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# Principal Software Engineer - Digital Twin and Simulation Platform

- **Company:** Caterpillar
- **Location:** Irving, TX, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $147,760 - $240,110
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** HTML, Java (Programming Language), Computer-Aided Design, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, Automation of Tests, C Sharp (Programming Language), C++ (Programming Language), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Cloud Engineering, Continuous Integration, Cursor, Distributed Systems, General-Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units, Interoperability, Python (Programming Language), Node.Js, NoSQL, Operational Data Store, OpenLayers, Software Architecture, Next.js, Simulation Software, Software Engineering, SQL Databases, TypeScript, Digital Twin, Robot Operating System, GitHub Copilot, ReactJS, AngularJS, Kubernetes, Graphql, Web Technologies, Front End Software Development, Unreal Engine, Claude, NVIDIA Omniverse, Software Version Control, Docker, Golang
- **Published:** November 7, 2026
- **Apply:** https://dejobs.org/x/x/81B3FE1D9BFC42DDA670334950B512DD/job/

## About the Role

* Advanced software engineering experience using Python and one or more of C++, C#, Java, Go, or Node.js.

 * Experience with APIs, distributed systems, containers, automated testing, CI/CD, source control, and observability.

 * Experience with cloud platforms and cloud-native architectures, including Docker and Kubernetes.

 * Demonstrated ability to lead architecture and technical delivery across multiple teams.

 * Strong communication, mentoring, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

 * Experience using AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude, or Cursor.

 * Expertise with NVIDIA Omniverse, Omniverse Kit SDK, OpenUSD, RTX rendering, and SimReady asset concepts.

 * Experience with NVIDIA Isaac Sim and integration of robotics simulation into digital twin environments.

 * Experience with NVIDIA Newton or comparable GPU-accelerated physics engines for terrain, contact, rigid-body, and machine interaction modeling.

 * Experience with Unreal Engine, Unity, or equivalent real-time 3D platforms.

 * Experience with GIS and mapping technologies such as Cesium, Mapbox, OpenLayers, terrain meshes, and coordinate reference systems.

 * Strong API and backend architecture experience, including REST, GraphQL, event-driven interfaces, SQL, NoSQL, and object storage.

 * Experience with modern web technologies such as TypeScript, React, Next.js, Angular, HTML, and CSS.

 * Experience deploying GPU simulation and rendering workloads using CoreWeave, Kubernetes, Docker, and NVIDIA Container Toolkit.

Top Candidate / Preferred Experience

 * Seven or more years of hands-on backend software development and five or more years of frontend or visualization development.

 * Experience defining simulation architecture across multiple products or engineering teams.

 * Experience connecting simulation systems with machine, robotics, autonomy, or operational data.

 * Experience with automated map-to-OpenUSD or site-to-simulation pipelines.

## Description

At Caterpillar, technology has a purpose: to solve our customers' toughest challenges. Construction autonomy and Physical AI require trusted digital twins, high-fidelity simulation, scalable GPU computing, intelligent automation, and rigorous validation.

This Principal Engineer role is a hands-on technical leadership position responsible for architecture, critical implementation, engineering standards, cross-team alignment, and mentoring.

Role Purpose

Lead the architecture and development of the next-generation digital twin and simulation software stack, connecting machine models, environments, physics, operational data, mapping, rendering, and robotics software through reusable, interoperable platform services.

What You Will Do

 * Define the end-to-end digital twin and simulation reference architecture.

 * Build reusable software for machines, terrain, sites, sensors, behaviors, scenarios, and visualization.

 * Lead OpenUSD-based asset and scene pipelines, including layers, references, payloads, variants, schemas, materials, and metadata.

 * Develop NVIDIA Omniverse Kit extensions and integrate CAD, GIS, terrain, machine, sensor, and operational data.

 * Establish APIs and data contracts across simulation, robotics, AI, controls, and enterprise platforms.

 * Lead rendering, scene management, mapping, and physically based visualization capabilities.

 * Define standards for fidelity, determinism, performance, interoperability, model versioning, and reuse.

 * Enable containerized simulation workloads across local, on-premises, and CoreWeave GPU environments.

Principal-Level Leadership Expectations

 * Own a major technical capability across multiple teams and programs.

 * Translate ambiguous business and engineering problems into scalable architectures and production software.

 * Lead architecture reviews, technical investigations, design decisions, and engineering standards.

 * Balance research and prototyping with secure, maintainable, production-ready delivery.

 * Mentor senior and developing engineers and support technical hiring and onboarding.

 * Partner across simulation, robotics, autonomy, controls, AI, data, cloud, product, and customer-facing organizations.