Mechanical Engineer

Job Purpose

Progress Rail is seeking an experienced Mechanical Engineer to support driving strategy development and deployment utilizing Machine Learning for the Autonomous Train Operation team in Southlake, TX.

The purpose of this position is to contribute to the development and deployment of world class rail products and services vital to our customer’s needs. This role will enable innovative, strategic, and high-tech solutions for the rail industry through the application of specialized knowledge, skills, and abilities. Work involves independent judgement, problem solving skills, resourcefulness, teamwork, and creativity in ambiguous situations. A high degree of personal initiative is a prerequisite. Typical driving strategy development efforts are a combination of some, or all the key job elements listed below. Management and leadership are available to provide additional guidance for unusual, non-standard situations.

The ideal candidate is a self-starter, willing to take on different tasks to facilitate the design, implementation, and testing of the prototypes and deployment systems. The main responsibilities of the Machine Learning Engineer are developing, testing, and validating freight train driving strategy for various real-life scenarios, controller, model execution software, and model training algorithms. This role is also responsible for the integration of machine learning models into execution software and its associated tests for evaluation and validation. Problem solving, analytical mindset and troubleshooting skills are highly relevant for this position as it will work in a fast-paced software and mechanical engineering environment. An essential attribute is the ability to function extremely well as a team member, at times conceding personal preferred solutions to those that make business, functional and strategic sense.

This is a full-time position working in the Progress Rail Southlake, TX and reports directly to the Director of Artificial Intelligence in the ATO team. Remote option can be considered with possibility to become in-office and with traveling for training and meeting purposes.

Company Description

Progress Rail stands at the intersection of legacy and innovation—driving the future of rail with a pioneering spirit. Since its founding in 1983, the company has grown to become one of the world’s largest and most trusted providers of railroad products, services, and technologies. Today, Progress Rail delivers a comprehensive portfolio of cost-effective solutions to railway customers around the globe. From the rails themselves to the EMD® locomotives that ride them, the company’s products are in operation across more than 100 countries—powering progress and connecting communities. In 2006, Progress Rail joined Caterpillar Inc., further strengthening its ability to lead the rail industry with cutting-edge technology, unmatched expertise, and a commitment to excellence. At Progress Rail, the team is not just building the future of rail—they are making history every day.

Key Job Elements

• Responsible for the development, testing, and validating freight train driving strategy utilizing machine learning methodologies.
• Responsible for the development, testing and validating of controller software.
• Collaborate with others to integrate, test and validate machine learning models into execution software, working together with other software, quality, and systems engineers to drive the implementation.
• Design and deploy railway systems in operation both in the United States and abroad with travel of up to 10%.
• Work with the team to create solutions to the most important and meaningful technical problems as they relate to control systems.
• Assess the value of new technologies.
• Elaborate programming documentation and refresh existing documentation.
• Reports to the Director of Artificial Intelligence and works closely with the different engineering groups to deploy practical and highly functional systems for railways.

Education / Training

Required Education & Training:

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from an ABET accredited university or college.
• Minimum of 2 years of experience with relevant software development.

Preferred Education & Credentials:

• Master’s degree in mechanical engineering or similar.
• Rail, Heavy or Transportation Industry Experience is a big plus.
• TensorFlow, PyTorch, JAX certification is a big plus.
• Cloud experience and/or certification (AWS is a big plus).
• Rust programming language knowledge is a big plus.

Qualifications And Experience

The ideal candidates will have the following skills:

• Mechanical or Systems Engineering background.
• Vehicle dynamics/transportation/control systems solid foundation.
• Python programming language fluency.
• Deep knowledge/experience with Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence or Industrial IoT systems.
• Strong critical thinking and root cause identification skills.
• Above-average analytical, conceptual, and troubleshooting abilities.
• Skill for writing clean, readable, and reusable code.
• Understanding fundamental design principles behind a scalable application.
• Knowledge/experience with CLI programming
• Knowledge and experience with Unix/Linux platforms
• Understanding of different data ingestion and transformation tools (ETL and ELT).
• Experience developing in Cloud architecture environment.
• Familiarity with AWS services: S3, Batch, EC2, Sagemaker, EBS, etc.
• Knowledge implementing integration and unit tests.
• Strong foundation in version control
• Understanding of CI/CD Tools Including GIT/SVN.
• Solid encounters working in Agile/Scrum Methodology.
• Ability to work well in ambiguous situations.
• Strong inter-relational abilities permitting viable and coordinated effort with developers, operations, and business.

Essential and Physical Activities Functions:

• Strength – Position typically involves work in a standard office environment. Constant sitting. Occasional standing and walking.
• Motion – Position regularly requires standard motions associated with working for extended hours in an office environment and in front of a computer.
• Vision/Hearing Requirements – Ability to distinguish colors on various screen types. Frequent verbal communications, including both talking and hearing. Ability to participate in web-based meetings where audio quality is diminished. Ability to communicate in a noisy environment with coworkers.
• Work Environment – Position is consistent with standard office environment.
• Emotional Demands –Requires ability to work with a team to accomplish mission success.
• Safety – Position includes safety requirements consistent primarily with a standard office environment.

EEO

Progress Rail is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities.

Job Category

Engineering

PRS Facility Location

Leased Office - Southlake, TX - 477