implementation plans
Support implementation of operator-facing workflows, displays, configuration screens, alerts, and user interactions in partnership with UI/UX teams
Troubleshoot complex software and system issues using logs, traces, telemetry, sensor data, profiling tools, and field observations
Contribute to software architecture and design trade-off discussions with a focus on reliability, maintainability, latency, diagnosability, usability, and field supportability
Facilitate and participate in design reviews, code reviews, debugging sessions, and technical discussions across cross-functional engineering teams
Communicate technical designs, trade-offs, risks, and status clearly to developers, systems engineers, stakeholders, and leadership
Mentor and support other engineers through collaboration, technical guidance, and strong development practices