H-1B Visa Principal AI Engineer Jobs
Principal AI Engineer jobs with H-1B visa sponsorship sit squarely in specialty occupation territory: the role demands a bachelor's degree or higher in computer science, electrical engineering, or a directly related field. Employers file an LCA with DOL and an I-129 petition with USCIS, sponsoring you for an initial three-year period extendable to six.
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Technology, Digital and Data
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:
At Caterpillar, technology has a purpose to solve our customers' toughest challenges. Construction autonomy and Physical AI require trusted digital twins, high-fidelity simulation, scalable GPU computing, intelligent automation, and rigorous validation.
This Principal Engineer role is a hands-on technical leadership position responsible for architecture, critical implementation, engineering standards, cross-team alignment, and mentoring.
What You Will Do
- Define the architecture for agentic simulation and multi-agent engineering workflows, and build agents that interact with simulation engines, digital twins, APIs, datasets, and engineering tools.
- Lead automated map-to-simulation, site-to-simulation, scenario-generation, and experiment-planning workflows.
- Apply foundation models and multimodal AI to simulation configuration, monitoring, troubleshooting, analysis, and reporting.
- Establish tool calling, workflow state, memory, human approvals, guardrails, observability, and auditability, and create evaluation frameworks for accuracy, reliability, reproducibility, latency, cost, safety, and task completion.
- Integrate AI services with NVIDIA Omniverse, Isaac Sim, OpenUSD, Cosmos, databases, knowledge systems, and cloud services.
- Deploy and scale GPU inference and agent workloads on CoreWeave and Kubernetes.
- Own a major technical capability across multiple teams and programs, partnering across simulation, robotics, autonomy, controls, AI, data, cloud, product, and customer-facing organizations.
- Translate ambiguous business and engineering problems into scalable architectures and production software, balancing research and prototyping with secure, maintainable delivery.
- Lead architecture reviews, technical investigations, design decisions, and engineering standards.
- Mentor senior and developing engineers, and support technical hiring and onboarding.
Top Candidates will Have:
- Seven or more years of software development and three or more years developing ML, generative AI, or intelligent automation systems.
- Advanced software engineering experience in Python and one or more of C++, C#, Java, Go, or Node.js, with strong API, distributed systems, event-driven workflow, and backend services experience.
- Experience with containers, automated testing, CI/CD, source control, observability, and cloud platforms and cloud-native architectures, including Docker and Kubernetes.
- Experience designing and delivering production agentic AI, generative AI, or intelligent automation systems, including taking an AI-enabled capability from prototype through production.
- Experience with RAG, embeddings, vector search, knowledge graphs, semantic data models, structured outputs, and multimodal models.
- Experience with NVIDIA NIM, NeMo, Nemotron, or comparable foundation-model and inference ecosystems.
- Experience with NVIDIA Cosmos or comparable world foundation models for Physical AI, scenario generation, and simulation augmentation.
- Experience connecting AI agents to NVIDIA Omniverse, Isaac Sim, OpenUSD, or other simulation, robotics, scientific computing, or enterprise engineering platforms.
- Working knowledge of Newton, physics simulation, and robotics workflows sufficient to orchestrate and evaluate tool use.
- Experience with AI evaluation datasets, test harnesses, security controls, observability, and human-in-the-loop governance.
- Experience deploying GPU inference using Docker, Kubernetes, NVIDIA GPUs, and CoreWeave or comparable GPU cloud infrastructure.
- Demonstrated ability to lead architecture and technical delivery across multiple teams.
- Strong communication, mentoring, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Experience using AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude, or Cursor.
Preferred technology stack: NVIDIA Cosmos, NIM, NeMo, Nemotron, Omniverse, Isaac Sim, OpenUSD, Agentic AI, RAG, Python, CUDA, Docker, Kubernetes, and CoreWeave.
Additional Details:
This position requires the candidate to work full-time at the Irving, TX office (Dallas).
