Senior Manager Analytics - Artificial Intelligence R&D

Caterpillar•Chicago, IL

14h

About The Position

Cat Digital is hiring a Senior Manager to lead the Advanced Technology Pod within the AI R&D organization. This leader shapes how artificial intelligence will transform the way Caterpillar designs, builds, operates, and services the machines that move the world. The role sets a bold technical vision for applied AI at Caterpillar, pushing the frontier of what is possible for our products, our dealers, our customers, and the operators in the cab. The pod turns that vision into production-intent prototypes and reference architectures, then hands them off to downstream engineering and platform teams who own productionization, MLOps, and ongoing support. The lead acts as the technical anchor between the Business POC Pod, the Long-Term Research Pod, product, engineering, and external partners.

Requirements

Effective communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex technical topics for executive audiences.
Ability to define and communicate a clear technical vision for applied AI and align teams and stakeholders around it.
Solid statistical and experimental rigor for evaluating AI systems and guiding decision making.
Ability to identify high-value AI opportunities and shape them into focused, actionable initiatives.
Experience leading senior technical teams and setting a high technical bar through coaching, feedback, and standards.
Strong partnership skills to work across product, engineering, and external partners to influence direction and drive alignment.
Prior experience replacing or scaling a senior technical leader's scope, including stabilizing delivery while raising the technical bar.
Strong system-level thinking across data, models, and integration, with the ability to make sound architectural trade-offs.
Deep understanding of how to translate research and experimentation into structured, production-intent prototypes and reference architectures.
Strong expertise in modern AI methods, including large language models, generative systems, and advanced machine learning techniques.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or a related technical field; advanced degree preferred.
Significant experience leading applied AI or AI R&D teams that deliver production-intent prototypes and reference architectures for downstream engineering teams.
Strong command of Python-based ML stacks and modern AI frameworks, with a clear point of view on modeling standards, experimentation practices, and prototype quality.
Solid statistical foundation applied to AI experimentation, including A/B testing, significance, and rigorous measurement of accuracy, latency, cost, and safety in prototype settings.
Experience partnering with hyperscaler and hardware partners such as AWS, Microsoft and Azure, NVIDIA, or equivalent.
Familiarity with simulation and synthetic environments used to accelerate AI development for physical, real-world systems.
Track record of defining reference architectures, evaluation harnesses, and technical playbooks that downstream engineering and platform teams adopt to productionize AI.
Experience leading or contributing to design thinking and user research for AI experiences serving operators, dealers, or field users.
Background in operator-facing and field-deployed AI experiences.
Strong focus on responsible AI, data classification, and PII handling in line with enterprise compliance expectations.
Exposure to Caterpillar's products, dealer network, or comparable industrial and equipment ecosystems is a plus.

Responsibilities

Set and evangelize a bold technical vision for applied AI at Caterpillar, anticipating where the technology is heading and where it can create the most value for our products, dealers, customers, and operators.
Define and shape a portfolio of advanced AI initiatives that turn the vision into a focused set of high-impact opportunities for the pod.
Lead the design and delivery of production-intent prototypes and reference architectures that are robust, well documented, and ready for handoff to engineering and platform teams responsible for productionization and MLOps.
Define technical standards, patterns, and evaluation criteria that downstream teams can adopt to take AI R&D work to production with high fidelity.
Partner with the Business POC Pod to advance promising use cases from rapid experimentation to production-intent prototypes, and with the Long-Term Research Pod to mature novel methods into applicable techniques.
Lead a team of senior data scientists and AI engineers: hiring, performance management, technical coaching, career growth, and setting modeling and engineering standards for R&D work.
Drive cross-functional alignment with product management, software engineering, dealers, customers, and external partners such as Microsoft and Azure, NVIDIA, and Airwave.
Establish R&D evaluation practices for AI prototypes, covering offline and online testing, benchmarking, model and system trade-off analysis, and responsible AI considerations.
Represent the pod to AI R&D leadership and Cat Digital executives, translating ambitious AI work into clear business outcomes and a credible path forward.