AI Research Engineer Jobs in Illinois

To be considered for this position, applications and resumes are accepted only through our careers site by directly applying to the posted job. We do not accept unsolicited resumes or sales solicitations from staffing agencies. Any OCC employee wishing to submit a referral must do so through their Workday account. Any resume submitted outside of an active job posting will not be considered for employment.

What You'll Do:

OCC's AI Research & Engineering (AIRE) team is building the company's first generation of agentic AI capabilities on Anthropic's Claude models and AWS infrastructure. The Senior Associate, AI Engineering contributes hands-on to the design, development, and deployment of AI-powered applications and/or the infrastructure that supports them, working directly with senior engineers on real, greenfield initiatives from day one.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each primary duty satisfactorily.

• Build and ship production AI applications using Claude and Anthropic's tooling on AWS

• Contribute to agent orchestration, tool integration, and context design for multi-step agentic workflows

• Work on the application side (agent behavior, prompt and context architecture, evaluation design) or the infrastructure side (AWS environments, CI/CD, observability for AI systems), based on interest and team need

• Implement automated evaluation methods and output validation checks that support system reliability in a regulated environment

• Collaborate with senior engineers on technical design decisions and participate in code and architecture reviews

• Partner with OCC's AI Governance function on the technical implementation of governance-defined standards

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• None

Qualifications:

The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the primary functions.

• Genuine, demonstrated interest in AI/LLM systems, shown through coursework, personal projects, internships, or early professional work

• Comfort working in a fast-evolving, still-forming team environment where standards and practices are actively being defined

• Strong written and verbal communication skills

• This position is not eligible for employment visa sponsorship. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for sponsorship now or in the future.

Technical Skills:

• Required: Strong Python skills; working knowledge of SQL

• Required: Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred) and modern engineering practices such as CI/CD and containerization

• Preferred: Hands-on exposure to Claude, the Anthropic API, or Claude.ai/Console

• Preferred: Exposure to agent orchestration frameworks or the Model Context Protocol (MCP)

• Preferred: Interest or experience in AI infrastructure (Terraform, Kubernetes, Docker)

• Preferred: Interest in financial markets or other regulated industries

Education and/or Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field

• 2-4 years of professional software engineering experience (internships and substantial academic project work may be considered for exceptional candidates)

Certificates or Licenses:

• None required

About Us

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Founded in 1973, OCC is dedicated to promoting stability and market integrity by delivering clearing and settlement services for options, futures and securities lending transactions. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU), OCC operates under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. OCC has more than 100 clearing members and provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 19 exchanges and trading platforms. More information about OCC is available at www.theocc.com.

Benefits

A highly collaborative and supportive environment developed to encourage work-life balance and employee wellness. Some of these components include:

• A hybrid work environment, up to 2 days per week of remote work
• Tuition Reimbursement to support your continued education
• Student Loan Repayment Assistance
• Technology Stipend allowing you to use the device of your choice to connect to our network while working remotely
• Generous PTO and Parental leave
• 401k Employer Match
• Competitive health benefits including medical, dental and vision

Visit https://www.theocc.com/careers/thriving-together for more information.

Compensation

• The salary range listed for any given position is exclusive of fringe benefits and potential bonuses. If hired at OCC, your final base salary compensation will be determined by factors such as skills, experience and/or education.
• In addition, we believe in the importance of pay equity and consider internal equity of our current team members as part of any final offer.
• We typically do not hire at the maximum of the range in order to allow for future and continued salary growth. We also offer a substantial benefits package as noted on www.theocc.com/careers
• All employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus. Discretionary bonuses are based on various factors, including, but not limited to, company and individual performance and are not guaranteed.

Salary Range

Incentive Range

This position is eligible for an annual discretionary incentive compensation award, for which the target range is listed above (see Incentive Range). The amount of such award, if any, will be based on various factors, including without limitation, both individual and company performance.

Step 1
When you find a position you're interested in, click the 'Apply' button. Please complete the application and attach your resume.

Step 2
You will receive an email notification to confirm that we've received your application.

Step 3
If you are called in for an interview, a representative from OCC will contact you to set up a date, time, and location.

For more information about OCC, please click here.

OCC is an Equal Opportunity Employer