Embedded Software Engineer Jobs in Illinois
Embedded Software Engineer jobs in Illinois are active and competitive, with strong demand concentrated in defense and aerospace, automotive systems, industrial automation, and medical devices, and openings that run from entry-level firmware roles through principal and staff engineers. Chicago, Rockford, and the Route 128-equivalent corridor stretching through Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates are the primary hiring hubs, where anchor employers like Motorola Solutions, Caterpillar, and Abbott have maintained deep embedded engineering teams for decades. The most in-demand specialties are real-time operating systems, RTOS firmware, CAN and communication protocol stacks, and safety-critical software under IEC 62304 or DO-178C standards. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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Showing 4 of 45+ Embedded Software Engineer jobs
Career Area:
EngineeringJob Description:
Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc.
When you join Caterpillar, you're joining a global team who cares not just about the work we do – but also about each other. We are the makers, problem solvers, and future world builders who are creating stronger, more sustainable communities. We don't just talk about progress and innovation here – we make it happen, with our customers, where we work and live. Together, we are building a better world, so we can all enjoy living in it.
What if our IDE wasn't just a tool, but an intelligent, collaborative partner? What if it understood the unique constraints of our hardware, electrical, controls, and embedded software engineering, proactively identifying issues, generating boilerplate, and optimizing code before it's even written? At Caterpillar Trimble Control Technologies, we build the technology that powers the global earth-moving industry. Now, we're looking for a visionary engineer to build the tools that will transform how our own engineers build that technology.
In this role as a Embedded Software Engineering Specialist - Agentic AI (Agentic IDE) , you will join our established team, as a lead practitioner defining our strategy for the next generation of developer experience. You will pioneer an 'Agentic IDE' concept tailored for our unique, offline-first, embedded systems environment. This isn't about plugging into a simple cloud API, it's about fundamentally re-imagining the developer workflow for a world of hardware and electrical design, controls, embedded C++, and heavy machinery.
The CTCT division (a joint venture between Trimble and Caterpillar) develops positioning, control, and automation products for earthmoving and paving machines in the construction and mining industries, using technologies such as GNSS, optical total stations, lasers and sonics. The products are used in a range of applications where the operator of the machine benefits from having accurate horizontal and vertical guidance. For more information on currently developed products, see https://www.cat.com/en_US/by-industry/construction-industry-resources/technology/grade.html or http://construction.trimble.com/earthworks.
With CTCT being a globally distributed group, travel to New Zealand and India will also be a requirement from time to time.
What You Will Do:
- Architect the Vision: Define and champion the roadmap for our AI-powered developer tools, creating an 'agentic' experience where the IDE acts as an expert partner to our engineers.
- Lead & Build: This is a hands-on role. You will design, prototype, and build the core components of these new tools, from custom IDE extensions and CLIs to intelligent code generation and analysis services.
- Deeply Collaborate: Work side-by-side with our hardware, electrical, controls, and software engineers. You will live in their world to understand their deepest pain points and build the solutions they truly need.
- Integrate & Optimize: Evaluate and integrate Large Language Models (LLMs), static analysis tools, and other AI techniques into our existing CI/CD pipelines and development environments (e.g., VS Code, OpenCode, MATLAB/Simulink, etc.).
- Mentor & Evangelize: Act as the subject matter expert, advocating for best practices and mentoring other engineers in the art of the possible with AI-driven development.
What You Will Have:
Level Extensive Experience:
- Seeks discrepancies and inconsistencies in available information; explains variances.
- Organizes and prioritizes the sequence of steps to be taken to remedy the situation.
- Identifies many possible causes for a problem based on prior experience and current research.
- Quantifies the costs, benefits, risks and chances for success before recommending a course of action.
- Approaches a complex problem by breaking it down into its component parts.
- Chooses among a diverse set of analytical tools according to the nature of the situation.
Effective Communications: Understanding of effective communication concepts, tools and techniques; ability to effectively transmit, receive, and accurately interpret ideas, information, and needs through the application of appropriate communication behaviors.
Level Extensive Experience:
- Reviews others' writing or presentations and provides feedback and coaching.
- Adapts documents and presentations for the intended audience.
- Demonstrates both empathy and assertiveness when communicating a need or defending a position.
