Systems Engineer Jobs in Chicago, IL
Systems Engineer jobs in Chicago are concentrated in the Loop, River North, and the tech corridor around Fulton Market, with strong demand across defense contracting, enterprise IT, and telecommunications. Employers actively hiring include Sargent & Lundy, EY, and Anduril. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
Find Systems Engineer JobsOverview
Showing 5 of 66+ Systems Engineer jobs
We continually strive for a workforce that reflects the growing diversity within the State of Illinois. A variety of employee backgrounds, perspectives, ideas and experiences are crucial to our ability to most effectively serve the public. Bilingual skills welcome
Reasonable Accommodation Statement
The State of Illinois is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. Further, federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job, interview for a job, or for any other activity related to the hiring process. Examples of reasonable accommodation include, but are not limited to, making a change to the application process (if possible), providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment.
To be provided a Reasonable Accommodation during the hiring process, you will need to provide a certification of disability from a physician, psychiatrist, school official or an Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Counselor. Supporting documentation should be uploaded under My Documents Additional Documents section for each application.
Any questions on Reasonable Accommodations can be directed to Central Management Services Disability Resource Center at CMS.DisabilityResCen@illinois.gov or call (217) 524-7514 for further information and to request or discuss an accommodation.
Sponsorship for Employment
The State of Illinois does not provide sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g. H-1B visa status), nor is the State able to provide extensions of optional practical training (OPT) under the STEM-designated degree program for F-1 students. To be considered for permanent employment with the State of Illinois, applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.
Disclosure of Salary Information
In compliance with the Illinois Equal Pay Act, 820 ILCS 112/1 et seq., the State does not seek, request, or require a job applicant’s wage or salary history. Employment decisions are not made based on an applicant’s wage or salary history. To that end, please do not include wage or salary information in your resume or other profile or application materials.
Job Requisition ID: 59962
Opening Date: 11/13/2026
Closing Date: 12/01/2026
Agency: Department of Innovation and Technology
Class Title: INFORMATION SYSTEMS ANALYST III - 21167
Skill Option: System Services - Information Technology
Bilingual Option: None
Salary: Anticipated starting salary: $9,130 monthly; Full range: $ $9,130-$13,573
Job Type: Salaried
Category: Full Time
Number of Vacancies: 1
Bargaining Unit Code: RC063 Professional Employees, Educators,Juvenile Justice School Counselors and Special Education Resources Coordinators,and Physicians AFSCME
Merit Comp Code: N/A
Work Hours: 8:30 AM-5:00 PM Monday - Friday (hours may vary)
Anticipated Hybrid Work Schedule Availability: 1 to 5 Days per week in office, depending on operational needs
Headquarter Location: 555 W Monroe St, Chicago, Illinois, 60661
Work County: Cook
Agency Contact: Lorna.A.Bock@illinois.gov
This position is a union position; therefore, provisions of the relevant collective bargaining agreement/labor contract apply to the filling of this position.
All applicants who want to be considered for this position MUST apply electronically through the illinois.jobs2web.com website. State of Illinois employees should click the link near the top left to apply through the SuccessFactors employee career portal.
Applications submitted via email or any paper manner (mail, fax, hand delivery) will not be considered.
Proof of educational coursework is required. Acceptable proof of coursework includes unofficial transcripts, copies of official transcripts, account records (including screenshots) of academic coursework, and any similar documents created by an academic institution.
Why Work for Illinois?
Working with the State of Illinois is a testament to the values of compassion, equity, and dedication that define our state. Whether you’re helping to improve schools, protect our natural resources, or support families in need, you’re part of something bigger—something that touches the lives of every person who calls Illinois home.
No matter what state career you’re looking for, we offer jobs that fit your life and your schedule—flexible jobs that provide the gold standard of benefits. Our employees can take advantage of various avenues to advance their careers and realize their dreams. Our top-tier benefits and great retirement packages can help you build a rewarding career and lasting future with the State of Illinois.
