Lead Digital Architect

Career Area:

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:  
We are the Platform Architecture team responsible for defining and governing the architecture of large‑scale, mission‑critical digital platforms that underpin key business capabilities. As a Lead Digital Architect, you will own the end‑to‑end architecture solutions for complex systems—balancing scalability, performance, security, and rapid delivery—while influencing Enterprise technology strategy. This role requires strong technical depth, architectural judgment, and the ability to translate ambiguous business needs into durable, scalable solutions.

Core Responsibilities:

• Own and define solution and platform architectures for large‑scale, distributed systems from concept through production.
• Create architecture that meets high standards for scalability, performance, resilience, and security.
• Partner closely with business leaders, product owners, engineering managers, and delivery teams to ensure architectural alignment with business outcomes.
• Assess, select, and introduce new technologies, including proof‑of‑concept development and architectural spikes.
• Establish and enforce architectural standards, patterns, and best practices across platform teams.
• Provide architectural guidance and mentorship to engineering teams, ensuring high‑quality implementation.
• Ensure solutions meet security, compliance, and regulatory requirements.
• Produce and maintain clear architecture documentation, including rationale and trade‑offs.
• Continuously evolve platform architecture to improve developer productivity, system reliability, and cost efficiency.

What You Will Have:

• Architectural Thinking: Ability to decompose complex problem spaces and develop pragmatic architecture options with clearly articulated trade‑offs.
• Technical Leadership: Influence without authority; guide teams through architectural decisions and implementation challenges.
• Communication: Clearly articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Requirements Analysis: Translate business and non‑functional requirements into scalable technical designs.
• Platform & Application Architecture: Strong foundation in designing modern application and platform architectures using established patterns and standards.

Consideration for top candidates:

• Experience defining AI reference architectures and standards for enterprise adoption.
• Ability to explain and defend architectural trade‑offs between classical ML, LLM‑based approaches, and non‑AI solutions.
• Proven experience taking AI systems from proof‑of‑concept to scaled production use.
• Strong programming background in Python and Java, with the ability to reason at code level.
• Proven experience designing and building enterprise‑scale, distributed systems.
• Hands‑on experience with cloud‑native architectures, including AWS services, containerization, and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Deep understanding of data architecture: SQL and NoSQL databases, data warehouses (Snowflake specifically), data modeling, replication, and sharding.
• Experience with modern DevOps practices: CI/CD, infrastructure‑as‑code, observability, and automated testing.
• Strong API design experience (REST, GraphQL, gRPC), including versioning and documentation.
• Ability to evaluate and introduce emerging technologies aligned to business goals.

Additional Details:

• This position requires the candidate to be based in Chicago, IL
• Relocation assistance is NOT available for this position
• Visa sponsorship is NOT available with this position.

Summary Pay Range:

Compensation and benefits offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, job level, market location, job-related knowledge, skills, individual performance and experience. Please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Caterpillar. 

Benefits:

Subject to plan eligibility, terms, and guidelines. This is a summary list of 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

* These benefits also apply to part-time employees

Posting Dates:

Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of a drug screen.

Caterpillar is an Equal Opportunity Employer, Including Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities.  Qualified applicants of any age are encouraged to apply.

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