Lead Data Scientist – Artificial Intelligence R&D

Caterpillar Inc.

Lead Data Scientist developing AI prototypes and proofs of concept at Caterpillar Inc. Collaborating with stakeholders to drive enterprise AI solutions.

Posted 4/30/2026full-timeChicago • Illinois • 🇺🇸 United StatesSenior💰 $128,470 - $208,770 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSAzureCloudNumpyPandasPythonPyTorch

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

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 Digital’s AI R&D portfolio.
Assess and compare academic and industry advancements to guide architecture choices, experimentation strategy, and production‑readiness decisions.
Synthesize research findings into practical, enterprise‑relevant insights that influence prototyping priorities and long‑term 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.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Master’s, 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.

Benefits

Comp & perks

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

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

machine learninggenerative AIlarge language modelsdeep neural networksPythonNumPyPandasPyTorchLangChainmodel evaluation

Soft Skills

communicationcollaborationinfluencingtechnical decision-makingexperiment trackingprototypingproblem-solvingleadershiporganizationadaptability

Certifications

Master’s degreePhD degree