Position Overview
Are you looking for a rewarding career with an organization that values their staff? The Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT) is seeking to hire qualified candidates with the opportunity to work in a dynamic, creative thinking, problem solving environment. This position serves as the Senior Data Engineer. The Senior Data Engineer leads the design, development, and optimization of complex, large‑scale data pipelines and distributed processing systems that power enterprise analytics, operations, and regulatory reporting. The role architects and governs modern lakehouse and warehouse environments, ensuring high‑performance data models, reliable ingestion frameworks, and scalable transformation workflows. This position drives DataOps and continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) automation, enforces data‑quality and observability standards, and maintains secure, compliant data access across platforms. The Senior Data Engineer also serves as the technical leader for cross‑functional teams, providing architectural guidance, code review, and mentorship to elevate engineering practices across the organization. If you possess these knowledges, skills, abilities and experience, we invite you to apply for this position to join the DoIT Team!
- Competitive Group Insurance benefits including health, life, dental and vision plans.
- Flexible work schedules (when available and dependent upon position).
- 10-25 days of paid vacation time annually (10 days for first year of state employment).
- 12 days of paid sick time annually which carry over year to year.
- 3 paid personal business days per year.
- 13-14 paid holidays per year dependent on election years.
- 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
- Pension plan through the State Employees Retirement System.
- Deferred Compensation Program – voluntary supplemental retirement plan.
- Optional pre-tax programs -Medical Care Assistance Plan (MCAP) & Dependent Care Assistant Plan (DCAP).
- Tuition Reimbursement Program and Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program eligibility.
Essential Functions
- Under administrative direction, serves as the Senior Data Engineer for the Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT), performing highly complex professional and advisory functions that include leading the design, development, and optimization of enterprise data pipelines, architecting scalable data platforms, maintaining data quality and governance, and providing expert guidance on data engineering best practices across the enterprise.
- Designs, builds, and optimizes enterprise ETL (Extract–Transform–Load) and ELT (Extract–Load–Transform) pipelines, distributed processing workloads, and semantic data models that support analytics, business intelligence, and operational reporting across agency data platforms.
- Leads the technical governance of enterprise data lake architecture, ensuring high availability, data quality, cost-efficient storage tiering, and end-to-end observability across the full enterprise data asset inventory.
- Designs, implements, and governs continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) automation frameworks for data engineering workloads, ensuring that code promotion, environment parity, and production deployment processes meet enterprise reliability and security standards.
- Implements, governs, and continuously improves the enterprise role-based access control framework for data platforms, verifying that data access policy is technically enforced, auditable, and aligned with DoIT security standards and applicable state and federal data governance regulations.
- Engineers and optimizes data workloads across relational, non relational, and emerging data platforms, including large scale RDBMS (such as Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, or equivalent), document databases (e.g., MongoDB, Couchbase), key value stores (e.g., Redis, DynamoDB), and graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, Cosmos DB Gremlin API).
- Participates as a senior technical contributor and player/coach resource within cross-functional data delivery squads, representing enterprise data engineering standards in agency-aligned feature development and providing technical advisory to vendor partners and executive stakeholders.
- Keeps abreast of new developments in the information technology field by continuing education through online training platforms, meetings, training sessions, seminars, and conferences to increase familiarity with and remain current on products, vendors, techniques, and procedures.
- Performs other duties as required or assigned which are reasonably within the scope of the duties enumerated above.
Minimum Qualifications
- Requires knowledge, skill and mental development equivalent to four (4) years of college with coursework in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, Data Engineering, Software Engineering, Management Information Science, or a closely related field.
- Requires five (5) years of professional experience in a related Information Technology field, including experience in data engineering, software engineering, database administration, business intelligence development, data architecture, systems integration, or a closely related technical discipline.
