Lead Software Engineer
12-month contract-to-hire Lead Software Engineer (hybrid, 2 days/week onsite in Chicago or Peoria, IL) architecting AI-powered enterprise platforms: Java microservices and distributed systems plus LLM/agent integration (LangChain, RAG, vector DBs) on AWS, Docker, and Kubernetes, with team mentoring and AI-dev tooling. Pays up to $104/hr plus benefits.
- Compensation
- $104 / hr
- Location
- Chicago, United States
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Lead
- Employment
- Full time
- Experience
- 8+ years
- Category
- Software engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Bachelor's in CS, Electrical Engineering, or related field with 10+ years experience, OR Master's with 8+ years
- Deep hands-on Java backend development, including microservices and API design
- Strong software architecture and experience designing large-scale distributed systems
- Extensive AWS, Docker, and Kubernetes experience
- Hands-on experience building production-level AI agents, prompt engineering, and agentic development patterns
- Practical experience with vector databases such as Pinecone, Milvus, Chroma, or pgvector
- Experience with Generative AI, LLM-powered applications, AI agents, or intelligent automation platforms
- Strong familiarity with AI coding assistants and understanding of Model Context Protocol (MCP)
- Experience leading architectural initiatives, mentoring engineers, and influencing multiple engineering teams
Nice to have
- Experience with LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen, or CrewAI
- Experience designing RAG systems and semantic-search solutions
- Knowledge of application, cloud, and security architecture best practices
- Experience establishing technical governance and engineering standards across multiple teams
- Experience implementing evaluation and testing strategies for AI outputs, including factual accuracy, hallucination monitoring, and safety
Full description
Cullerton Group has a new opportunity for a Lead Software Engineer – AI Systems, Architecture & Developer Experience. The work will be done hybrid in Chicago or Peoria, IL, with Chicago preferred, requiring 2 days per week onsite. This is a 12-month position with the possibility of extension that can lead to permanent employment with our client. Compensation is up to $104/hr + full benefits (vision, dental, health insurance, 401k, and holiday pay).Job Summary
We are seeking a senior Lead Software Engineer to architect and deliver next-generation software platforms powered by Artificial Intelligence, Large Language Models (LLMs), and agentic workflows. This role combines deep Java backend and distributed-systems architecture with hands-on AI/LLM integration, cloud-native development, and technical leadership. The engineer will design production-grade AI systems, establish engineering standards, mentor teams, and help integrate AI-assisted development tools into the software development lifecycle.
Key Responsibilities
- Architect and develop multi-agent and stateful AI systems using frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen, or CrewAI.
- Integrate foundation models such as Claude, GPT, and Gemini through secure APIs while managing token usage, costs, and rate limits.
- Design RAG and semantic-search architectures, integrating relational data with vector databases.
- Lead architecture for Java backend systems, APIs, microservices, distributed systems, and cloud-native applications.
- Establish engineering standards and architectural governance across multiple development teams.
- Integrate AI development tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, and Windsurf into engineering workflows and establish responsible AI-development practices.
- Mentor engineers and technical leads while driving architecture reviews, RFCs, automation, modernization, and engineering excellence.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field with 10+ years of experience, OR Master’s degree with 8+ years of experience.
- Deep hands-on Java backend development, including microservices and API design.
- Strong software architecture and experience designing large-scale distributed systems.
- Extensive AWS, Docker, and Kubernetes experience.
- Hands-on experience building production-level AI agents, prompt engineering, and agentic development patterns.