Senior Software Engineer

Caterpillar•Chicago, IL

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 Digital is the digital and technology arm of Caterpillar Inc., leveraging the latest technologies to build industry leading digital solutions for our customers and dealers. With over 1.5 million connected assets worldwide, our teams use data, technology, advanced analytics, telematics, and AI capabilities to help our customers build a better, more sustainable world. Senior Software Engineer — Emerging Technology Role Summary : We are looking for a driven, hands-on Senior Software Engineer to help advance emerging technology capabilities from exploration to practical business impact. This role is ideal for someone who is energized by ambiguity, learns quickly, and actively experiments with new tools and approaches—including generative AI, large language models, AI-assisted development, intelligent automation, cloud-native services, APIs, and modern development platforms. The right candidate will evaluate what is possible, validate what is valuable, and help incorporate the most promising capabilities into scalable, secure, and sustainable solutions.

Requirements

Decision Making and Critical Thinking: Knowledge of the decision-making process and associated tools and techniques; ability to accurately analyze situations and reach productive decisions based on informed judgment.
Software Development: Knowledge of software development tools and activities; ability to produce software products or systems in line with product requirements.
Software Development Life Cycle: Knowledge of software development life cycle; ability to use a structured methodology for delivering and managing new or enhanced software products to the marketplace.
Software Integration Engineering: Knowledge of software integration processes and functions; ability to design, develop and maintain interfaces and linkage to alternative platforms and software packages.
Software Product Design/Architecture: Knowledge of software product design; ability to convert market requirements into the software product design.
Software Product Testing: 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.
Strong software engineering fundamentals across design, integration, testing, and scalable solution delivery.
Ability to quickly evaluate emerging technologies, assess risk and value, and make practical recommendations.
Hands-on experience with modern development tools, cloud-native patterns, APIs, automation, and AI-enabled capabilities.
Comfort working in ambiguity, learning quickly, testing assumptions, and moving ideas toward validated outcomes.
Clear communication of technical concepts, prototype outcomes, architecture options, and tradeoffs.
Cross-functional collaboration with product, architecture, data, security, operations, and business partners.
Growth mindset, strong ownership, and passion for learning, experimentation, mentoring, and continuous improvement.
Self-directed, curious, and eager to experiment with new tools and technologies.
Able to move quickly while balancing security, quality, scalability, and responsible AI practices.
Clear communicator who can translate technical opportunities and tradeoffs into practical business terms.
Focused on measurable value, adoption potential, and alignment to product or enterprise strategy.
Helps raise team capability through mentoring, shared patterns, and continuous improvement.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Experience with generative AI, LLMs, RAG, prompt engineering, AI-assisted development, or intelligent automation.
Experience creating proofs of concept, pilots, or MVPs that validate feasibility and value.
Familiarity with cloud platforms, APIs, microservices, data pipelines, vector databases, DevOps, or observability tools.
Experience with responsible AI, security, privacy, data governance, testing, and production readiness.
Ability to lead technical discussions, mentor others, and influence adoption through demos and documentation.

Responsibilities

Design, prototype, test, and deploy modern software applications, pilots, and reusable components using agile and iterative delivery methods.
Actively explore, evaluate, and apply emerging technologies—including generative AI, LLM-powered workflows, AI-assisted development, automation, cloud services, and integration platforms—to solve practical business problems.
Turn loosely defined ideas, customer needs, and technical opportunities into proofs of concept, pilots, and production-ready features that demonstrate measurable value.
Apply engineering best practices for automated testing, security, observability, performance, maintainability, responsible AI usage, and operational readiness.
Partner with product, architecture, data, security, operations, and business teams to identify high-impact use cases, define success criteria, communicate tradeoffs, and transition successful experiments into enterprise-ready solutions.
Stay current with technology trends, share learnings through demos and documentation, and help raise the team’s capability by mentoring others and championing a culture of curiosity, ownership, and continuous improvement.