Principal Architect – Digital Twin at Caterpillar in Irving, TX

Job description

Career Area: Technology, Digital and Data Job Description: 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. Help Build the Future of Caterpillar – At Caterpillar, technology always has a purpose, which is to solve our customers’ toughest challenges. Through Cat Technology, we are solving problems by building the intelligence layer that connects machines, data, and people to make jobsites safer, more productive, and more sustainable. By combining deep domain expertise in physical systems with software, connectivity, autonomy, and AI, we deliver solutions that work in the real world—on real jobsites, at global scale. You’ll build and deploy against one of the most unique data foundations—over 1.6 million connected assets generating real-world data daily. These data and platform capabilities are enabling the development of AI models, edge computing architectures, and software systems that scale across fleets, products, and industries. The result will be a new generation of machines that continuously learn, improve, and deliver performance at scale. Be Part of What’s Next in Autonomous Construction Sites Construction autonomy is one of the most complex challenges in applied AI, and at Caterpillar, advancements in physical AI, simulation, sensing, and edge computing are turning things that once felt impossible—intelligent machines operating in dynamic jobsites—into reality. Our connected ecosystem brings together massive volumes of high-quality data to create a foundation where engineers like you can build and deploy against. If this work motivates you, we invite you to join our team. In these roles, you’ll work at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. You’ll help design and deliver intelligent systems that enable machines to perceive their environment, make informed decisions, and support safer, more productive operations. Apply today to build the new era of construction autonomy at Caterpillar. Job Summary: The Digital Twin Architect owns what is in our virtual world and how faithful it is — the machine, the jobsite, the sensors, and the live data that keeps them honest. The Principal Digital Architect – Digital Twin is responsible for the architecture of the digital twins that Physical AI, simulation, and autonomy are developed and validated against. This spans three twin families: machine twins (kinematics, multibody dynamics, hydraulics, powertrain, implements and tools, and their interaction with material), jobsite / environment twins (terrain and design surfaces from survey, drone photogrammetry and LiDAR scans, GIS and geospatial data, site infrastructure, dynamic site state, weather and lighting), and sensor twins (camera, LiDAR, radar, GNSS, IMU models mounted in their true frames on the machine). Each twin must be simulation-ready, physically based, versioned, and validated against the real machine and site. The architect defines the asset and scene pipeline that turns CAD, PLM, survey, and reality-capture data into simulation-ready OpenUSD assets and environments for NVIDIA Omniverse / Isaac Sim and Unreal Engine; the data model that connects twins to machine telemetry and fleet data so twins reflect the as-operated machine and as-built site; the validation and correlation program (test data correlation, scenario-based testing, regression testing, telematics comparison) that quantifies twin fidelity; and the synthetic data and neural reconstruction (3D Gaussian Splatting, NeRF, real-to-sim) workflows that scale twin creation. The role works closely with the Simulation Engine a