Lead AI Engineer / Cedar Rapids, IA / Contract / R&D Team

A global leader in aerospace and defense technology is hiring for a Contract Lead AI Engineer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The company is developing advanced avionics, communications, and mission critical systems used across commercial and military aviation. They're known for innovation, long product lifecycles, and solving highly complex technical challenges where reliability and certification requirements are critical.
In this role, you will lead a small team of approximately 4-7 engineers within a larger organization of roughly 50-60 technical professionals. They're looking for a mentor and technical leader who can guide engineers while remaining deeply involved in architecture, experimentation, development, and deployment. You'd be focused on designing, building, and scaling enterprise AI solutions. The role requires someone who understands AI beyond simple API integrations and has experience evaluating models, optimizing prompts and token usage, building production-grade workflows, and making technical decisions around AI architecture.
Required Skills & Experience

• Experience mentoring or leading teams of 4-7
• Python FS Engineering experience LLMs, prompt engineering, RAG token optimization, and AI architecture
• Experience building and deploying production AI systems
• Builder mentality with a desire to stay hands-on technically

Desired Skills & Experience

• Go/Golang experience
• C/C++
• LangChain, LangGraph, or similar AI frameworks
• Agentic workflow development
• Enterprise AI deployment experience
• Computer vision experience
• Aerospace, defense, robotics, or highly regulated industry experience
• Technical leadership within agile software development teams

What You Will Be Doing
Tech Breakdown

• 40% AI Engineering & LLM Development
• 30% Python Software Engineering
• 15% Architecture & Technical Leadership
• 10% Agentic Workflows & Automation
• 5% Documentation & Testing

Daily Responsibilities

• 60% Hands-On Development
• 20% Management & Mentorship

The Offer

• 5 days on-site in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
• Competitive pay depending on experience

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the US on a full-time basis now and in the future.