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Contract Engineer Jobs in Washington (NOW HIRING)

Carlyle

Applied AI Engineer

Washington, DC · On-site

$150K - $170K/yr

Applied AI Engineer Location: Washington, DC Line of Business: Global Technology & Solutions Job ... Own the data contracts, context boundaries, and system inputs your workflows depend on. * Define ...

540

Software Engineer (Contract)

Arlington, VA · Remote

This role is offered as a contract engagement and is ideal for engineers who value flexibility, autonomy, and high-impact work. While there may be an opportunity to convert to full-time in the future ...

WSSC Water

Contract Manager - Utility Services

Laurel, MD · On-site

$88K - $118K/yr

Position Information Functional Title Contract Manager - Utility Services Recruitment Category Type ... Skill in performing engineering computations, estimates and measurements; * Skill in communications ...

Cape

Contract Specialist

Arlington, VA · On-site

As a member of our team, you will collaborate with world-class engineers, architects, and ... The Role The Contract Specialist will be a key member of Cape's Federal-GTM team. This employee ...

540

Test Automation Engineer (Contract)

Arlington, VA · Remote

$53 - $70/hr

This role is offered as a contract engagement and is ideal for engineers who value flexibility, autonomy, and high-impact work. While there may be an opportunity to convert to full-time in the future ...

540

Senior Software Engineer (Contract)

Arlington, VA · Remote

$140K - $185K/yr

This role is offered as a contract engagement and is ideal for engineers who value flexibility, autonomy, and high-impact work. While there may be an opportunity to convert to full-time in the future ...

Amazon

Contracts Manager, AWS Legal

Arlington, VA · On-site

$102K - $136K/yr

... engineering, construction, operations, and security teams to understand their needs and provide timely legal guidance. Beyond individual contract reviews, you'll identify opportunities to streamline ...

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All JobsContract Engineer JobsContract Engineer Jobs in Washington

Contract Engineer information

See Washington salary details

$34

$55

$112

How much do contract engineer jobs pay per hour?

As of Jun 17, 2026, the average hourly pay for contract engineer in Washington is $55.42, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $46.54 and $57.45 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are Contract Engineers?

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 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.

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 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.
More about Contract Engineer jobs
What are the most commonly searched types of Engineer jobs in Washington? The most popular types of Engineer jobs in Washington are:
What are popular job titles related to Contract Engineer jobs in Washington? For Contract Engineer jobs in Washington, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Contract Engineer jobs in Washington look for? The top searched job categories for Contract Engineer jobs in Washington are:
What cities in Washington are hiring for Contract Engineer jobs? Cities in Washington with the most Contract Engineer job openings:
What are popular job titles related to Contract Engineer jobs in WA? For Contract Engineer jobs in WA, the most frequently searched job titles are:
Contract Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Contract Engineer job openings in Washington as of June 2026, with employment types broken down into 61% Full Time, 20% Part Time, and 19% Contract. Highlights an 75% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 23% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $115,277 per year, or $55.4 per hour.
Applied AI Engineer

Applied AI Engineer

Carlyle

Washington, DC • On-site

$150K - $170K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Life, Retirement, PTO

Posted 16 days ago

Job description

Basic information
Job Name:
Applied AI Engineer
Location:
Washington, DC
Line of Business:
Global Technology & Solutions
Job Function:
Investor Services
Date:
Tuesday, June 2, 2026
Position Summary
The Applied AI Engineer role is designed for a technically strong, hands-on engineer who thrives at the intersection of full-stack software engineering, AI workflow development, and production reliability.
In this role, the Engineer will help turn frontier AI capabilities into trusted production systems by building platform patterns, workflows, data contracts, evals, observability, permissions, and governance that let the firm deploy AI safely at scale.
In-Office Requirement: 4 days a week
Responsibilities
AI & Software Engineering
  • Translate ambiguous stakeholder needs into clear, testable AI system requirements.
  • Design, build, and maintain AI workflows as clean, maintainable, testable, and observable systems that are safe to change.
  • Own the data contracts, context boundaries, and system inputs your workflows depend on.
  • Define what can run autonomously, what requires human review, and when escalation is required.
  • Build identity, permissions, audit trails, and trust boundaries into system design.
  • Make pragmatic trade-offs across cost, latency, reliability, autonomy, and user experience within clear security and compliance guardrails.