Specialized Skills
- Requires five (5) years of professional experience designing, building, and optimizing enterprise-scale data pipelines, fault-tolerant ETL/ELT patterns, and distributed data processing systems in a high-volume near-time production environment, including hands-on SQL performance tuning, execution plan analysis, index strategy, and workload optimization across platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, DB2, or equivalent relational and cloud data systems.
- Requires five (5) years of professional experience with distributed data processing and Spark execution engine optimization, including advanced hands-on design and tuning of large-scale batch, micro-batch, and streaming workloads with demonstrated proficiency in execution plans, shuffle and partition strategy, memory management, and cluster autoscaling across platforms such as Databricks, Apache Spark, Azure Synapse, Teradata Vantage, Snowflake, Amazon EMR, Starburst, Cloudera, or equivalent.
- Requires five (5) years of professional experience with enterprise data platform and lakehouse architecture design, including implementation of high-performance multi-zone lake and lakehouse patterns, open table format optimization, schema evolution, and integration of storage, compute, and catalog layers across platforms such as Microsoft Fabric, Databricks Unity Catalog, Snowflake, or equivalent enterprise cloud data platforms.
- Requires four (4) years of professional experience engineering reusable data access layers and gateway patterns that abstract source system complexity, eliminate redundant data movement, and deliver consistent, governed interfaces for downstream consumers and applications, in support of enterprise interoperability and data-driven design standards leveraging expert logical data analysis, root causes of operational or procedural problems.
Preferred Qualifications
- Five (5) years of professional experience designing, building, and optimizing enterprise-scale data pipelines, fault-tolerant ETL/ELT patterns, and distributed data processing systems in a high-volume near-time production environment, including hands-on SQL performance tuning, execution plan analysis, index strategy, and workload optimization across platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, DB2, or equivalent relational and cloud data systems.
- Five (5) years of professional experience with distributed data processing and Spark execution engine optimization, including advanced hands-on design and tuning of large-scale batch, micro-batch, and streaming workloads with demonstrated proficiency in execution plans, shuffle and partition strategy, memory management, and cluster autoscaling across platforms such as Databricks, Apache Spark, Azure Synapse, Teradata Vantage, Snowflake, Amazon EMR, Starburst, Cloudera, or equivalent.
- Five (5) years of professional experience with enterprise data platform and lakehouse architecture design, including implementation of high-performance multi-zone lake and lakehouse patterns, open table format optimization, schema evolution, and integration of storage, compute, and catalog layers across platforms such as Microsoft Fabric, Databricks Unity Catalog, Snowflake, or equivalent enterprise cloud data platforms.
- Four (4) years of professional experience engineering reusable data access layers and gateway patterns that abstract source system complexity, eliminate redundant data movement, and deliver consistent, governed interfaces for downstream consumers and applications, in support of enterprise interoperability and data-driven design standards leveraging expert logical data analysis, root causes of operational or procedural problems.
- Four (4) or more years of professional experience implementing role-based access control frameworks across enterprise data platforms, including Databricks Unity Catalog, Microsoft Purview, Snowflake, or equivalent, in alignment with formal enterprise data governance or security classification policy.
- Four (4) or more years of professional experience implementing enterprise data observability and data quality monitoring frameworks, including configuration of automated quality checks, schema drift detection, privacy monitoring incident leadership, data lineage tracking, anomaly detection, and pipeline alerting to maintain production data reliability and operational integrity at enterprise scale.
- Four (4) or more years of professional experience with DataOps, CI/CD pipeline engineering, and infrastructure-as-code for data workloads, including automated deployment of notebooks, Spark jobs, SQL deployments, and dbt models, and provisioning of cloud data infrastructure using tools such as Terraform, Azure Bicep, Databricks Asset Bundles, or GitHub Actions.
- Ability to provide expert peer code review and mentor junior and mid-level engineers to strengthen engineering practices and technical proficiency.
- Ability to analyze data to recommend and implement technical solutions that enhance enterprise data standards, support platform reusability, and improve data interoperability.
