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Senior Analytics Manager - Search Ontology

Caterpillar · Chicago, IL · $159,120–$258,570 a year · Full time

Posted Sep 22, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026

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Likely interview questions for this role

Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.

About your past

Tell me about a time you set technical direction for a team and had to change it.

What they are checking: Leadership that commits to a direction yet adapts when the evidence says to.

Tell me about a time you led analysts or engineers through a hard, ambiguous problem.

What they are checking: Whether they can break down vague problems and keep a team moving toward something useful.

What would you do

Customers search for a part by an old part number or a competitor's number. How would you handle that?

What they are checking: Practical understanding of how aftermarket parts buyers actually search and how to map their language.

How do you connect search improvements to parts and services revenue for business leaders?

What they are checking: Ability to show the business value of analytics work in terms leadership cares about.

Dealers and Caterpillar describe the same parts differently. How do you reconcile that in search?

What they are checking: Ability to bridge different vocabularies without losing accuracy, which is central to an ontology role.

About the work

How would you build an ontology for Caterpillar parts so customers can find the right part even when they search in their own words?

What they are checking: Whether they can structure entities, attributes, synonyms and relationships for a huge, technical catalog.

How do you measure search quality on an eCommerce site?

What they are checking: Familiarity with metrics like zero-result rate, click-through, conversion and relevance judgments.

How would you use machine learning or language models to improve search relevance and ontology upkeep?

What they are checking: Whether they can apply modern methods while keeping the ontology accurate and governed.

How do you design an experiment to test a change in search ranking?

What they are checking: Rigor in A/B testing, including sample size, guardrail metrics and avoiding false wins.

How do you keep an ontology from becoming a tangled mess as many teams add to it?

What they are checking: Thinking about governance, ownership and change control for a shared knowledge structure.

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The full job description

As published by Caterpillar.

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. Cat Digital is the digital and technology arm of Caterpillar Inc., leveraging the latest technologies to build industry leading digital solutions for our customers and dealers. With over 1.5 million connected assets worldwide, our teams use data, technology, advanced analytics, telematics, and AI capabilities to help our customers build a better, more sustainable world. Job Summary eCommerce and our websites are the key digital enabler to Caterpillar’s aftermarket parts and services growth strategy. Delivering on the Caterpillar brand promise of premium, high-quality solutions is an important element in accelerating the development and deployment of Caterpillar’s expanded capabilities in eCommerce. The Senior Analytics Manager - Search Ontology is responsible for setting the technical direction and overseeing the execution of advanced search analytics solutions. This role combines strategic vision, hands-on technical expertise, and leadership to build scalable, high-performance search platforms that deliver exceptional user experiences. Success in this role requires initiative, curiosity, and a self-starting mindset - someone who can function as a data entrepreneur: discovering and connecting data across domains to drive business value in a complex enterprise environment. What You Will Do: • Define and implement a long-term technical vision for the search analytics platform to ensure scalability and adaptability to growing data volumes and query complexity. Understand major product and service groups and apply that knowledge across business scenarios. • Build detailed analytics architecture for search solutions specifically focused on websites and ecommerce. • Responsible for recruiting, managing, and mentoring one or multiple teams of software engineers to achieve shared departmental objectives. Use leadership strategies to align teams around shared objectives and outcomes. • Introduce advanced capabilities such as NLP, vector search, and personalization to enhance relevance and accuracy. • Use structured delivery methods to manage new or enhanced software products. • Design and maintain integrations across platforms, systems, and software packages. • Apply testing processes and tools to ensure high-quality software solutions. • Manage IT services and oversee reliable service operations. • Build search capabilities with measurable KPIs (e.g., CTR, Query Distribution, Zero Search) and leverage analytics to continuously improve search performance. • Partner with product managers, data scientists, and engineering leaders to align search initiatives with business objectives • undefined What you will have: • Products and Services: Knowledge of major products and services and product and service groups; ability to apply knowledge of product and service appropriately to diverse situations. • Organizational Leadership: Knowledge of leadership concepts and ability to use strategies and skills to enlist others in setting, embracing and achieving objectives. • Software Development: Knowledge of software development tools and activities; ability to produce software products or systems in line with product requirements. • Software Development Life Cycle: Knowledge of software development life cycle; ability to use a structured methodology for delivering and managing new or enhanced software products to the marketplace. • Software Integration Engineering: Knowledge of software integration processes and functions; ability to design, develop and maintain interfaces and linkage to alternative platforms and software packages. • Software Product Design/Architecture: Knowledge of software product design; ability to convert market requirements into software product design. • Software Quality Assurance and Testing: Knowledge of software quality assurance and testing; ability to apply appropriate processes, tools, and techniques for assuring a high level of quality in computer software products and systems. • IT Service Management (ITSM): Knowledge of Information Technology (IT) service; ability to manage IT services and oversee service operations. Consideration for top candidates: • Experience as a Software engineering manager, Software Architecture manager, Software product manager handing 15+ team members (multiple Pods) • Bachelor’s in Marketing, Statistics, Computer Science, Economics, Mathematics, Engineering, Finance, or related field. • Advise clients on enterprise information architecture, ontology design, metadata management, and governance best practices. • Drive adoption of semantic and ontology capabilities across Ecommerce, data products, analytics workflows, and AI-enabled experiences to transform ecommerce and consumer data into actionable business insights that influence decision-making across Digital eCommerce. • Experience in eCommerce / website / AI Search deployments. • Experience with Search products such as OpenSearch, Elastic Search, SOLR, Lucene, Coveo, and LucidWorks Fusion required • Strong expertise in Ontology Web Language (OWL) 2 based Ontology for Search engines • Experience in AWS • Proficiency in relational database concepts and data warehouse solutions like Snowflake and data tools Python, Notebooks to orchestrate data in SQL and No-SQL Databases. • Practical experience applying machine learning to improve search relevance required Proficiency in AI code generation tools such as Claude Code, ChatGPT, or GitHub Copilot preferred Additional Details: • This position requires the candidate to be in Chicago, IL, Peoria, IL or Dallas, TX • Relocation assistance is NOT available for this position • Visa sponsorship is NOT available with this position. • This position will require up to 10% travel 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. Visa Sponsorship is not available for this position. 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 .

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