Senior Autonomy Project Team Lead

Caterpillar•Irving, IL

2d•Onsite

About The Position

This exciting opportunity will place you in a crucial role in Caterpillar’s delivery of Autonomous Solutions to our customers in the construction industries. This position is for a Senior Autonomy Project Team Lead serving as the L8 Validation Lead within the Cat Technology - Autonomy - System Integration & Validation division. This individual will provide Validation Leadership for the next generation of AI-powered autonomous solutions aimed at solving our customers toughest challenges. This role includes the opportunity to provide internally facing team leadership to our globally based integration & validation team members – as well as serving as a key point of contact with internal partner development teams. The individual will deliver new levels of development & validation efficiency, set the system integration & validation strategy, lead team members, and represent the Product Quality swim lane for the associated NPI programs. Outstanding technical, coordination, and communication skills are a must for this position.

Requirements

Tactical, Strategic Planning: Knowledge of effective planning techniques and ability to contribute to operational (short term), tactical (1-2 years) and strategic (3-5 years) planning in support of the overall business plan. Expertise in developing multiyear strategic-level validation initiatives. Knowledge of annual budget planning cycle processes
Effective Communications: Expertise in presenting concise status summaries to cross functional New Product Introduction (NPI) teams and director/executive level stakeholders.
Cross-Team Integration: Expertise in leading regular team forums focused on project plan management, issue triage and management, and technical evaluation of validation techniques.
Project Management: Expertise in developing and managing project management plans. Expertise in challenging teams to pressure test schedule durations in plan development.
Software Development Life Cycle: Knowledge of Agile software development methodologies and practices. Expertise with complex software applications within system of system level products
Requires a degree in an accredited Electrical, Computer, or Mechanical Engineering ; or Computer Science curriculum.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting projects in Heavy Equipment (Automotive, Manufacturing, Robotics, etc.)
Prior validation or testing experience of Engineering Product Development
Prior experience with hands-on testing of HIL equipment
Exposure to AI in Engineering preferred (GenAI)

Responsibilities

Champion Product Quality for all Construction Autonomy NPI programs
Drive Efficiency initiatives to reduce reliance on machines for Development and Validation efforts – specifically in the areas of AI-based product validation, virtual product development (VPD) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL).
Lead NPI Product Quality swim lane activities including Validation planning and status reporting.
Manage priorities for integration & validation team members – from setting major release strategy down to day-to-day coordination in daily huddles.
Lead coordination of Defect / Issue management.
Lead a culture of continuous improvement through issue retrospectives.