Principal SW Engineer – Distributed Systems & Cloud-Native Platform (Java)

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.

Role Summary We’re seeking a Principal Software Engineer to build and evolve large-scale, distributed systems that power mission-critical platforms. This is a senior technical leadership role for engineers who thrive on solving hard, ambiguous problems at scale, and who can influence architecture across teams. You will drive system design, scalability, and engineering excellence, while remaining deeply hands-on in building high-performance backend systems on a modern cloud-native stack.

What You’ll Do

• Architect and build high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems using Java and microservices
• Lead end-to-end system design across services, data, and platform layers
• Design for scale, resilience, fault tolerance, and operability from first principles
• Build and operate containerized workloads on Kubernetes (multi-service, production scale)
• Define and raise the bar on architecture, APIs, and engineering quality standards
• Drive cross-team technical decisions and resolve complex system bottlenecks
• Mentor senior engineers and act as a technical multiplier across teams
• Influence platform roadmap, modernization, and developer productivity

Basic Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience building and operating backend systems at scale
• Strong expertise in Java, Spring Boot, Microservices, Distributed Systems
• Proven experience designing highly available, large-scale systems (traffic, data, or compute)
• Hands-on with Kubernetes and Docker in production environments
• Strong fundamentals in system design, concurrency, data modeling, and performance optimization
• Deep experience with PostgreSQL or similar databases

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with event-driven architectures (Kafka / streaming systems)
• Exposure to cloud platforms (AWS/Azure) and hybrid architectures
• Experience with observability, reliability engineering, and production operations
• Contributions to platform engineering, frameworks, or internal developer platforms
• Track record of influencing architecture across multiple teams or product

Tech Stack Java | Spring Boot | Microservices | Kubernetes | Docker | PostgreSQL | CI/CD | Cloud (AWS/Azure)

Posting Dates July 2, 2026 - July 15, 2026 Caterpillar is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants of any age are encouraged to apply Not ready to apply? Join our Talent Community.