Reliability & Operations
  • Build eval harnesses, regression suites, and release checks for non-deterministic behavior.
  • Develop CI/CD and testing practices that let the team ship AI changes safely and quickly.
  • Implement logging, tracing, and observability based on mapped failure modes, so issues are visible, explainable, and recoverable. Build error handling, fallback paths, and operational resilience across AI pipelines.

Stakeholder Management & Influence
  • Partner with DevOps, data engineering, security, and technology solutions teams to productionize AI systems.
  • Help stakeholders distinguish between automation, decision support, and human-accountable work.
  • Manage competing priorities across stakeholders with clarity and discipline.
  • Present technical findings, trade-offs, and risks clearly to executive, technical, and business audiences.
  • Help foster a data-driven, AI-literate culture across the firm.

Team Contribution & Leadership
  • Operate with a manager mindset: set standards, mentor contract engineers, and improve ways of working.
  • Contribute to AI engineering standards for evals, versioning, releases, and ownership.
  • Design reusable platform patterns so new AI use cases do not rebuild the same foundations.
  • Apply AI-assisted development tools effectively and raise the team's standard of use.

Qualifications
Education & Certificates
  • Bachelor's degree, required
  • Concentration in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Data Science, or a related technical field, preferred

Professional Experience
  • Minimum 5+ years of overall relevant experience, required
  • Hands-on software, platform, infrastructure, or data engineering experience building production systems, preferred
  • Experience with full-stack, backend, infrastructure, or data-intensive systems.
  • Experience designing and shipping AI-enabled applications, workflow automation, agentic systems, or model-integrated products (preferred).
  • Experience owning production systems, including testing, observability, deployment, and operational support.

Competencies & Attributes
  • Experience with modern languages and frameworks. Python and TypeScript are our primary languages, with React experience useful. We are polyglot-friendly: if you learn quickly and build deeply, the exact stack matters less.
  • Strong systems thinker who can turn ambiguous stakeholder needs into clear, testable technical requirements.
  • Production-minded engineer who values reliability, maintainability, observability, and safe change management.
  • Comfortable building with non-deterministic systems. LLM outputs vary by nature, so you know how to design, monitor, test, and iterate without relying only on deterministic testing.
  • Strong understanding of data contracts, context management, permissions, auditability, and system trust boundaries.
  • Clear communicator who can explain technical trade-offs, risks, and recommendations to executive, technical, and business audiences.
  • Genuine passion for AI and emerging technologies, paired with practical judgment about where they create real business and operational value.

Benefits/Compensation
The compensation range for this role is specific to Washington, DC and takes into account a wide range of factors including but not limited to the skill sets required/preferred; prior experience and training; licenses and/or certifications.
The anticipated base salary range for this role is $150,000 to $170,000.
In addition to the base salary, the hired professional will enjoy a comprehensive benefits package spanning retirement benefits, health insurance, life insurance and disability, paid time off, paid holidays, family planning benefits and various wellness programs. Additionally, the hired professional may also be eligible to participate in an annual discretionary incentive program, the award of which will be dependent on various factors, including, without limitation, individual and organizational performance.
Due to the high volume of candidates, please be advised that only candidates selected to interview will be contacted by Carlyle.
Company Information
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with $475 billion of assets under management, across 678 investment vehicles as of March 31, 2026. Founded in 1987 in Washington, DC, Carlyle has grown into one of the world's largest and most successful investment firms, with more than 2,500 professionals operating in 28 offices in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.
Carlyle's purpose is to connect people, ideas, and capital to fuel growth for companies and performance for investors, which range from public and private pension funds to wealthy individuals and families to sovereign wealth funds, unions and corporations. Carlyle invests across three segments - Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Carlyle AlpInvest - and has deep expertise across industries, markets, and geographies.
At Carlyle, we believe that a wide spectrum of experiences and viewpoints drives performance and success. Our CEO, Harvey Schwartz, has stated that, "To build better businesses and create value for all of our stakeholders, we are focused on assembling leadership teams with the strongest insights from a range of perspectives." Reflecting this view, emphasis is placed on development, retention and inclusion through our internal processes and seven Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). We cultivate a culture where ideas are openly shared and challenged, connecting diverse expertise and perspectives to drive enduring value.

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