- Communicates well downward, upward, and outward.
- Employs appropriate methods of persuasion when soliciting agreement.
- Maintains focus on the topic at hand.
Technical Excellence: Knowledge of a given technology and various application methods; ability to develop and provide solutions to significant technical challenges.
Level Extensive Experience:
- Advises others on the assessment and provision of all technical solutions.
- Engages appropriate subject matter resources to effectively resolve technical issues.
- Mentors others to enhance their technical competence and its application to achieve more effective technical solutions.
- Coaches others in promoting, defining, analyzing, and providing superior technical solutions to business problems.
- Provides effective solutions to moderate technical challenges through strong technical competence, effectively examining implications of events and issues.
- Assumes accountability for personal technical performance and holds others responsible for theirs.
Software Product Design/Architecture: Knowledge of software product design; ability to convert market requirements into the software product design.
Level Extensive Experience:
- Demonstrates experience with the architecture and design of major or multiple products.
- Describes major software architecture alternatives and considerations.
- Explains design considerations for commercial database systems, operating systems and web.
- Displays experience in estimating the cost of a specific design of a proposed product.
- Facilitates design reviews and walkthroughs.
- Analyzes benefits and drawbacks of specific software designs and architecture.
Technical Troubleshooting: Knowledge of technical troubleshooting approaches, tools and techniques; ability to anticipate, recognize, and resolve technical issues on hardware, software, application or operation.
Level Advanced:
- Provides insight into alternative troubleshooting approaches and their applicability to solve problems.
- Elaborates on ways of distinguishing between hardware, software and communications problems.
- Plays a leadership role in resolving complex, multi-component failures.
- Creates and oversees policies and procedures to ensure alignment with product and service requirements.
- Builds standards to design and support troubleshooting situations and maintain cost effectiveness.
- Develops and demonstrates an extensive knowledge base and best practice on how to troubleshoot non-recurring and performance-related problems.
Skills and Experience You Should Bring:
We know 'Senior Developer Experience Engineer (Agentic IDE)' isn't a common title, and you may not have heard it before, so please don’t be put off! We're looking for a seasoned engineer with a track record of building exceptional developer tools and a deep curiosity for the potential of AI.
- A Proven Platform Builder: You have solid experience and a history of architecting and building complex developer platforms, infrastructure, or sophisticated tooling from the ground up.
- Polyglot Programmer: You are an expert in high-level languages like Python or TypeScript (for tooling and services) and are comfortable diving into, or at least deeply understanding, the complexities of C++ and its build systems, and MATLAB/Simulink toolchains.
-
Pragmatic AI Practitioner: You have demonstrable experience applying AI/ML to software development. This could include:
- Integrating LLM APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) and/or running smaller, local models (e.g., Llama, Mistral).
- Familiarity with frameworks like LangChain, or experience building custom AI agentic workflows.
- A strong understanding of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), prompt engineering, and fine-tuning.
- Systems Thinker: You excel at understanding complex, interconnected systems—from electrical and hardware design and MATLAB/Simulink control models to the embedded C++ firmware running on our custom hardware.
- Empathetic Communicator: You have an exceptional ability to listen, synthesize needs from diverse engineering groups, and articulate a clear, compelling vision that gets others excited. You build consensus, not just code.
Top Candidates Will Have Skills:
- Direct experience building IDE extensions for tools like VS Code, OpenCode, or MATLAB/Simulink.
- A background in compilers, static/dynamic code analysis, or working with Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs).
- Experience with embedded systems, model-based design/code generation, or hardware/electrical engineering toolchains.
- Contributions to open-source developer tools or AI frameworks.
Additional Information:
Location is onsite in Mossville, IL five days per week- Relocation assistance may be available in accordance with Caterpillar policies.
- Sponsorship is not available for this position.
- Travel is 20%
#LI
Summary Pay Range:
$128,470.00 - $192,710.00Compensation and benefits offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, job level, market location, job-related knowledge, skills, individual performance and experience. Please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Caterpillar.
Benefits:
Subject to plan eligibility, terms, and guidelines. This is a summary list of benefits.
