Senior Validation Engineer

Career Area: Engineering 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.

Definition: Lead and execute system and software integration validation activities for underground mining programs, with a strong focus on simulation environments, test frameworks, automation, and validation infrastructure development. You will design, build, and evolve scalable validation ecosystems that leverage automation and AI‑assisted techniques to improve coverage, efficiency, and system confidence Responsibilities •    Take end‑to‑end ownership of system and software integration validation for underground mining programs, ensuring solutions meet functional, performance, safety, and quality requirements. •    Own validation outcomes and align to KPIs, including quality, coverage, efficiency, and delivery and drive corrective actions. •    Design, develop, and maintain simulation environments, test frameworks, automation pipelines, and validation infrastructure supporting SIL, HIL, and system‑level testing. •    Define and implement test automation strategies that balance automation and manual testing, aligned to risk and KPI impact.. •    Perform manual testing when required, including exploratory testing, edge cases, new features, customer‑reported issues, and areas not suitable for automation. •    Lead a small team, including task planning, progress tracking, technical guidance, and KPI‑aligned execution. •    Collaborate closely with program management, providing regular updates on validation status, risks, dependencies, and KPI performance. •    Work with systems, software, integration, and hardware teams to ensure validation priorities and dependencies are aligned with program objectives. •    Drive continuous improvement initiatives in validation processes, automation, and infrastructure based on KPI trends, retrospectives, and lessons learned. Qualification and Experience: Degree required in an accredited Engineering in Electronics/CS/IT/Instrumentation curriculum More than 7 years of relevant industry experience in system and software integration validation, automation, simulation, or large‑scale system validation environments.

Descriptors Problem Solving: Knowledge of approaches, tools, techniques for recognizing, anticipating, and resolving organizational, operational or process problems; ability to apply knowledge of problem solving appropriately to diverse situations.  Level Working Knowledge:  •    Identifies and documents specific problems and resolution alternatives. •    Examines a specific problem and understands the perspective of each involved stakeholder. •    Develops alternative techniques for assessing accuracy and relevance of information. •    Helps to analyze risks and benefits of alternative approaches and obtain decision on resolution. •    Uses fact-finding techniques and diagnostic tools to identify problems. Software Product Testing: Strong working knowledge of system and software integration validation, simulation platforms, test frameworks, and automation infrastructure  Level Working Knowledge:  •    Designs, executes, and maintains functional, regression, integration, performance, and reliability testing using both automated and manual approaches as appropriate. •    Participates in test readiness reviews and milestone‑based validation activities •    Maintains end‑to‑end traceability between requirements, test cases, automation assets,