- Developed verbal and written communication skills with a proven ability to clearly articulate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences through documentation, presentations, and cross-functional collaboration.
Conditions of Employment
All applicants must be able to meet the following Conditions of Employment with or without reasonable accommodation, to be considered for this position. The State of Illinois complies with federal and state disability laws and will make reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities.
- Requires the ability to verify identity.
- Requires employment authorization to accept permanent full-time position with the State of Illinois.
- Requires the ability to pass a position specific, agency required background check and requires self-disclosure of criminal history.
- Requires the ability to travel in performance of duties, with occasional overnight stays.
- Requires the ability to work outside of normal business hours to meet deadlines.
- Requires the ability to use agency supplied equipment such as laptop, personal computer, work cell phone and any other required equipment or devices.
- Requires the ability to lift and carry objects or equipment weighing up to 10 pounds. This is considered sedentary work as defined by the U.S. Department of Labor (20 CFR 404.1567(a)). Sedentary work involves lifting no more than 10 pounds at a time and requires occasional lifting, carrying, walking, and standing.
- Requires adherence to the revolving door restrictions outlined in 5 ILCS 430/5-45. Consequently, employees should be aware that in the event of receiving a non-State employment offer during state employment or within one year immediately following the termination of State employment, they are required to inform the Office of the Executive Inspector General for the Agencies (OEIG) of the Illinois Governor before accepting such non-State employment. Failure to notify the OEIG may result in the imposition of a fine.
- Requires compliance with the provisions outlined in section 4A-101 of the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act, necessitating the occupant of this position to file of a Statement of Economic Interest. Pursuant to the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act (5 ILCS 420/4A et seq.), specific state officials and employees are required to annually submit Statements of Economic Interest to the Office of the Secretary of State, which will be accessible to the public for examination and copying. Employees subject to this requirement must also file a Supplemental Statement of Economic Interest with the Executive Ethics Commission, as specified in Executive Order 15-09. Failure to submit these statements in a timely manner may result in fines and penalties.
- The conditions of employment listed are incorporated and/or related to any duties included in the position description.
This position DOES contain “Specialized Skills” (as that term is used in CBAs).
Revolving Door: Certain provisions of the revolving door restrictions contained in 5 ILCS 430/5-45 apply to this position. As a result, the employee should be aware that if offered non-State employment during State employment or within one year immediately after ending State employment, the employee shall, prior to accepting any such non-State employment offer, notify the Office of the Executive Inspector General for the Agencies of the Illinois Governor (“OEIG”) or may be subject to a fine.
Statement of Economic Interests: This position is subject to Statement of Economic Interests filing as required by the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act.
The Department of Innovation & Technology (DolT) is the state's IT agency delivering an enterprise approach to statewide technology, innovation, and telecommunication services, as well as policy and standards development, lifecycle investment planning, and cybersecurity services. With over 1,500 employees, DolT delivers IT services and innovative solutions to customer agencies to improve services provided to Illinois residents, DolT offers employees the opportunity to advance their careers, develop new skills and reach their potential, both personally and professionally. DoIT is committed to promoting and preserving a workplace culture that embraces diversity and inclusion. We welcome and value employees with different backgrounds, life experiences and talents. It is the collective sum of our individual differences that provides a broad perspective, leading to greater innovation and achievement. In recruiting for our team, we recognize the unique contributions of each applicant regardless of culture, ethnicity, race, national origin, sex, gender identity and expression, age, religion, disability, and sexual orientation.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
If you are not already signed in, you will be prompted to do so.
State employees should sign in to the career portal for State of Illinois employees – a link is available at the top left of the Illinois.jobs2web.com homepage in the blue ribbon.
Non-State employees should log in on the using the “View Profile” link in the top right of the Illinois.jobs2web.com homepage in the blue ribbon. If you have never before signed in, you will be prompted to create an account.