Medical, dental, and vision benefits*
Paid time off plan (Vacation, Holidays, Volunteer, etc.)*
401(k) savings plans*
Health Savings Account (HSA)*
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)*
Health Lifestyle Programs*
Employee Assistance Program*
Voluntary Benefits and Employee Discounts*
Career Development*
Incentive bonus*
Disability benefits
Life Insurance
Parental leave
Adoption benefits
Tuition Reimbursement
- These benefits also apply to part-time employees
Posting Dates:
November 10, 2026 - November 23, 2026Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of a drug screen.
Caterpillar is an Equal Opportunity Employer, Including Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities. Qualified applicants of any age are encouraged to apply.
Not ready to apply? Join our Talent Community.
Career Area:
EngineeringJob Description:
Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc.
When you join Caterpillar, you're joining a global team who cares not just about the work we do – but also about each other. We are the makers, problem solvers, and future world builders who are creating stronger, more sustainable communities. We don't just talk about progress and innovation here – we make it happen, with our customers, where we work and live. Together, we are building a better world, so we can all enjoy living in it.
What if our IDE wasn't just a tool, but an intelligent, collaborative partner? What if it understood the unique constraints of our hardware, electrical, controls, and embedded software engineering, proactively identifying issues, generating boilerplate, and optimizing code before it's even written? At Caterpillar Trimble Control Technologies, we build the technology that powers the global earth-moving industry. Now, we're looking for a visionary engineer to build the tools that will transform how our own engineers build that technology.
In this role as a Embedded Software Engineering Specialist - Agentic AI (Agentic IDE) , you will join our established team, as a lead practitioner defining our strategy for the next generation of developer experience. You will pioneer an 'Agentic IDE' concept tailored for our unique, offline-first, embedded systems environment. This isn't about plugging into a simple cloud API, it's about fundamentally re-imagining the developer workflow for a world of hardware and electrical design, controls, embedded C++, and heavy machinery.
The CTCT division (a joint venture between Trimble and Caterpillar) develops positioning, control, and automation products for earthmoving and paving machines in the construction and mining industries, using technologies such as GNSS, optical total stations, lasers and sonics. The products are used in a range of applications where the operator of the machine benefits from having accurate horizontal and vertical guidance. For more information on currently developed products, see https://www.cat.com/en_US/by-industry/construction-industry-resources/technology/grade.html or http://construction.trimble.com/earthworks.
With CTCT being a globally distributed group, travel to New Zealand and India will also be a requirement from time to time.
What You Will Do:
- Architect the Vision: Define and champion the roadmap for our AI-powered developer tools, creating an 'agentic' experience where the IDE acts as an expert partner to our engineers.
- Lead & Build: This is a hands-on role. You will design, prototype, and build the core components of these new tools, from custom IDE extensions and CLIs to intelligent code generation and analysis services.
- Deeply Collaborate: Work side-by-side with our hardware, electrical, controls, and software engineers. You will live in their world to understand their deepest pain points and build the solutions they truly need.
- Integrate & Optimize: Evaluate and integrate Large Language Models (LLMs), static analysis tools, and other AI techniques into our existing CI/CD pipelines and development environments (e.g., VS Code, OpenCode, MATLAB/Simulink, etc.).
- Mentor & Evangelize: Act as the subject matter expert, advocating for best practices and mentoring other engineers in the art of the possible with AI-driven development.
What You Will Have:
Level Extensive Experience:
- Seeks discrepancies and inconsistencies in available information; explains variances.
- Organizes and prioritizes the sequence of steps to be taken to remedy the situation.
- Identifies many possible causes for a problem based on prior experience and current research.
- Quantifies the costs, benefits, risks and chances for success before recommending a course of action.
- Approaches a complex problem by breaking it down into its component parts.
- Chooses among a diverse set of analytical tools according to the nature of the situation.
Effective Communications: Understanding of effective communication concepts, tools and techniques; ability to effectively transmit, receive, and accurately interpret ideas, information, and needs through the application of appropriate communication behaviors.
Level Extensive Experience:
- Reviews others' writing or presentations and provides feedback and coaching.
- Adapts documents and presentations for the intended audience.
- Demonstrates both empathy and assertiveness when communicating a need or defending a position.
- Communicates well downward, upward, and outward.
