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Contract Engineer Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

Sonoma Consulting Inc.

Contract DevOps Engineer

Chicago, IL

$54.25 - $74.50/hr

... Engineer (Contract) Onsite at client: 80% Start: ASAP Requirements: 4+ years of experience as a Linux Systems Administrator with at least 2 years supporting a highly-available, 24x7 production ...

Civis Analytics

Software Engineer (Contract)

Chicago, IL · On-site +1

$90K/yr

Virginia Civis is hiring a Software Engineer (Contract) to build and ship high-quality software across the full stack in service of our clients' most important missions. This is a 6-month contract ...

Civis Analytics

Software Engineer (Contract)

Chicago, IL · On-site +1

$90K/yr

Virginia Civis is hiring a Software Engineer (Contract) to build and ship high-quality software across the full stack in service of our clients' most important missions. This is a 6-month contract ...

Civis Analytics

Software Engineer (Contract)

Chicago, IL · On-site +1

$90K/yr

Virginia Civis is hiring a Software Engineer (Contract) to build and ship high-quality software across the full stack in service of our clients' most important missions. This is a 6-month contract ...

Sargent & Lundy

Contract Specialist

Chicago, IL · Hybrid

$75K - $115K/yr

This position is responsible for drafting, reviewing, redlining, negotiating, and administering engineering, consulting, and construction contracts. The ideal candidate will have strong analytical ...

Sargent & Lundy

Contract Specialist

Chicago, IL · Hybrid

$75K - $115K/yr

This position is responsible for drafting, reviewing, redlining, negotiating, and administering engineering, consulting, and construction contracts. The ideal candidate will have strong analytical ...

Sargent & Lundy

Contract Specialist

Chicago, IL · On-site

$75K - $115K/yr

This position is responsible for drafting, reviewing, redlining, negotiating, and administering engineering, consulting, and construction contracts. The ideal candidate will have strong analytical ...

St. Clair County (IL)

$47K - $57K/yr

Description This position serves as the Contract and Finance Support Specialist under the supervision of the Director of Engineering and Planning and Director of Finance. This position is responsible ...

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All JobsContract Engineer JobsContract Engineer Jobs in Illinois

Contract Engineer information

See Illinois salary details

$29

$47

$95

How much do contract engineer jobs pay per hour?

As of Sep 3, 2026, the average hourly pay for contract engineer in Illinois is $47.42, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $39.86 and $49.13 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a contract engineer?

Contract Engineers are professionals who manage and oversee contracts related to engineering projects. They are responsible for drafting, evaluating, negotiating, and executing contracts between companies and clients, vendors, or subcontractors. Their work ensures that all terms and requirements are clear, legal, and beneficial to all parties involved. Contract Engineers also help resolve disputes, monitor compliance, and manage project risks related to contractual obligations.

What does a contract engineer do?

As a contract engineer, you provide temporary support for a company that needs help. In this role, you may help design a product or structure, provide guidance to builders working off of your plans, or evaluate a company's existing system to be sure the proposed engineering plan matches their capabilities. Many aspects of this job depend on the type of engineering support a company needs. For example, some contract engineers focus heavily on the mechanical aspects of a project, while others help hire contractors, evaluate proposals, and answer questions related to the project.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a contract engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Contract Engineer, you need a solid background in engineering principles, contract management, and project planning, typically supported by a relevant engineering degree. Familiarity with contract management software, procurement systems, and industry-specific regulations or certifications such as PMP or NEC is often required. Strong negotiation, attention to detail, and effective communication skills help you manage client expectations and resolve contract disputes. These abilities ensure contracts are delivered on time, within budget, and meet both technical and legal requirements.

What are some common challenges contract engineers face when managing multiple projects simultaneously?

Contract Engineers often juggle several projects at once, each with distinct timelines, client expectations, and compliance requirements. A common challenge is ensuring effective communication across all stakeholders while maintaining meticulous documentation and meeting strict deadlines. Balancing these responsibilities requires strong organizational skills and adaptability to shifting project priorities. Collaborating closely with legal, procurement, and technical teams is essential to resolve issues quickly and keep projects on track.

What is the difference between Contract Engineer vs Project Engineer?

