Senior Manager, Analytics – Artificial Intelligence R&D

Role Overview

• Set and evangelize a bold technical vision for applied AI at Caterpillar, anticipating where the technology is heading and where it can create the most value for our products, dealers, customers, and operators.
• Define and shape a portfolio of advanced AI initiatives that turn the vision into a focused set of high-impact opportunities for the pod.
• Lead the design and delivery of production-intent prototypes and reference architectures that are robust, well documented, and ready for handoff to engineering and platform teams responsible for productionization and MLOps.
• Define technical standards, patterns, and evaluation criteria that downstream teams can adopt to take AI R&D work to production with high fidelity.
• Partner with the Business POC Pod to advance promising use cases from rapid experimentation to production-intent prototypes, and with the Long-Term Research Pod to mature novel methods into applicable techniques.
• Lead a team of senior data scientists and AI engineers: hiring, performance management, technical coaching, career growth, and setting modeling and engineering standards for R&D work.
• Drive cross-functional alignment with product management, software engineering, dealers, customers, and external partners such as Microsoft and Azure, NVIDIA, and Airwave.
• Establish R&D evaluation practices for AI prototypes, covering offline and online testing, benchmarking, model and system trade-off analysis, and responsible AI considerations.
• Represent the pod to AI R&D leadership and Cat Digital executives, translating ambitious AI work into clear business outcomes and a credible path forward.

Requirements

• Effective communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex technical topics for executive audiences.
• Ability to define and communicate a clear technical vision for applied AI and align teams and stakeholders around it
• Solid statistical and experimental rigor for evaluating AI systems and guiding decision making
• Ability to identify high-value AI opportunities and shape them into focused, actionable initiatives
• Experience leading senior technical teams and setting a high technical bar through coaching, feedback, and standards.
• Strong partnership skills to work across product, engineering, and external partners to influence direction and drive alignment.
• Strong command of Python-based ML stacks and modern AI frameworks, with a clear point of view on modeling standards, experimentation practices, and prototype quality.
• Solid statistical foundation applied to AI experimentation, including A/B testing, significance and rigorous measurement of accuracy, latency, cost, and safety in prototype settings.
• Experience partnering with hyperscaler and hardware partners such as AWS, Microsoft and Azure, NVIDIA, or equivalent.
• Familiarity with simulation and synthetic environments used to accelerate AI development for physical, real-world systems.
• Experience leading or contributing to design thinking and user research for AI experiences serving operators, dealers, or field users.
• Strong focus on responsible AI, data classification, and PII handling in line with enterprise compliance expectations.

Tech Stack

• AWS
• Azure
• Python

Benefits

• 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