This role pays more than
56%
of similar roles. Most pay
$167,950–$235,750
— the shaded band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$209k
versus about
$202k
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
62 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$131,789–$192,710
across 61 roles with salary data.
The Spatial Intelligence Architect joins the Robotics team to define the spatial-reasoning architecture that enables autonomous machines to reason about space, terrain, reach, and their own footprint. This role is responsible for turning upstream environment inputs into motion and implement planning, ensuring machines can perform specific tasks like positioning a bucket or blade rather than just navigating a path. The architect will develop technical infrastructure, evaluate new technologies, and establish standards for spatial-grounded VLA, behavior generation, and decision architecture. Key requirements include expertise in motion planning, geometry, and autonomous systems, alongside skills in application design, platform architecture, and requirement analysis. The role addresses the complex challenge of construction autonomy by creating intelligent systems that allow machines to perceive their environment and execute precise actions on dynamic job sites using a massive data foundation of connected assets.
Define the spatial-reasoning architecture that allows autonomous machines to reason about space, terrain, and reach.
Design technical infrastructure including specific databases, programming languages, and testing approaches for robotics applications.
Develop motion planning systems to coordinate the movement of machine implements like buckets or blades.
Create architectural roadmaps and standards for spatially grounded Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models and behavior generation.
Lead the evaluation and deployment of new technologies to enhance existing digital capabilities.
Translate complex business requirements into technical application designs and IT blueprints.
Establish architectural patterns and govern technology decisions across multiple engineering organizations.
Define the interfaces for robotics systems to consume data from upstream teams.
What we're looking for
Knowledge of application design, architecture principles, and methodologies to convert business requirements into technical designs.
Ability to design platform architectures, including processing mechanisms, roadmaps, and interfaces for end-user access.
Proficiency in requirement analysis to elicit and record functional and non-functional requirements for software projects.
Ability to develop IT blueprints and target architecture roadmaps aligned with business strategies.
Experience architecting spatial reasoning and real-time motion planning for physical machines or autonomous vehicles (preferred).
Experience planning coordinated motion of an actuated implement or manipulator, such as a bucket or boom (preferred).
Familiarity with spatially grounded VLA, embodied AI, and behavior generation from spatial reasoning (preferred).
Progressive career in software engineering and architecture focused on autonomy, motion planning, or robotics at a senior or principal level (preferred).