Senior Autonomy Engineer (Product Owner)

Caterpillar Inc.•Mossville, IL

8d•$112,710 - $183,140•Onsite

About The Position

Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc. 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. Cat Technology collaborates with partners across the Caterpillar enterprise to advance technologies including autonomy and automation, which helps enhance site safety, productivity and efficiency across customer operations worldwide. Cat Technology also owns enterprise-wide initiatives in innovation, research and development, manufacturing automation and advanced materials, ensuring Caterpillar continues to lead the industry in technological excellence and engineering innovation. The Senior Autonomy Designer (Product Owner) within the Cat® MineStar™ Solutions group, is the tactical product leader embedded with an Agile delivery team, accountable for maximizing the value delivered by ensuring the team backlog is clear, prioritized and execution ready. This individual translates strategy and stakeholder intent well into well-defined Features and Stories, drives backlog refinement, provides day-to-day decisions and clarifications, and formally accepts completed work against agreed acceptance criteria and Definition of Done. Cat® MineStar™ Solutions is Caterpillar’s flagship mining technology platform. It is a comprehensive and highly integrated suite of systems used to manage, automate, and optimize mining operations. MineStar™ supports asset tracking, fleet management, operational visibility, safety systems, equipment health and automation capabilities across surface and underground environments and can be deployed in modular capacity sets including Fleet, Terrain, Detect, Health and Command. This is a delivery-aligned role focusing on enabling effective team execution and predictable outcomes, not portfolio strategy.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (electrical, software, computer) or equivalent experience in lieu of degree.
Fluency in English and French (both written and spoken) is preferred to effectively communicate with diverse stakeholders and ensure accurate interpretation of information.
Knowledge of the organization's industry group, 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 development life cycle; ability to use a structured methodology for delivering and managing new or enhanced software products to the marketplace.
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.
Knowledge of application and system development; ability to utilize a variety of specific tools and toolkits for developing applications.
Knowledge of the concepts, technologies and methodologies of artificial intelligence (AI); ability to develop, implement and/or apply artificial intelligence products and services in specific industry domain to achieve business goals.
Knowledge of relevant programming languages and tools; ability to test, write, design, debug, troubleshoot and maintain source codes and computer programs.
Knowledge of technical troubleshooting approaches, tools and techniques; ability to anticipate, recognize, and resolve technical issues on hardware, software, application or operation.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated ability to effectively manage and optimize a product backlog, including backlog refinement, prioritization aligned to business value, breaking down complex work in deliverable increments (slicing), and ensuring items meet a clear “definition of ready.”
Strong track record of operating within Agile frameworks, actively contributing to key ceremonies such as backlog refinement, spring planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and acceptance activities, with a focus on continuous delivery and improvement.
Confident in managing and maintaining work items within delivery tools (ex: Azure DevOps), including creating, updating, organizing, and tracking work items; ensuring data integrity, traceability, and alignment across teams.
Ability to communicate clearly and effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, facilitate discussions, remove ambiguity, and make timely, informed decisions to maintain delivery momentum.
Experience within mining operations and/or familiarity with the MineStar™ product suite is advantageous, with an understanding of operational workflows, constraints, and domain-specific challenges considered a strong plus (but not essential).

Responsibilities

Own and maintain the team backlog, ensuring work items are structured, prioritized, and continuously refined.
Ensure Features and Stories have sufficient clarity for implementation (problem/context, acceptance criteria, dependencies, constraints).
Drive backlog hygiene and traceability so work remains visible, current, and actionable in the team’s tooling (ex: Azure DevOps).
Lead and/or coordinate backlog refinement to prepare work for upcoming sprints.
During sprint planning, present the highest-priority work and facilitate the conversation so the team can make realistic commitments based on capacity.
Provide ongoing clarification during execution to keep delivery unblocked and aligned to intended outcomes.
Act as the team’s primary day-to-day interface for stakeholders, ensuring the team plan remains aligned to stakeholder needs and inter-team dependencies.
Coordinate priority conflicts and dependency impacts with peer teams (and escalate where needed) to preserve flow and delivery confidence.
Be accountable for Story acceptance, confirming work meets acceptance criteria, aligns to Definition of Done, and is suitable for release/use.
Ensure validation evidence is captured appropriately (tests, demos, notes, acceptance outcome) to avoid “nearly done” carryover.
Maintain delivery visibility by keeping planned work accurately represented (ex: sprint-level view, start/target dates where your process uses them).