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# Lead Software Engineer

- **Company:** Caterpillar
- **Location:** Chicago, IL, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $128,470.0 - $208,770.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Java (Programming Language), Agile Methodology, Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Software Applications, User Authentication, Automation of Tests, Cloud Computing, Cloud Engineering, Software Quality, Databases, Continuous Integration, Relational Databases, HP Systems Insight Manager, Performance Tuning, Systems Development Life Cycle, Software Tools, Application Data, Software Deployment, Software Engineering, SQL Databases, Systems Integration, Software Technical Review, Strategies of Testing, Enterprise Software Applications, Spring-boot, IT Architecture, Software Security, Backend, Containerization, AWS Fargate, Restful APIs, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Software Version Control, Serverless Computing, Docker, Microservices
- **Published:** October 3, 2026
- **Apply:** https://dejobs.org/x/x/12BC087656104792A922E01A97AAB2AB/job/

## About the Role

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 Technical Knowledge: Knowledge of technical aspects of a software products; ability to design, configure and integrate technical aspects of software products.

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.

Considerations For Top Candidates:

 * Proficiency in Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, SQL, microservices, and enterprise backend application development
 * Hands-on experience with AWS and cloud-native architectures, including services such as Lambda, ECS/Fargate, RDS/Aurora, SQS, and SNS
 * Experience designing and implementing RESTful APIs, service integrations, asynchronous processing, and event-driven applications
 * Experience with relational databases and application data-access patterns
 * Experience with automated testing, CI/CD, source control, application monitoring, and production troubleshooting
 * Experience with Agile development methodologies and the software development lifecycle (SDLC), * AWS certification or advanced hands-on experience developing production workloads on AWS
 * Experience with enterprise application modernization and migration to cloud-native architectures
 * Experience with Docker, containerized applications, and modern application deployment patterns
 * Knowledge of API security, authentication and authorization, application security, performance optimization, and observability
 * Experience with high-volume, highly available, distributed enterprise applications
 * Experience providing technical leadership, architecture guidance, design and code reviews, and mentoring to software engineers

## Description

The Lead Software Engineer is responsible for developing and maintaining the Caterpillar Product Content (CPC) platform. This platform delivers product and parts data (including specifications, descriptions, images, videos, and marketing content) to internal digital properties such as Cat.com, Shop.cat.com, Parts.cat.com, and dealer systems.

This role collaborates closely with the broader CPC team, requiring strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills. We're especially interested in engineers who bring hands-on AI/agentic development experience and are comfortable applying spec-driven development practices to accelerate delivery and improve quality across the platform.

What You Will Do:

 * Design, modify, develop, and implement scalable, cloud-native software applications and services for enterprise platforms using modern software engineering practices and agile methodologies
 * Gather and clarify business and technical stakeholder requirements, and resolve application, integration, and workflow challenges through automation, optimization, and process improvement
 * Write high-quality Java source code, REST APIs, reusable software components, and technical documentation for new applications and services, and enhance and modernize existing solutions
 * Use automated testing frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, code-quality tools, and monitoring solutions to perform testing, quality assurance, deployment validation, troubleshooting, and ongoing maintenance
 * Design and implement RESTful APIs, microservices, asynchronous processing, and event-driven integrations with a focus on security, scalability, reliability, performance, and maintainability
 * Design, develop, and support cloud-native solutions on AWS, leveraging appropriate serverless, container, database, messaging, and integration technologies


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