Safety Systems Software 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.

The Safety Systems Software Architect provides senior technical leadership for the architecture, design, integration, and lifecycle evolution of safety-critical software used in autonomous and semi-autonomous heavy equipment applications. Operating with a high degree of independence, this role defines and governs software architecture for safety systems, ensuring solutions are robust, scalable, verifiable, and aligned with functional safety and product safety objectives.

This individual serves as the software architecture authority for safety systems, translating safety concepts and system requirements into software architecture, interface definitions, fault-handling strategies, degraded-mode behavior, and verification approaches while mentoring engineering teams and influencing technical direction across the organization.

What You Will Do:

• Define and lead the software architecture for operator safety systems, human-machine interaction safety, supervisory control, and safe-state management systems
• Translate safety goals, system requirements, hazard analyses, and operational design constraints into software architecture, interface contracts, safety mechanisms, and verification strategies
• Lead architectural trade-off decisions for real-time performance, determinism, fault containment, diagnostics, monitoring, redundancy, graceful degradation, and maintainability
• Partner with systems engineering, functional safety, cybersecurity, controls, perception, positioning, validation, and product teams to integrate safety considerations into product architecture
• Provide technical leadership across requirements traceability, architecture documentation, design reviews, verification planning, validation evidence, and safety case support
• Develop and guide production-quality C++ software design patterns, reusable safety components, middleware interfaces, and integration approaches for embedded and edge-computing environments
• Troubleshoot complex safety-system behavior across simulation, bench, machine, and production environments, including timing, sensor fusion, perception, fault handling, and integration issues
• Communicate architecture decisions, safety risks, assumptions, constraints, and technical recommendations clearly to engineers, stakeholders, and leadership
• Mentor engineers on safety-focused software architecture, design quality, review practices, and disciplined development of safety-critical systems

What You Have:

• Safety-Critical Software Engineering:
  • Expert-level C++ design and implementation experience for embedded, real-time, or safety-critical software systems
  • Experience designing software components with clear ownership, deterministic behavior, testability, fault detection, fault isolation, and recovery mechanisms
  • Strong engineering practices including requirements traceability, design documentation, code quality, debugging, profiling, static analysis, and disciplined change control
  • Ability to apply structured software design techniques to complex, distributed, and safety-relevant autonomy systems
• SoftwareSafetyArchitecture:
  • Demonstrated experience owning architecture for major software products, safety systems, autonomy systems, or distributed embedded platforms
  • Ability to define software architecture alternatives and evaluate trade-offs across safety, performance, reliability, diagnosability, maintainability, and product delivery
  • Experience establishing interface contracts, data flows, safety monitors, watchdogs, degraded-mode strategies, and safe-state behavior across software and system boundaries
  • Experience facilitating architecture reviews, design walkthroughs, failure-mode discussions, and cross-discipline technical alignment
  • Ability to connect architecture decisions to safety requirements, verification evidence, operational constraints, and lifecycle maintainability
• Functional Safety Practices: Working knowledge of functional safety practices, hazard analysis, risk assessment, safety requirements decomposition, and verification expectations for safety-critical autonomy or machine-control systems.
• Problem Solving:
  • Identifies and documents specific problems and resolution alternatives.
  • Helps to analyze risks and benefits of alternative approaches and obtain decisions on resolution.
  • Uses fact-finding techniques and diagnostic tools to identify problems

• Technical Troubleshooting:
  • Discovers, analyzes, and resolves software or application problems.
  • Analyzes code, logs, and current systems as part of advanced troubleshooting.
  • Records and reports specific technical problems, solving processes and tools that have been used.
• Communicating Complex Concepts:
  • Knowledge of effective presentation tools and techniques to ensure clear understanding; ability to use summarization and simplification techniques to explain complex technical concepts in simple, clear language appropriate to the audience.
  • Perceives lack of audience comprehension; further simplifies explanation when needed.
• Education Requirements: Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field - or commensurate industry experience.

Consideration for Top Candidates:

• Extensive experience as a software architect, technical lead, or senior development engineer for safety-critical, autonomous, robotic, or machine-control systems
• Strong experience architecting software for operator safety, operator awareness, human-machine interaction, remote and autonomous operation safety, safe intervention strategies, perception integration, positioning, controls, or supervisory safety functions
• Experience applying functional safety practices, structured safety analysis, and safety-focused development processes to software architecture and product development preferred
• Experience defining safety mechanisms such as monitoring, plausibility checks, diagnostics, redundancy management, fault containment, degraded operation, and safe-state transitions preferred
• Experience with operator-aware or sensor-driven systems using presence detection, proximity sensing, cameras, radar, LIDAR, GNSS/GPS, inertial sensors, or other perception and positioning inputs preferred
• Experience with real-time controllers, embedded Linux, edge computing, robotics middleware, simulation environments, or hardware-in-the-loop validation preferred
• Experience in construction, mining, off-highway, automotive, aerospace, industrial automation, or other regulated safety-critical industries preferred

Additional Information:

• This position is to work onsite at our Irving TX office.
• Relocation assistance is NOT available for this position.
• Visa sponsorship is NOT available for this position
• This position may require travel up to 30%

Summary Pay Range:

Compensation and benefits offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, job level, market location, job-relatedknowledge, 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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