AspectContract EngineerProject Engineer
CredentialsBachelor's in Engineering, relevant certifications (e.g., PE, PMP)Bachelor's in Engineering, relevant certifications (e.g., PMP)
Work EnvironmentTemporary or project-specific roles, often freelance or consultingPermanent or long-term roles within projects
Employer & Industry UsageOil & gas, construction, manufacturing, consulting firmsConstruction, engineering firms, infrastructure projects
Common Search & ComparisonYesYes

Contract Engineers typically work on a temporary basis, focusing on specific projects or tasks, often with consulting firms or as freelancers. Project Engineers are usually employed full-time within organizations, managing ongoing projects from start to finish. Both roles require engineering credentials and certifications, but their employment types and work environments differ significantly.

More about Contract Engineer jobs

What are the most commonly searched types of Engineer jobs in Illinois?

The most popular types of Engineer jobs in Illinois are:

What are popular job titles related to Contract Engineer jobs in Illinois?

For Contract Engineer jobs in Illinois, the most frequently searched job titles are:

What job categories do people searching Contract Engineer jobs in Illinois look for?

The top searched job categories for Contract Engineer jobs in Illinois are:

What cities in Illinois are hiring for Contract Engineer jobs?

Cities in Illinois with the most Contract Engineer job openings:

What are popular job titles related to Contract Engineer jobs in IL?

For Contract Engineer jobs in IL, the most frequently searched job titles are:

Contract Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Contract Engineer job openings in Illinois as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 75% Full Time, 22% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 86% Physical, 5% Hybrid, and 9% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $98,628 per year, or $47.4 per hour.

AI Red Team Engineer, Frontier Model Evaluation (Contract)

Cobalt

Mundelein, IL • On-site

Other

Posted 4 days ago

Job description

About Cobalt:

Cobalt is seeking security engineers to adversarially test frontier models and AI agents, and to produce the reasoning and evaluation data used to measure and improve how those systems hold up under pressure.

This opportunity is suited to people with a security background who have turned their attention to AI systems, whether professionally, through structured red teaming and model bounty programs, or through sustained independent research. Traditional offensive security experience without prior AI work is welcome, provided you can code and can learn a new target quickly.

You do not need a formal AI research background. What matters is that you can reliably find failure modes others miss, that you can tell a lucky one-off from a reproducible weakness, and that you can build the harness needed to prove it.

All work is performed against sandboxed environments, purpose-built targets, and model endpoints supplied by us or by the lab. We do not accept work performed against systems you are not authorized to test, and we do not accept material covered by a client agreement or obtained without authorization.


What you'll do:

Depending on the project, you may:

  • Probe models and agents for failure modes, including prompt injection, unsafe tool and browser use, data exfiltration paths, and breakdowns in refusal or policy adherence, and document each case so another engineer can reproduce it
  • Build test harnesses and automation that run attempts at scale against model APIs and agent frameworks, rather than testing by hand
  • Produce written attack traces, capturing how you form and test hypotheses, what you rule out and why, and how you arrive at a working approach, rather than only the successful prompt
  • Author adversarial evaluation scenarios and benchmark items with verifiable success criteria, including multi-turn and agentic tasks
  • Design rubrics and partial-credit criteria for scoring model behavior, and classify observed failures into a consistent taxonomy

Projects follow their own guidelines, scope rules, and quality standards, and you will work with feedback from reviewers and lab research teams.


Required qualifications:

  • Demonstrable security experience, and demonstrable adversarial work against language models or AI agents through professional red teaming, structured bounty programs, published research, or a substantive independent record
  • Strong coding ability, typically Python, sufficient to build your own harnesses, automate at scale, and work with model APIs and agent frameworks
  • Depth in at least one relevant area, for example prompt injection and jailbreak techniques, agent and tool-use security, multimodal attacks, or cyber misuse evaluation
  • Ability to distinguish reproducible weaknesses from one-off outputs, and to explain each step of your reasoning clearly in writing
  • Willingness to work strictly within defined scope, to follow the project's disclosure process, and to sign a confidentiality agreement covering findings and project materials


Why join Cobalt AI:

  • Advance frontier AI where it counts. Apply your security expertise to data that frontier labs cannot obtain any other way, where your judgment directly shapes how the next generation of models reasons about security.
  • Grow professionally. Expand your influence through evaluation projects, advisory roles, and research collaborations, while developing a working understanding of how frontier models are trained and assessed.
  • Work with a top-tier network. Collaborate with security engineers and researchers from leading organizations on high-impact, flexible work.
  • Set your own schedule. Flexible 10 to 40 hour weeks that fit around your existing engagements and your life.
  • Competitive pay. Rates vary by project and are determined by a number of factors, including scope, skillset, and experience.

Apply