Senior Software Engineer - Data Platform

Senior Engineer

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.

Caterpillar products generate and process large amounts of data from sensors, on-board models, and control algorithms in real-time creating real-world machine usage information. As part of the overall digital strategy Caterpillar has developed an integrated family of machine-based information technology products that interconnect machines to provide real-time guidance, tracking, monitoring, and supervisory control of the operational mining fleet. This family of products is branded MineStar. The MineStar product range links with other mining and business information systems and is an integral part of the Mining Technology Enabled Solutions vision.

About the position: We're seeking an experienced Senior Engineer to join a specialist team focused on building a scalable data platform which ingests high-frequency telemetry data from mobile field machines and supports data science and machine learning workloads.

You'll be instrumental in transforming a legacy Java Spring Boot monolith into a containerized, scalable, cloud-ready architecture, while enabling stream and batch data processing, lakehouse persistence, and low-latency predictive model hosting.

Responsibilities:

• Design and implement robust, scalable components for ingesting, processing, and persisting high-frequency telemetry data.
• Collaborate with data scientists to host, orchestrate, and optimize workloads in Python, Scala, and Java.
• Design and build components using technologies like Apache Spark, Delta Lake, Redis/Valkey, MQTT, and PostgreSQL.

Drive modernization efforts including:

• Containerization and deployment on Kubernetes.
• Integration with S3-compatible object stores (e.g., Ceph).
• Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies (e.g., Flink, Trino, Kafka, DuckDB, Dask, Daft) to optimize performance and scalability.
• Use your experience to contribute to architectural decisions involving event sourcing, CQRS, and hybrid cloud deployments.

Ideal Candidate Profile:

• Extensive experience in backend development with languages such as Java, Scala, and Python.
• Proven track record working in teams to develop large, complex applications.
• Deep understanding of streaming and batch data processing, ideally with Apache Spark or similar.
• Experience with containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes).
• Familiarity with data lake/lakehouse architectures, especially Delta Lake.
• Strong knowledge of message brokers (MQTT, Kafka) and caching systems (Redis/Valkey).
• Comfortable working across multiple languages (Java, Python, Scala).
• Experience in designing systems for scalability, multi-tenancy, and hybrid deployments.
• Prior experience in Data Engineering roles, and expertise in machine learning algorithms and statistical modelling will be highly regarded.
• Mining Industry knowledge will be desirable, however not mandatory.

Why Join Us?

• Work on a technically challenging and meaningful application in the mining domain.
• Be part of a forward-thinking team driving innovation in data-centric systems.
• Influence architectural direction and technology choices.
• Collaborate with experts in autonomy, data science, and distributed systems.

Compensation & Benefits: Competitive salary based on degree and professional industry working experience. The Total Rewards package includes:

• Competitive remuneration package
• Attractive Bonus and Share options
• Career development with global prospects
• A strong commitment to safety and your wellbeing
• An inclusive workplace culture focused on quality, customer service and the environment
• A commitment to diversity and inclusion, equal opportunity, and equal outcome
• SMART spending APP
• The opportunity to do truly meaningful work in a supportive, constructive culture that encourages you to make the most of your talents.

Additional Information: Caterpillar of Australia is not currently hiring individuals for this position who now or in future require sponsorship for employment-based non-immigrant and immigrant visas. However, as a global company, Caterpillar offers many job opportunities outside of Australia which can be found through our employment website http://www.caterpillar.com/careers. This position is not offering hybrid working arrangements, the successful candidate must be available to work 5 days from the office.

Your road to success begins with a Caterpillar career. By joining the Caterpillar team, you'll discover that working for a global leader creates endless opportunities for you.