IT Software Engineer 5 (Lead Software Engineer – AI Systems, Architecture & Developer Experience)

Role: IT Software
Engineer 5 (Lead Software Engineer – AI Systems, Architecture & Developer
Experience)

Location: Peoria, IL and/or Chicago office (Chicago
preferred) - Hybrid; must go in office 2 days a week

Duration: 12 Months,
possibility to be extended

Exp: 10-12 Years not more than 15 yrs

 
Description: We are seeking a visionary Lead
Software Engineer to architect and deliver next-generation software platforms
driven by Artificial Intelligence and Agentic workflows. In this senior
leadership role, you will bridge the gap between core full-stack application
development and cutting-edge Large Language Model (LLM) integration. You will
work with several high-performing engineering teams, championing the adoption
of AI coding assistants to radically accelerate our internal developer velocity
while designing reliable, production-grade AI systems for our customers.

 Position’s Contributions to Work Group: Technical
Architecture & AI Integration

-        Design and orchestrate multi-agent workflows and
stateful AI systems using modern frameworks like LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen,
or CrewAI.

-        Integrate foundation models (e.g., Anthropic
Claude, OpenAI GPT, and Google Gemini) via secure API gateways, managing token
limits, costs, and rate-limiting.

-        Architect data models optimized for AI-native
structures, integrating relational databases with vector databases for semantic
search and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

-        Implement robust white-box testing and
continuous evaluation metrics to monitor AI outputs for factual correctness,
hallucinations, and safety compliance.

-        Champion secure, reliable, and scalable software
solutions through architectural leadership, risk management, and continuous
improvement of engineering practices.

 Typical task breakdown:

Technical Leadership & Workflow Optimization:

·        Mentor and scale an engineering team,
establishing engineering standards, best practices and architectural governance
for secure coding, continuous integration, and cloud-native deployment.

·        Drive AI-assisted engineering velocity by
integrating next-gen development tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf)
into the team's daily Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

·        Establish governance policies and coach
developers on the responsible use of AI, focusing on input data sensitivity,
license compliance, and security guardrails.

·        Evaluate existing systems, services, APIs, and
data models to identify opportunities for modernization, scalability, and
performance improvements.

Influence Across Teams & Champion Developer
Experience:

•        Facilitate technical leadership forums with
Product Owners, Technical Leads, Architects, and Engineering Managers.

•        Drive conversations around architecture,
engineering health, technical debt, AI adoption, and continuous improvement.

•        Mentor engineers and technical leaders on system
design, software architecture, and engineering excellence.

•        Foster collaborative decision-making through
architecture reviews, RFCs, and technical discussions.

•        Promote self-service engineering capabilities
and platform enablement.

•        Drive automation initiatives that improve
productivity and software quality.

 Interaction with team:

•        Significant interaction required with Scrum
team. Interaction during all scrum ceremonies such as Daily Standups, Sprint
Planning, Grooming, Retro, Demo etc. Also need to interact with team for PR
Reviews, also need to engage with other teams as needed.

 
Education & Experience Required:

•        Bachelor’s degree in Computer science or
Electrical engineering or related field, Plus 10+ years exp

•        Master Degree plus 8+ years exp

Core Software Engineering

•        Backend Systems: Deep proficiency in backend environments,
microservices architectures, and API design using Java.

•        Cloud & DevOps: Extensive experience with
containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and public cloud infrastructure like AWS

•        AI & LLM Infrastructure

•        Orchestration & Tooling: Hands-on experience
with production-level AI agents, prompt engineering, and advanced Agentic PDLC
patterns.

•        Vector Databases: Practical knowledge of vector
technologies such as Pinecone, Milvus, Chroma, or pgvector.

•        AI Tool Fluency: Demonstrated mastery of AI
coding assistants and a firm understanding of Model Context Protocol (MCP) to
mediate agent connections with external databases.

 Technical Skills:

·        8+ years of professional software engineering
experience and 2+ years in a technical leadership role.

·        Proven experience designing and delivering
large-scale distributed systems.

·        Strong expertise in software architecture, APIs,
microservices, cloud-native applications, and modern engineering practices.

·        Experience influencing multiple engineering
teams and leading organization-wide technical initiatives.

·        Strong communication, collaboration, and
stakeholder management skills.

·        Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and
drive technical excellence.

·        Experience with Generative AI, AI agents,
LLM-powered applications, or intelligent automation platforms.

·        Experience with AI development tools, coding
assistants, and modern developer productivity platforms.

Experience Requirements

Overall Experience

·        10+ years of experience with a Bachelor's degree.

·        With a Master's degree, the requirement can be
reduced to 8+ years.

·        Candidates with significantly more experience are
acceptable; the hiring manager explicitly confirmed that more experience is
fine/preferred.

Leadership

·        2+ years of technical
leadership experience required.

·        The role is primarily a technical leadership
position, with hands-on technical involvement.

·        Leadership experience does not necessarily need
to come from formal people management.

Java Development – Critical Requirement

A strong Java development background is required.

The hiring manager clarified that candidates should not simply be
strong AI/GenAI leaders with limited Java exposure.

The individual needs to:

·        Understand the existing Java codebase.

·        Be able to evaluate AI-generated recommendations
involving Java.

·        Determine whether AI-generated recommendations are
technically appropriate.

·        Make or drive the necessary changes.

·        Understand the implications of changes to the Java
codebase.

·        Be comfortable working with Java repositories
hosted in GitHub.

A candidate who is highly experienced in AI but primarily codes in Python
or another language without strong Java knowledge would likely not be suitable.

GenAI / AI Experience

Strong practical experience with Generative AI is a major
requirement.

The role requires experience with areas such as:

·        Generative AI

·        AI agents

·        LLM-powered applications

·        Intelligent automation platforms

·        AI development tools

·        AI coding assistants

·        Modern developer productivity platforms

The hiring manager indicated that approximately 2 years of
production AI experience is expected.

The candidate should have practical experience using and applying AI,
rather than simply having theoretical knowledge.