Principal Solutions Engineer Jobs in Illinois
Principal Solutions Engineer jobs in Illinois are concentrated in enterprise software, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and financial technology, with demand at every level from mid-career engineer through senior-principal. Chicago anchors the market and draws the largest share of openings, while suburban corridors around Naperville and Downers Grove host major technology and consulting employers including Motorola Solutions, Zebra Technologies, and Salesforce. Roles requiring deep expertise in cloud architecture, API integration, and pre-sales technical consulting see the steadiest demand across the state. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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JLL empowers you to shape a brighter way.
Our people at JLL are shaping the future of real estate for a better world by combining world class services, advisory and technology for our clients. We are committed to hiring the best, most talented people and empowering them to thrive, grow meaningful careers and to find a place where they belong. Whether you’ve got deep experience in commercial real estate, skilled trades or technology, or you’re looking to apply your relevant experience to a new industry, join our team as we help shape a brighter way forward.
Role Summary
We are seeking a Principal Architect to help lead the next generation of AI-enabled product, platform, and engineering capabilities across our organization. This is a senior individual contributor role operating at the highest levels of technical leadership. The ideal candidate will combine deep AI architecture expertise with strong enterprise architecture judgment, practical delivery experience, and the ability to influence teams across business units.
This role will partner closely with business and technology leaders to shape product and platform architectures, define and uphold enterprise standards, and help our engineering organization adopt modern AI and AI-powered software delivery practices responsibly and effectively.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead architecture for strategic AI initiatives across products, platforms, and shared enterprise capabilities
- Partner with business units, product leaders, and engineering teams to shape scalable, secure, and practical AI solution architectures
- Define and evolve architecture standards, reference patterns, and guardrails for AI solutions and AI-enabled software development
- Evaluate emerging AI technologies, platforms, and patterns, and guide the organization on where and how to adopt them
- Provide architectural leadership for capabilities, agentic workflows, AI orchestration, evaluations, AI observability, and AI governance
- Ensure AI solutions align with enterprise requirements for security, privacy, compliance, resiliency, observability, and maintainability
- Help engineering teams leverage AI-powered PDLC capabilities across coding, testing, documentation, analysis, and delivery workflows
- Guide architecture decisions across application, data, integration, platform, and operational concerns to avoid fragmented or duplicative solutions
- Mentor technical leads and senior engineers and contribute to raising the technical bar across the organization
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Participate in architecture reviews, technical strategy discussions, and investment decisions related to AI and platform modernization
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s or masters degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience
- 12+ years of experience in software engineering, architecture, or technology leadership roles
- Significant experience designing and guiding enterprise-grade AI solutions in production environments
- Deep knowledge of modern AI architecture patterns, including LLM-based applications, retrieval systems, agentic workflows, prompt and tool orchestration, and evaluation approaches
- Strong architecture background across distributed systems, APIs, integration, data platforms, security, and cloud-native solutions
- Experience establishing architecture standards, reference architectures, and technical guardrails across multiple teams
- Proven ability to influence senior technical and business stakeholders without direct authority
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to tailor communication from engineering teams to executive leadership
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Demonstrated ability to balance innovation, speed, risk management, and long-term maintainability
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience working in a large enterprise, platform-oriented environment
- Experience with AI governance, responsible AI, model risk, privacy, and security controls
- Familiarity with cloud AI platforms and services, vector search, AI gateways, observability, and production AI operations
- Experience helping engineering organizations adopt AI-powered development tools and practices
- Experience defining reusable architecture patterns for shared enterprise AI capabilities
- Experience mentoring architects or leading architecture communities of practice
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Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or related field
What Success Looks Like
- Business units have a strong architecture partner for AI-driven product and platform decisions
- The organization has clearer standards and reusable patterns for AI solutions
- Teams adopt AI technologies faster and more safely
- AI initiatives are better aligned to business value, enterprise platforms, and engineering standards
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Engineering teams are better equipped to use AI-powered PDLC capabilities effectively and responsibly
Leadership Expectations
This role is expected to operate as a senior technical leader across organizational boundaries. The Principal Architect will influence strategy, guide major technical decisions, coach others, and help establish the technical direction for enterprise AI adoption and architecture excellence.
This position does not provide visa sponsorship. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.
Estimated compensation for this position:
215,000.00 – 300,000.00 USD per yearThis 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:
Remote –Chicago, ILIf 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.
JLL Privacy Notice
Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading global provider of real estate and investment management services. We take our responsibility to protect the personal information provided to us seriously. Generally the personal information we collect from you are for the purposes of processing in connection with JLL’s recruitment process. We endeavour to keep your personal information secure with appropriate level of security and keep for as long as we need it for legitimate business or legal reasons. We will then delete it safely and securely.
