Test Engineer in Peterlee

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. Together, we are building a better world, so we can all enjoy living in it.

This is a hands‑on engineering role where you’ll directly influence the performance and reliability of Caterpillar’s Articulated Trucks, machines that operate in some of the toughest environments in the world. As a Test Engineer, you’ll bring new products and technologies to life, taking them from concept through validation and into production. You’ll design and execute test programmes across rigs, facilities, and real‑world conditions, ensuring our machines meet the highest standards before they reach our customers. You’ll work at the heart of engineering, collaborating closely with design, manufacturing, and global teams to solve problems, improve product quality, and drive robust, production‑ready solutions. This role offers real ownership and visibility. You won’t just follow test plans, you’ll shape them, improve them, and challenge existing methods to make testing smarter, faster, and more effective. If you enjoy understanding how things work, pushing products to their limits, and turning data into meaningful engineering decisions, this is an opportunity to make a tangible impact on world‑class machines.

Primary Roles/Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Resolving issues regarding the design or manufacturing.
• Ensuring design acceptance and manufacturing readiness.
• Participating in the adoption of new technologies and processes (automation, robotics, computer aided manufacturing software, etc.) to achieve greater efficiency, cost reduction and quality improvement.
• Planning and improving testing procedures and operations to make the test more reliable, efficient and cost‑effective.
• Monitoring results, machine and process capabilities and performance reliability.

Requires a degree in an accredited Engineering, Computer Science, or Materials Science curriculum or equivalent experience working in an Engineering function.

Skills, Experience & qualifications you will have:

• Analytical Thinking: Knowledge of techniques and tools that promote effective analysis; ability to determine the root cause of organizational problems and create alternative solutions that resolve these problems.
• Technical Excellence: Knowledge of a given technology and various application methods; ability to develop and provide solutions to significant technical challenges.
• Product Testing: Knowledge of product testing approaches, techniques and tools; ability to design, plan and execute testing strategies and tactics to ensure product quality at all stages of manufacturing.
• Troubleshooting Technical Problems: Knowledge of troubleshooting approaches, tools and techniques; ability to anticipate, detect and resolve technical problems in a manufacturing or product development environment.
• Project Management: Knowledge of effective project management strategies and tactics; ability to plan, organize, monitor, and control projects, ensuring efficient utilization of technical and administrative resources to achieve project objectives.

Benefits:

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays including additional service days awarded every 2 years up to a maximum of 5 days.
• Up to 10% annual bonus.
• Defined Contribution Pension Scheme (Contribution double by Company up to 10%).
• Share Ownership Scheme (50% company matched).
• Personalized flexible benefits.
• Employee Assistance Programme.

We look forward to welcoming the successful candidate to our dynamic, diverse, and friendly team. We have a culture of openness, autonomy, support, and personal development as well as a continuous drive for improvement.