Job Description

Career Area:

Technology Digital and Data

Job Description:

Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc.

When you join Caterpillar yourejoining 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 dontjust 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 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.

Job Summary:

The AI Research & Development (AI R&D) team at Cat Digital is seeking a Lead Data Scientist to serve as a senior technical leader at the intersection of applied AI advanced technology and forwardlooking research. This role focuses on designing building evaluating and scaling AI prototypes and Proofs of Concept (POCs) with clear production intent while also contributing to longerhorizon research initiatives.

The Lead Data Scientist will work handson across the full AI lifecycle from data preparation and experimentation to model evaluation and productionreadiness collaborating closely with Product Engineering and Business stakeholders to translate emerging AI capabilities into impactful enterprise solutions.

What You Will Do:

• Stay current with emerging AI research by conducting ongoing literature reviews across core AI workstreams such as speech/voice vision multimodal systems retrieval and autonomous agents and actively apply relevant innovations to Cat Digitals AI R&D portfolio.
• Assess and compare academic and industry advancements to guide architecture choices experimentation strategy and productionreadiness decisions.
• Synthesize research findings into practical enterpriserelevant insights that influence prototyping priorities and longterm AI strategy.
• Lead hands on experimentation and development of advanced machine learning and generative AI solutions including LLMs multimodal models (text vision speech) retrieval augmented generation (RAG) agents and simulation/digital twin use cases.
• Design build and curate high quality datasets for training fine tuning validation and evaluation of AI models at scale.
• Define and execute rigorous model evaluation strategies including benchmarking model quality accuracy latency cost robustness and safety tradeoffs.
• Drive rapid prototyping and POC development with a strong focus on reproducibility experiment tracking and observability to enable informed technical decision making.
• Research compare and optimize model architectures algorithms and AI system designs to improve performance scalability and enterprise readiness.
• Partner with Product and Engineering teams to translate research outcomes and prototypes into production ready capabilities including defining technical requirements and success metrics.
• Communicate complex technical findings and insights clearly to both technical and non technical stakeholders influencing roadmap and investment decisions.

What You Will Have:

• Structured AI Technology Research: Demonstrated experience conducting structured technology research and literature reviews in advanced AI domains with the ability to translate theoretical innovation into applied enterprisegrade solutions.
• Applied Statistics & Quantitative Methods: Extensive experience applying statistical thinking to experimentation evaluation and decision making in ambiguous research driven environments.
• Analytical Rigor & Attention to Detail: Proven ability to design precise experiments validate assumptions and ensure accuracy and reproducibility of results.
• Advanced Machine Learning & AI: Extensive knowledge of modern ML techniques including deep learning generative AI NLP computer vision and multimodal systems with hands on implementation experience.
• Model Evaluation & Optimization: Strong experience evaluating model quality and system level tradeoffs across accuracy latency cost and scalability dimensions.
• Programming Expertise: Extensive proficiency in Python for AI and ML development including use of modern AI frameworks and tooling.
• Data Engineering & Access: Strong understanding of data storage retrieval and processing systems required to support large scale training and experimentation workflows.
• Requirements & Systems Thinking: Ability to define technical and non functional requirements that bridge research engineering and production concerns.

Considerations for Top Candidates:

• Masters or PhD degree in Data Science Computer Science Machine Learning Statistics Applied Mathematics Engineering or a closely related technical field.
• Extensive experience building and deploying advanced ML models beyond traditional analytics use cases.
• Extensive proficiency in Python (NumPy Pandas PyTorch LangChain etc.); ability to write clean maintainable production-oriented code and contribute to shared AI infrastructure.
• Strong hands on experience with generative AI large language models deep neural networks and modern ML frameworks.
• Demonstrated experience designing evaluation frameworks and benchmarks for AI systems.
• Familiarity with AI infrastructure cloud platforms (AWS Azure) and scalable experimentation environments.
• Advanced experience with version control experiment tracking and collaborative development (e.g. Git based workflows).
• Experience working in Agile cross functional product development environments.
• Prior exposure to industrial manufacturing heavy equipment or complex physical systems is a strong plus but not required.

Summary Pay Range:

$128470.00 - $208770.00

Compensation and benefits offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors job level market locationjob-related knowledge skills individual performance and experience. Please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Caterpillar.

Benefits:

Subject to plan eligibility terms and guidelines. This is a summary list of benefits.

• Medical dental and vision benefits*

• Paid time off plan (Vacation Holidays Volunteer etc.)*

• 401(k) savings plans*

• Health Savings Account (HSA)*

• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)*

• Health Lifestyle Programs*

• Employee Assistance Program*

• Voluntary Benefits and Employee Discounts*

• Career Development*

• Incentive bonus*

• Disability benefits

• Life Insurance

• Parental leave

• Adoption benefits

• Tuition Reimbursement

* These benefits also apply to part-time employees

Visa Sponsorship is not available for this position.

Posting Dates:

April 28 2026 - May 8 2026

Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of a drug screen.

Caterpillar is an Equal Opportunity Employer Including Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities. Qualified applicants of any age are encouraged to apply.

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Required Experience:

IC

Job Tags

Full time, Part time, Worldwide, Flexible hours

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