If you have questions about how to apply, please see the following resources:
State employees: Log in to the career portal for State employees and review the Internal Candidate Application Job Aid
Non-State employees: on Illinois.jobs2web.com – click “Application Procedures” in the footer of every page of the website.
The main form of communication will be through email. Please check your “junk mail”, “spam”, or “other” folder for communication(s) regarding any submitted application(s). You may receive emails from the following addresses:
- donotreply@SIL-P1.ns2cloud.com
- systems@SIL-P1.ns2cloud.com
We continually strive for a workforce that reflects the growing diversity within the State of Illinois. A variety of employee backgrounds, perspectives, ideas and experiences are crucial to our ability to most effectively serve the public. Bilingual skills welcome
Reasonable Accommodation Statement
The State of Illinois is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. Further, federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job, interview for a job, or for any other activity related to the hiring process. Examples of reasonable accommodation include, but are not limited to, making a change to the application process (if possible), providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment.
To be provided a Reasonable Accommodation during the hiring process, you will need to provide a certification of disability from a physician, psychiatrist, school official or an Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Counselor. Supporting documentation should be uploaded under My Documents Additional Documents section for each application.
Any questions on Reasonable Accommodations can be directed to Central Management Services Disability Resource Center at CMS.DisabilityResCen@illinois.gov or call (217) 524-7514 for further information and to request or discuss an accommodation.
Sponsorship for Employment
The State of Illinois does not provide sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g. H-1B visa status), nor is the State able to provide extensions of optional practical training (OPT) under the STEM-designated degree program for F-1 students. To be considered for permanent employment with the State of Illinois, applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.
Disclosure of Salary Information
In compliance with the Illinois Equal Pay Act, 820 ILCS 112/1 et seq., the State does not seek, request, or require a job applicant’s wage or salary history. Employment decisions are not made based on an applicant’s wage or salary history. To that end, please do not include wage or salary information in your resume or other profile or application materials.
Job Requisition ID: 59962
Opening Date: 11/13/2026
Closing Date: 12/01/2026
Agency: Department of Innovation and Technology
Class Title: INFORMATION SYSTEMS ANALYST III - 21167
Skill Option: System Services - Information Technology
Bilingual Option: None
Salary: Anticipated starting salary: $9,130 monthly; Full range: $ $9,130-$13,573
Job Type: Salaried
Category: Full Time
Number of Vacancies: 1
Bargaining Unit Code: RC063 Professional Employees, Educators,Juvenile Justice School Counselors and Special Education Resources Coordinators,and Physicians AFSCME
Merit Comp Code: N/A
Work Hours: 8:30 AM-5:00 PM Monday - Friday (hours may vary)
Anticipated Hybrid Work Schedule Availability: 1 to 5 Days per week in office, depending on operational needs
Headquarter Location: 555 W Monroe St, Chicago, Illinois, 60661
Work County: Cook
Agency Contact: Lorna.A.Bock@illinois.gov
This position is a union position; therefore, provisions of the relevant collective bargaining agreement/labor contract apply to the filling of this position.
All applicants who want to be considered for this position MUST apply electronically through the illinois.jobs2web.com website. State of Illinois employees should click the link near the top left to apply through the SuccessFactors employee career portal.
Applications submitted via email or any paper manner (mail, fax, hand delivery) will not be considered.
Proof of educational coursework is required. Acceptable proof of coursework includes unofficial transcripts, copies of official transcripts, account records (including screenshots) of academic coursework, and any similar documents created by an academic institution.
Why Work for Illinois?
Working with the State of Illinois is a testament to the values of compassion, equity, and dedication that define our state. Whether you’re helping to improve schools, protect our natural resources, or support families in need, you’re part of something bigger—something that touches the lives of every person who calls Illinois home.
No matter what state career you’re looking for, we offer jobs that fit your life and your schedule—flexible jobs that provide the gold standard of benefits. Our employees can take advantage of various avenues to advance their careers and realize their dreams. Our top-tier benefits and great retirement packages can help you build a rewarding career and lasting future with the State of Illinois.
