Principal Digital Architect

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.

Job Summary / Role Purpose

The AI Architect (Principal Digital Architect) provides enterprise-level architectural leadership for designing and scaling AI-native solutions across large, complex problem spaces. This role operates at platform and enterprise scope as an individual contributor, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, Security, Data, and Operations to ensure architecture decisions are scalable, secure, operable, and aligned to enterprise standards.

You will develop detailed architecture deliverables, design technical infrastructure, lead evaluation/adoption of technologies, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver outcomes at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Enterprise AI Architecture & Strategy
• Define and evolve target and reference architectures for enterprise AI solutions (GenAI, ML, hybrid systems)
• Translate business needs into end-to-end AI solution architectures
• AI Solution Design
• Design technical infrastructure for AI systems including compute, storage, orchestration, and integration
• Lead architecture for large-scale AI workloads
• Technology Evaluation
• Lead build vs buy decisions and PoCs/PoTs
• Evaluate performance, scalability, security, cost and operability
• Architecture Governance
• Ensure compliance with architecture standards and NFRs (security, performance, cost)
• Delivery Enablement
• Provide hands-on guidance, patterns, and architectural direction to teams
  
  

• Hands-on experience designing large-scale AI solutions
• Strong knowledge of GenAI, ML systems, RAG, agentic architectures
• Deep understanding of data architecture, cloud, distributed systems
• Experience with CI/CD, observability, and scalable platforms
  
  

• Strong stakeholder influence and communication skills
• Ability to drive architecture decisions through technical leadership
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
  
  

• 20+ years of experience in enterprise architecture and software engineering
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or equivalent