- Employs appropriate methods of persuasion when soliciting agreement.
- Maintains focus on the topic at hand.
Technical Excellence: Knowledge of a given technology and various application methods; ability to develop and provide solutions to significant technical challenges.
Level Extensive Experience:
- Advises others on the assessment and provision of all technical solutions.
- Engages appropriate subject matter resources to effectively resolve technical issues.
- Mentors others to enhance their technical competence and its application to achieve more effective technical solutions.
- Coaches others in promoting, defining, analyzing, and providing superior technical solutions to business problems.
- Provides effective solutions to moderate technical challenges through strong technical competence, effectively examining implications of events and issues.
- Assumes accountability for personal technical performance and holds others responsible for theirs.
Software Product Design/Architecture: Knowledge of software product design; ability to convert market requirements into the software product design.
Level Extensive Experience:
- Demonstrates experience with the architecture and design of major or multiple products.
- Describes major software architecture alternatives and considerations.
- Explains design considerations for commercial database systems, operating systems and web.
- Displays experience in estimating the cost of a specific design of a proposed product.
- Facilitates design reviews and walkthroughs.
- Analyzes benefits and drawbacks of specific software designs and architecture.
Technical Troubleshooting: Knowledge of technical troubleshooting approaches, tools and techniques; ability to anticipate, recognize, and resolve technical issues on hardware, software, application or operation.
Level Advanced:
- Provides insight into alternative troubleshooting approaches and their applicability to solve problems.
- Elaborates on ways of distinguishing between hardware, software and communications problems.
- Plays a leadership role in resolving complex, multi-component failures.
- Creates and oversees policies and procedures to ensure alignment with product and service requirements.
- Builds standards to design and support troubleshooting situations and maintain cost effectiveness.
- Develops and demonstrates an extensive knowledge base and best practice on how to troubleshoot non-recurring and performance-related problems.
Skills and Experience You Should Bring:
We know 'Senior Developer Experience Engineer (Agentic IDE)' isn't a common title, and you may not have heard it before, so please don’t be put off! We're looking for a seasoned engineer with a track record of building exceptional developer tools and a deep curiosity for the potential of AI.
- A Proven Platform Builder: You have solid experience and a history of architecting and building complex developer platforms, infrastructure, or sophisticated tooling from the ground up.
- Polyglot Programmer: You are an expert in high-level languages like Python or TypeScript (for tooling and services) and are comfortable diving into, or at least deeply understanding, the complexities of C++ and its build systems, and MATLAB/Simulink toolchains.
-
Pragmatic AI Practitioner: You have demonstrable experience applying AI/ML to software development. This could include:
- Integrating LLM APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) and/or running smaller, local models (e.g., Llama, Mistral).
- Familiarity with frameworks like LangChain, or experience building custom AI agentic workflows.
- A strong understanding of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), prompt engineering, and fine-tuning.
- Systems Thinker: You excel at understanding complex, interconnected systems—from electrical and hardware design and MATLAB/Simulink control models to the embedded C++ firmware running on our custom hardware.
- Empathetic Communicator: You have an exceptional ability to listen, synthesize needs from diverse engineering groups, and articulate a clear, compelling vision that gets others excited. You build consensus, not just code.
Top Candidates Will Have Skills:
- Direct experience building IDE extensions for tools like VS Code, OpenCode, or MATLAB/Simulink.
- A background in compilers, static/dynamic code analysis, or working with Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs).
- Experience with embedded systems, model-based design/code generation, or hardware/electrical engineering toolchains.
- Contributions to open-source developer tools or AI frameworks.
Additional Information:
Location is onsite in Mossville, IL five days per week- Relocation assistance may be available in accordance with Caterpillar policies.
- Sponsorship is not available for this position.
- Travel is 20%
#LI
Summary Pay Range:
$128,470.00 - $192,710.00Compensation and benefits offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, job level, market location, job-related knowledge, skills, individual performance and experience. Please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Caterpillar.
Benefits:
Subject to plan eligibility, terms, and guidelines. This is a summary list of benefits.