Domestic relocation assistance is available for this position.
Visa sponsorship is available with this position.
Summary Pay Range:
$159,120.00 - $258,570.00
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
This position requires working onsite five days a week.
Relocation is available for this position.
Visa sponsorship is available for eligible applicants.
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.
Not ready to apply? Join our Talent Community.
Career Area:
Technology, Digital and Data
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:
At Caterpillar, technology has a purpose to solve our customers' toughest challenges. Construction autonomy and Physical AI require trusted digital twins, high-fidelity simulation, scalable GPU computing, intelligent automation, and rigorous validation.
This Principal Engineer role is a hands-on technical leadership position responsible for architecture, critical implementation, engineering standards, cross-team alignment, and mentoring.
What You Will Do
- Define the architecture for agentic simulation and multi-agent engineering workflows, and build agents that interact with simulation engines, digital twins, APIs, datasets, and engineering tools.
- Lead automated map-to-simulation, site-to-simulation, scenario-generation, and experiment-planning workflows.
- Apply foundation models and multimodal AI to simulation configuration, monitoring, troubleshooting, analysis, and reporting.
- Establish tool calling, workflow state, memory, human approvals, guardrails, observability, and auditability, and create evaluation frameworks for accuracy, reliability, reproducibility, latency, cost, safety, and task completion.
- Integrate AI services with NVIDIA Omniverse, Isaac Sim, OpenUSD, Cosmos, databases, knowledge systems, and cloud services.
- Deploy and scale GPU inference and agent workloads on CoreWeave and Kubernetes.
- Own a major technical capability across multiple teams and programs, partnering across simulation, robotics, autonomy, controls, AI, data, cloud, product, and customer-facing organizations.
- Translate ambiguous business and engineering problems into scalable architectures and production software, balancing research and prototyping with secure, maintainable delivery.
- Lead architecture reviews, technical investigations, design decisions, and engineering standards.
- Mentor senior and developing engineers, and support technical hiring and onboarding.
Top Candidates will Have:
- Seven or more years of software development and three or more years developing ML, generative AI, or intelligent automation systems.
- Advanced software engineering experience in Python and one or more of C++, C#, Java, Go, or Node.js, with strong API, distributed systems, event-driven workflow, and backend services experience.
- Experience with containers, automated testing, CI/CD, source control, observability, and cloud platforms and cloud-native architectures, including Docker and Kubernetes.
- Experience designing and delivering production agentic AI, generative AI, or intelligent automation systems, including taking an AI-enabled capability from prototype through production.
- Experience with RAG, embeddings, vector search, knowledge graphs, semantic data models, structured outputs, and multimodal models.
- Experience with NVIDIA NIM, NeMo, Nemotron, or comparable foundation-model and inference ecosystems.
- Experience with NVIDIA Cosmos or comparable world foundation models for Physical AI, scenario generation, and simulation augmentation.
- Experience connecting AI agents to NVIDIA Omniverse, Isaac Sim, OpenUSD, or other simulation, robotics, scientific computing, or enterprise engineering platforms.
- Working knowledge of Newton, physics simulation, and robotics workflows sufficient to orchestrate and evaluate tool use.
- Experience with AI evaluation datasets, test harnesses, security controls, observability, and human-in-the-loop governance.
- Experience deploying GPU inference using Docker, Kubernetes, NVIDIA GPUs, and CoreWeave or comparable GPU cloud infrastructure.
- Demonstrated ability to lead architecture and technical delivery across multiple teams.
- Strong communication, mentoring, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Experience using AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude, or Cursor.
Preferred technology stack: NVIDIA Cosmos, NIM, NeMo, Nemotron, Omniverse, Isaac Sim, OpenUSD, Agentic AI, RAG, Python, CUDA, Docker, Kubernetes, and CoreWeave.
