Senior Principal Architect, Applied AI Enterprise

Caterpillar Inc.•Peoria, IL

7d•$172,630 - $258,950•Onsite

About The Position

Join Caterpillar’s AI Acceleration team to shape how the company builds and deploys AI-powered solutions across the enterprise. This high-visibility technical leadership role serves as a trusted advisor on AI solution design, with a focus on agentic systems that can reason, plan, and take action. The architect partners with IT, business functions, and product teams to ensure solutions are architecturally sound, scalable, and aligned with industry developments, while contributing directly to Caterpillar’s AI strategy and working hands-on with emerging technologies. The position is based onsite five days per week at one of Caterpillar’s offices in Irving, Texas; Peoria, Illinois; or Broomfield, Colorado. Relocation is available. Visa sponsorship is not available. Employment offers are conditioned on successfully completing a drug screen.

Requirements

Expert understanding of effective communication concepts, tools, and techniques, and the ability to accurately convey and interpret ideas, information, and needs.
Deep understanding of modern AI/ML architectures, including transformer models, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agent frameworks, and model orchestration patterns.
Expert knowledge of analytical techniques and tools, including determining root causes of organizational problems and creating alternative solutions.
Hands-on experience with major cloud AI platforms such as Azure OpenAI Service, AWS Bedrock, and Google Vertex AI, and the ability to architect multi-cloud or hybrid solutions.
Expert knowledge of requirements analysis tools, methods, and techniques, including eliciting, analyzing, and documenting functional and non-functional business requirements.
Expert knowledge of data architecture processes, techniques, and factors, including designing blueprints for integrating data resources with business processes and functional support.
Expert knowledge of target architecture and the ability to develop IT blueprints and roadmaps aligned with business strategies and objectives.
Strong knowledge of MLOps practices, including model versioning, deployment pipelines, monitoring, and governance frameworks.

Nice To Haves

Deep experience designing and building agentic AI systems, including multi-agent architectures, tool use, and orchestration patterns.
Experience designing and implementing production AI agent systems using LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, or similar orchestration tools.
Strong understanding of LLM capabilities, limitations, and deployment patterns, including prompt engineering, RAG, function calling, and context engineering.
Experience evaluating and integrating AI/ML infrastructure components such as vector databases, embedding models, orchestration layers, and observability tools.
Broad software engineering background, including API design, authentication and authorization patterns, and enterprise integration.
Ability to translate complex technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders and influence architecture decisions across teams.
Track record of staying current with the rapidly evolving AI landscape and bringing practical recommendations to the table.
Experience with MLOps/LLMOps practices, model monitoring, or production AI systems at scale.

Responsibilities

Develop detailed architecture deliverables to solve business problems using agentic AI systems and patterns.
Design AI application technical infrastructure, including orchestration layers, tool integrations, data retrieval patterns, and testing approaches.
Lead evaluation and deployment of emerging AI technologies and frameworks to enhance Caterpillar’s agentic capabilities.
Translate business requirements into AI solution designs and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver results.