Medical, dental, and vision benefits*
Paid time off plan (Vacation, Holidays, Volunteer, etc.)*
401(k) savings plans*
Health Savings Account (HSA)*
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)*
Health Lifestyle Programs*
Employee Assistance Program*
Voluntary Benefits and Employee Discounts*
Career Development*
Incentive bonus*
Disability benefits
Life Insurance
Parental leave
Adoption benefits
Tuition Reimbursement
- These benefits also apply to part-time employees
Posting Dates:
November 10, 2026 - November 23, 2026Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of a drug screen.
Caterpillar is an Equal Opportunity Employer, Including Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities. Qualified applicants of any age are encouraged to apply.
Not ready to apply? Join our Talent Community.
See All 45 Embedded Software Engineer Jobs in Illinois
Find roles in Illinois that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find JobsEmbedded Software Engineer Jobs by City in Illinois
Where Illinois roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Embedded Software Engineer Job Market in Illinois
A snapshot from current Illinois openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software
- Consulting & Professional Services
- Automotive
- Manufacturing
- Artificial Intelligence
What Illinois Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in embedded software engineer jobs across Illinois.
- Bachelor's degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, or a closely related technical field
- Proficiency in C and C++ for bare-metal or RTOS-based embedded development
- Experience with microcontrollers and microprocessors such as ARM Cortex or TI MSP platforms
- Familiarity with communication protocols including CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, or Ethernet
- Exposure to debugging tools like JTAG, oscilloscopes, or logic analyzers in a lab setting
- Experience with version control systems and cross-platform build environments such as Git and CMake
Embedded Software Engineer Jobs in Illinois: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a embedded software engineer in Illinois?
Embedded software engineering in Illinois does not require a state-issued license, but most employers expect a bachelor's degree in computer engineering or electrical engineering from an accredited program. Illinois graduates often enter through co-op or internship pipelines at defense contractors, medical device firms, and industrial automation companies. Earning a Certified Embedded Systems Engineer designation through the IEEE Computer Society strengthens a candidate's profile considerably in Illinois's safety-critical and regulated industries.
How much do embedded software engineers make in Illinois?
Embedded software engineers in Illinois earn a median of about $132,110 a year, based on May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, ranging from around $80,980 for the lowest 10% to over $194,740 for the top 10%. Pay rises with experience, specialty, and employer.
Which companies hire embedded software engineers in Illinois?
Employers hiring embedded software engineers in Illinois right now include Northrop Grumman, Caterpillar, and Shure, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Illinois's concentration of defense primes, medical device manufacturers, and industrial automation companies means embedded openings tend to cluster around firms with long-standing engineering campuses in the Chicago metro and the Rockford corridor.
Which Illinois cities have the most embedded software engineer jobs?
Mossville, Rolling Meadows, and Peoria have the most embedded software engineer openings in Illinois. Chicago anchors demand through its dense cluster of defense contractors and medical device firms, while suburban hubs like Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates reflect large campus footprints from companies like Motorola Solutions, and Rockford draws openings from aerospace and heavy-equipment manufacturers embedded in that region's industrial base.
Are there remote embedded software engineer jobs in Illinois?
Yes, but they're rare. Embedded software engineering is inherently hardware-dependent, so most roles require lab access, hardware bring-up, or on-site debugging at some stage. About 18% of embedded software engineer openings tied to Illinois are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, and those positions tend to concentrate in firmware architecture, BSP development, or software integration work where the hardware phase is already complete.
How can I get hired as a embedded software engineer in Illinois with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is a new-graduate or associate engineer role at one of Illinois's large defense or medical device employers, which run structured onboarding programs for candidates without professional experience. Caterpillar and Motorola Solutions both hire new graduates into embedded and firmware teams through campus pipelines. Building a portfolio of personal microcontroller projects, contributing to open-source embedded firmware, or completing an IEEE Certified Embedded Systems Engineer prep course signals readiness to Illinois hiring managers who screen entry-level candidates heavily on demonstrated hands-on initiative.
Where can I find and apply to embedded software engineer jobs in Illinois?
You can find and apply to embedded software engineer jobs in Illinois on Migrate Mate, which lists current Illinois openings across the state's defense, medical device, industrial, and automotive sectors. Find roles that fit your experience and apply directly to the employers posting them.
See All 45 Embedded Software Engineer Jobs in Illinois
Find roles in Illinois that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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