Senior Embodied AI Engineer

Caterpillar Inc.•San Francisco, CA

3d•$123,980 - $201,450•Onsite

About The Position

We are building the next generation of intelligent robotic systems that combine advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, foundation models, perception, reasoning, and autonomous decision-making. Our mission is to create robots capable of understanding, learning, and operating effectively in complex real-world environments. We are seeking exceptional engineers who thrive at the intersection of robotics and cutting-edge AI. This role is intentionally broad, enabling us to attract experienced talent from robotics, machine learning, foundation models, embodied AI, autonomy, and related disciplines, with an emphasis on delivering production capabilities for physical machines.

Requirements

Knowledge of software product design; ability to convert market requirements into the software product design.
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.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Robotics, AI, Machine Learning, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
5+ years of industry experience developing complex software, robotics, AI, or autonomous systems. Advanced degrees may substitute for a portion of industry experience.
Strong software engineering fundamentals in Python, C++, or similar languages.
Experience owning and delivering a complex production capability or subsystem from design through deployment.
Demonstrated ability to solve ambiguous technical problems, make sound engineering tradeoffs, and influence technical direction across teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience with robotic systems, including ROS/ROS2, motion planning, SLAM/localization, manipulation, controls, behavior planning, or multi-machine coordination.
Expertise applying LLMs, vision-language and vision-language-action models (VLA), multimodal learning, and generative AI to robotic intelligence problems.
Strong background in deep learning, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, self-supervised learning, and representation learning.
Experience with computer vision, sensor fusion, object detection and tracking, and 3D scene understanding.
Experience with distributed or embedded systems, AI infrastructure, simulation and hardware-in-the-loop testing, edge deployment, observability, and performance optimization.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, and deploy AI and autonomy capabilities for robotic systems.
Apply machine learning, foundation models, computer vision, and related technologies to solve real-world autonomy challenges.
Own and contribute to systems that integrate perception, reasoning, planning, and action.
Evaluate emerging technologies and support prototyping efforts to assess potential applications.
Design and execute experiments, simulation scenarios, benchmarks, regression tests, and on-machine performance evaluations.
Collaborate with software, hardware, infrastructure, research, validation, safety, and product teams to deliver production-quality solutions.
Troubleshoot complex technical challenges across software, models, sensors, compute, and machine behavior, and optimize system performance for edge deployment.
Lead and contribute to technical reviews, architecture discussions, and engineering best practices, while mentoring other engineers.
Own the transition of research concepts into scalable, observable, and deployable products.