For more information about how JLL processes your personal data, please view our Candidate Privacy Statement.
For additional details please see our career site pages for each country.
For candidates in the United States, please see a full copy of our Equal Employment Opportunity policy here.
Jones Lang LaSalle (“JLL”) is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process – including the online application and/or overall selection process – you may email us at HRSCLeaves@jll.com. This email is only to request an accommodation. Please direct any other general recruiting inquiries to our Contact Us page > I want to work for JLL.
Pursuant to the Arizona Civil Rights Act, criminal convictions are not an absolute bar to employment.
Pursuant to Illinois Law, applicants are not obligated to disclose sealed or expunged records of conviction or arrest.
Pursuant to Columbia, SC ordinance, this position is subject to a background check for any convictions directly related to its duties and responsibilities. Only job-related convictions will be considered and will not automatically disqualify the candidate.
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Pursuant to the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, JLL will consider for employment all qualified Applicants, including those with Criminal Histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Accepting applications on an ongoing basis until candidate identified.
See All 10 Principal Solutions Engineer Jobs in Illinois
Find roles in Illinois that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find JobsPrincipal Solutions Engineer Jobs by City in Illinois
Where Illinois roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Principal Solutions Engineer Job Market in Illinois
A snapshot from current Illinois openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring



Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software
- Banking & Financial Services
- Consulting & Professional Services
What Illinois Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in principal solutions engineer jobs across Illinois.
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a closely related technical field
- Seven or more years of experience in solutions engineering, technical sales, or systems architecture
- Demonstrated expertise in cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud
- Experience leading technical discovery sessions and delivering enterprise solution presentations
- Ability to translate complex technical requirements into clear business value for stakeholders
- Strong collaboration skills for working across sales, product, and engineering teams
Principal Solutions Engineer Jobs in Illinois: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a principal solutions engineer in Illinois?
The path to a principal solutions engineer role in Illinois runs through a technical bachelor's degree, typically in computer science, information systems, or electrical engineering, followed by progressive experience in solutions engineering or systems architecture. Illinois does not require a state-issued license for this role. Most hiring managers expect a candidate to have led enterprise pre-sales cycles or designed multi-system integrations independently before reaching the principal level. Certifications from major cloud providers carry weight with Illinois employers.
How much do principal solutions engineers make in Illinois?
Principal solutions engineers in Illinois earn a median of about $99,710 a year, based on May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, ranging from around $74,570 for the lowest 10% to over $162,590 for the top 10%. Pay rises with experience, specialty, and employer.
Which companies hire principal solutions engineers in Illinois?
Employers hiring principal solutions engineers in Illinois right now include JLL, Humana, and Ollion, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of August 2026. Illinois's concentration of enterprise technology, financial services, and telecommunications firms means openings appear across both established headquarters and regional offices throughout the Chicago metro and its suburbs.
Which Illinois cities have the most principal solutions engineer jobs?
Chicago and Illinois have the most principal solutions engineer openings in Illinois. Chicago leads because it is home to a dense cluster of enterprise technology vendors, financial institutions, and consulting firms that rely on principal solutions engineers to support complex sales cycles, while suburban hubs like Naperville draw openings from major corporate headquarters that have established large technology campuses outside the city center.
Are there remote principal solutions engineer jobs in Illinois?
Yes, and more than most technical fields. About 67% of principal solutions engineer openings tied to Illinois are remote or hybrid as of August 2026, reflecting how much of the work centers on virtual demonstrations, architecture reviews, and client calls rather than on-site installation. The portions of the role most likely to remain fully remote are pre-sales consultation, solution design, and technical documentation, while enterprise accounts with on-site infrastructure may still require periodic travel.
How can I get hired as a principal solutions engineer in Illinois with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is through an associate or junior solutions engineer role at a Chicago-area technology vendor or consulting firm, where you support senior engineers on client engagements before leading your own. Companies like Motorola Solutions and Zebra Technologies run structured rotational or associate programs that bring in candidates from adjacent roles such as technical support engineer, implementation specialist, or pre-sales analyst. Earning a cloud certification before applying strengthens a candidate's profile considerably for Illinois employers.
Where can I find and apply to principal solutions engineer jobs in Illinois?
You can find and apply to principal solutions engineer jobs in Illinois on Migrate Mate, which lists current Illinois openings updated regularly. Find the roles that fit your background and apply directly to the employer. No account creation is required to search or view listings.
See All 10 Principal Solutions Engineer Jobs in Illinois
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