Principal Architect, Simulation Engine (Physical AI)

Caterpillar

Confirmed live yesterday Trusted

Quick summary

Work type
On-site
Location
Irving, TX
Salary
$159,120–$258,570 / yr
Posted
12 days ago
Freshness
Confirmed live yesterday
Closes
Nov 29, 2026
Nearby
99+ roles within 25 mi

Market check

Salary context

Competitive pay

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $231k
This role $209k
$144k $300k
below market most similar roles pay here above market

This role pays less than 60% of similar roles. Most pay $194,733–$267,125 — the blue band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $209k versus about $231k for comparable roles.

Based on 240 similar postings.

Employer

About Caterpillar

Caterpillar Inc. is the world''s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. Industry: Heavy Equipment & Manufacturing

Caterpillar currently has 131 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $128,470–$192,710 across 125 roles with salary data.

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View all roles at Caterpillar

At a glance

TL;DR · Principal Architect, Simulation Engine (Physical AI)

Role Posting Log in to save

The Principal Architect – Simulation Engine joins the simulation engineering team to define the technical vision and roadmap for a platform underpinning Physical AI and autonomy for construction and mining machines. This role involves designing core abstractions for world and asset representation, physics, rendering, and sensor models to reproduce complex behaviors like deformable terrain interactions and sensor noise in various weather conditions. You will build high-fidelity, deterministic environments for software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop runs, utilizing technologies including NVIDIA Omniverse, Isaac Sim, PhysX, Unreal Engine, OpenUSD, C++, Python, and CUDA. The work focuses on creating a scalable simulation foundation for training reinforcement learning models and validating autonomous systems against real-world field data to ensure safe, productive operations in dynamic jobsites.

What does a Architect earn?

Median $225000 from 47 postings across 26 companies.

See salary data

Skills

NVIDIA Omniverse Isaac Sim Unreal Engine C++ Python OpenUSD PhysX CUDA Kubernetes Ray gRPC Protocol Buffers CI/CD Bazel CMake Reinforcement Learning LiDAR Radar GNSS Sim-to-Real SIL HIL Slurm

What you'll do

  • Define the technical vision, architecture, and roadmap for the simulation platform underpinning Physical AI and autonomy.
  • Design core simulation abstractions for world and asset representation using OpenUSD and physics stacks like NVIDIA Omniverse.
  • Establish measurable standards for simulation fidelity, determinism, performance, and developer experience.
  • Lead the sim-to-real correlation program to ensure simulator trustworthiness against real-world field data.
  • Develop detailed architecture deliverables to solve complex business problems and technical requirements.
  • Design technical infrastructure including specific databases, programming languages, utilities, and testing approaches.
  • Evaluate and deploy new technologies to enhance existing digital technical capabilities.
  • Oversee simulation execution models for open-loop replay and closed-loop software/hardware-in-the-loop runs.

What we're looking for

  • Bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
  • Typically 8+ years in software engineering with ownership of a production simulation platform for autonomous vehicles or robotics.
  • Expert modern C++ and strong Python skills.
  • Hands-on experience with NVIDIA Omniverse, Isaac Sim, PhysX, and Unreal Engine.
  • Experience with high-fidelity physics including multibody dynamics, deformable terrain, and sensor simulation for LiDAR, radar, and GNSS.
  • Experience with GPU clusters and cloud technologies including Kubernetes, Slurm, Ray, and CUDA.
  • Knowledge of reinforcement learning, neural simulation, and world foundation models.
  • Experience with gRPC, Protocol Buffers, Bazel, or CMake for large monorepos.

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