Position Overview
Are you looking for a rewarding career with an organization that values their staff? The Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT) is seeking to hire qualified candidates with the opportunity to work in a dynamic, creative thinking, problem solving environment. This position serves as the Senior Data Engineer. The Senior Data Engineer leads the design, development, and optimization of complex, large‑scale data pipelines and distributed processing systems that power enterprise analytics, operations, and regulatory reporting. The role architects and governs modern lakehouse and warehouse environments, ensuring high‑performance data models, reliable ingestion frameworks, and scalable transformation workflows. This position drives DataOps and continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) automation, enforces data‑quality and observability standards, and maintains secure, compliant data access across platforms. The Senior Data Engineer also serves as the technical leader for cross‑functional teams, providing architectural guidance, code review, and mentorship to elevate engineering practices across the organization. If you possess these knowledges, skills, abilities and experience, we invite you to apply for this position to join the DoIT Team!
- Competitive Group Insurance benefits including health, life, dental and vision plans.
- Flexible work schedules (when available and dependent upon position).
- 10-25 days of paid vacation time annually (10 days for first year of state employment).
- 12 days of paid sick time annually which carry over year to year.
- 3 paid personal business days per year.
- 13-14 paid holidays per year dependent on election years.
- 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
- Pension plan through the State Employees Retirement System.
- Deferred Compensation Program – voluntary supplemental retirement plan.
- Optional pre-tax programs -Medical Care Assistance Plan (MCAP) & Dependent Care Assistant Plan (DCAP).
- Tuition Reimbursement Program and Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program eligibility.
Essential Functions
- Under administrative direction, serves as the Senior Data Engineer for the Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT), performing highly complex professional and advisory functions that include leading the design, development, and optimization of enterprise data pipelines, architecting scalable data platforms, maintaining data quality and governance, and providing expert guidance on data engineering best practices across the enterprise.
- Designs, builds, and optimizes enterprise ETL (Extract–Transform–Load) and ELT (Extract–Load–Transform) pipelines, distributed processing workloads, and semantic data models that support analytics, business intelligence, and operational reporting across agency data platforms.
- Leads the technical governance of enterprise data lake architecture, ensuring high availability, data quality, cost-efficient storage tiering, and end-to-end observability across the full enterprise data asset inventory.
- Designs, implements, and governs continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) automation frameworks for data engineering workloads, ensuring that code promotion, environment parity, and production deployment processes meet enterprise reliability and security standards.
- Implements, governs, and continuously improves the enterprise role-based access control framework for data platforms, verifying that data access policy is technically enforced, auditable, and aligned with DoIT security standards and applicable state and federal data governance regulations.
- Engineers and optimizes data workloads across relational, non relational, and emerging data platforms, including large scale RDBMS (such as Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, or equivalent), document databases (e.g., MongoDB, Couchbase), key value stores (e.g., Redis, DynamoDB), and graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, Cosmos DB Gremlin API).
- Participates as a senior technical contributor and player/coach resource within cross-functional data delivery squads, representing enterprise data engineering standards in agency-aligned feature development and providing technical advisory to vendor partners and executive stakeholders.
- Keeps abreast of new developments in the information technology field by continuing education through online training platforms, meetings, training sessions, seminars, and conferences to increase familiarity with and remain current on products, vendors, techniques, and procedures.
- Performs other duties as required or assigned which are reasonably within the scope of the duties enumerated above.
Minimum Qualifications
- Requires knowledge, skill and mental development equivalent to four (4) years of college with coursework in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, Data Engineering, Software Engineering, Management Information Science, or a closely related field.
- Requires five (5) years of professional experience in a related Information Technology field, including experience in data engineering, software engineering, database administration, business intelligence development, data architecture, systems integration, or a closely related technical discipline.