Additional Details:
This position requires the candidate to work full-time at the Irving, TX office (Dallas).
Domestic relocation assistance is available for this position.
Visa sponsorship is available with this position.
Summary Pay Range:
$159,120.00 - $258,570.00
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
This position requires working onsite five days a week.
Relocation is available for this position.
Visa sponsorship is available for eligible applicants.
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.
Not ready to apply? Join our Talent Community.
See all 681+ H-1B Visa Principal AI Engineer Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new H-1B Visa Principal AI Engineer Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding H-1B Visa Sponsorship as a Principal AI Engineer
Frame your credentials around specialty occupation
Your degree field must align with the specific duties of a Principal AI Engineer, not just engineering broadly. Document how your coursework in machine learning, statistics, or computer science maps directly to the role's technical requirements before your employer files the I-129.
Look up prevailing wages before negotiating offers
Your employer's LCA must certify a wage at or above the DOL prevailing wage for your SOC code and work location. Run your job title and worksite ZIP code through the OFLC Wage Search so you know the floor before you enter any salary conversation.
Target employers with active AI research or product divisions
Use Migrate Mate to search for employers with verified H-1B LCA filing history for AI and machine learning engineering roles, so you're applying to companies that have already built a sponsorship process rather than asking them to build one for you.
Clarify multi-site work arrangements with your employer early
If your Principal AI Engineer role involves work at client sites, AWS or Azure data centers, or multiple offices, each worksite needs its own certified LCA. Raise this with your employer before the petition is filed, not after an RFE arrives from USCIS.
Use O*NET to anchor your specialty occupation evidence
The O*NET profile for computer and information research scientists and related AI roles lists the typical education and knowledge requirements that USCIS weighs when evaluating specialty occupation. Reference it when preparing your job description and supporting documentation for the I-129 petition.
Account for cap selection timing in your offer negotiation
H-1B cap selection rules have changed recently, so confirm the current registration window with USCIS before accepting an offer with a specific start date. If you're currently on OPT, your cap-gap protection keeps you authorized through September 30 if selection occurs.
H-1B Visa Principal AI Engineer: Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Principal AI Engineer role qualify as an H-1B specialty occupation?
Yes. Principal AI Engineer roles typically require at least a bachelor's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, artificial intelligence, or a directly related field, which meets the specialty occupation standard. USCIS evaluates the specific job duties and degree requirement in the employer's I-129 petition, so the job description must clearly tie the role's responsibilities to that degree field.
How do I find employers actively sponsoring H-1B visas for AI engineering roles?
Migrate Mate shows employers with verified H-1B LCA filing history for AI and machine learning engineering positions, so you can focus your search on companies that have an established sponsorship track record. Filtering by role type and location helps you identify active sponsors in the markets where senior AI talent is concentrated.
Can my employer sponsor me for H-1B if I'll be working remotely from a different state?
Your employer can sponsor you, but each distinct worksite where you perform H-1B duties requires its own certified LCA filed with DOL, specifying the prevailing wage for that location. A remote arrangement spanning multiple states means multiple LCAs. Your employer's immigration counsel should identify every covered worksite before filing the I-129 petition with USCIS.
How long does H-1B status last for a Principal AI Engineer?
USCIS grants H-1B status in an initial period of up to three years, with extensions available up to a six-year maximum. Beyond six years, continued H-1B extensions are possible only if you have an approved I-140 immigrant petition or a PERM labor certification that has been pending for at least 365 days, allowing you to stay in status while pursuing permanent residence.
What documentation strengthens an H-1B petition for a Principal AI Engineer?
Strong petitions include a detailed job description linking every core duty to degree-level knowledge, your official transcripts showing a relevant degree field, and evidence that the employer consistently hires degreed professionals for similar roles. If your title is new or your employer is a startup without prior H-1B filings, a support letter from a subject-matter expert explaining why the role requires specialized theoretical knowledge can help preempt an RFE from USCIS.