Entry Level Staff Software Engineer Jobs in Chicago, IL

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Forward Deployed AI Engineer
JLL | AI Engineering | Full-Time
About the Role
JLL is rolling out AI agents directly into business lines: Capital Markets, Leasing, Property Management, and corporate functions. Forward Deployed AI Engineers (FDEs) are the engineers who sit inside those lines, learn the work from the people doing it, and bootstrap the agents that change how that work gets done.
You will own a business line as a one-person engineering team. The Center of Excellence in our central AI team gives you the methodology, the platform, and the patterns; the business line gives you the problems, the SMEs, and the appetite for change. Your job is to turn that into shipped agents and MCP integrations, then hand mature work off to platform and operations as it stabilizes.
We expect engineers at this level to operate with AI tools as a primary part of their workflow. Your leverage comes from the hooks, skills, workflows, and automations you install to ship safely to production. The leverage in this role is AI, not headcount.
What You'll Do

• Build and ship agents for a specific business line, in close partnership with its SMEs and operators.
• Stand up MCP servers and connectors: pre-production first, then through CDR into production.
• Bootstrap skills, integrations, and evals on top of JLL's AI platform (LLM gateway, shared RAG services, MCP toolchain).
• Run workshops with business teams, teach them to use Claude Code, and translate their workflows into agent skills.
• Hand mature systems off to platform and operations teams once they outgrow the bootstrap phase.
• Feed patterns, anti-patterns, and platform gaps back into the Center of Excellence so the next FDE moves faster.

Must Have
Experience

• Shipped production agents using Claude Agent SDK, MCP, or an equivalent stack.
• Production code in at least one of Python, Node, or .NET, with comfort moving across the others.
• Worked with diverse data stores: relational, NoSQL, object/blob, vector, and document.
• Operated end-to-end as a one-person team: design, ship, support, hand off.

Traits

• Strong written and verbal communication; comfortable in the room with non-engineers.
• Pragmatic judgment on when to ship, when to harden, and when to hand off.
• Systems thinking with a focus on failure modes; AI writes most of the code, you own it.
• Comfort with tasking and ability to run multiple agents in parallel as part of daily workflow.

Why This Role

• JLL. A Fortune 200 company and a global leader in commercial real estate, with the stability of a $20B+ business and the resources to invest seriously in AI.
• The team. You sit at the seam of product, engineering, and business, with a direct line into JLL's central AI platform via the Center of Excellence. The work is visible from the CTO down.
• The role. The highest-leverage seat in the company: you ship things real users feel within weeks, not quarters, and the systems you bootstrap become the agents thousands of JLL employees rely on every day.

This position does not provide visa sponsorship. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.
Estimated compensation for this position:
187,100.00 - 229,000.00 USD per year
This range is an estimate and actual compensation may differ. Final compensation packages are determined by various considerations including but not limited to candidate qualifications, location, market conditions, and internal considerations.
Location:
On-site -Chicago, IL
If this job description resonates with you, we encourage you to apply, even if you don't meet all the requirements. We're interested in getting to know you and what you bring to the table!
Personalized benefits that support personal well-being and growth:
JLL recognizes the impact that the workplace can have on your wellness, so we offer a supportive culture and comprehensive benefits package that prioritizes mental, physical and emotional health. Some of these benefits may include:

• 401(k) plan with matching company contributions
• Comprehensive Medical, Dental & Vision Care
• Paid parental leave at 100% of salary
• Paid Time Off and Company Holidays
• Early access to earned wages through Daily Pay

At JLL, we harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to efficiently accelerate meaningful connections between candidates and opportunities. Using AI capabilities, we analyze your application for relevant skills, experiences, and qualifications to generate valuable insights about how your unique profile aligns with the specific requirements of the role you're pursuing.
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