Specialized Skills
- Requires five (5) years of professional experience designing, building, and optimizing enterprise-scale data pipelines, fault-tolerant ETL/ELT patterns, and distributed data processing systems in a high-volume near-time production environment, including hands-on SQL performance tuning, execution plan analysis, index strategy, and workload optimization across platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, DB2, or equivalent relational and cloud data systems.
- Requires five (5) years of professional experience with distributed data processing and Spark execution engine optimization, including advanced hands-on design and tuning of large-scale batch, micro-batch, and streaming workloads with demonstrated proficiency in execution plans, shuffle and partition strategy, memory management, and cluster autoscaling across platforms such as Databricks, Apache Spark, Azure Synapse, Teradata Vantage, Snowflake, Amazon EMR, Starburst, Cloudera, or equivalent.
- Requires five (5) years of professional experience with enterprise data platform and lakehouse architecture design, including implementation of high-performance multi-zone lake and lakehouse patterns, open table format optimization, schema evolution, and integration of storage, compute, and catalog layers across platforms such as Microsoft Fabric, Databricks Unity Catalog, Snowflake, or equivalent enterprise cloud data platforms.
- Requires four (4) years of professional experience engineering reusable data access layers and gateway patterns that abstract source system complexity, eliminate redundant data movement, and deliver consistent, governed interfaces for downstream consumers and applications, in support of enterprise interoperability and data-driven design standards leveraging expert logical data analysis, root causes of operational or procedural problems.
Preferred Qualifications
- Five (5) years of professional experience designing, building, and optimizing enterprise-scale data pipelines, fault-tolerant ETL/ELT patterns, and distributed data processing systems in a high-volume near-time production environment, including hands-on SQL performance tuning, execution plan analysis, index strategy, and workload optimization across platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, DB2, or equivalent relational and cloud data systems.
- Five (5) years of professional experience with distributed data processing and Spark execution engine optimization, including advanced hands-on design and tuning of large-scale batch, micro-batch, and streaming workloads with demonstrated proficiency in execution plans, shuffle and partition strategy, memory management, and cluster autoscaling across platforms such as Databricks, Apache Spark, Azure Synapse, Teradata Vantage, Snowflake, Amazon EMR, Starburst, Cloudera, or equivalent.
- Five (5) years of professional experience with enterprise data platform and lakehouse architecture design, including implementation of high-performance multi-zone lake and lakehouse patterns, open table format optimization, schema evolution, and integration of storage, compute, and catalog layers across platforms such as Microsoft Fabric, Databricks Unity Catalog, Snowflake, or equivalent enterprise cloud data platforms.
- Four (4) years of professional experience engineering reusable data access layers and gateway patterns that abstract source system complexity, eliminate redundant data movement, and deliver consistent, governed interfaces for downstream consumers and applications, in support of enterprise interoperability and data-driven design standards leveraging expert logical data analysis, root causes of operational or procedural problems.
- Four (4) or more years of professional experience implementing role-based access control frameworks across enterprise data platforms, including Databricks Unity Catalog, Microsoft Purview, Snowflake, or equivalent, in alignment with formal enterprise data governance or security classification policy.
- Four (4) or more years of professional experience implementing enterprise data observability and data quality monitoring frameworks, including configuration of automated quality checks, schema drift detection, privacy monitoring incident leadership, data lineage tracking, anomaly detection, and pipeline alerting to maintain production data reliability and operational integrity at enterprise scale.
- Four (4) or more years of professional experience with DataOps, CI/CD pipeline engineering, and infrastructure-as-code for data workloads, including automated deployment of notebooks, Spark jobs, SQL deployments, and dbt models, and provisioning of cloud data infrastructure using tools such as Terraform, Azure Bicep, Databricks Asset Bundles, or GitHub Actions.
- Ability to provide expert peer code review and mentor junior and mid-level engineers to strengthen engineering practices and technical proficiency.
- Ability to analyze data to recommend and implement technical solutions that enhance enterprise data standards, support platform reusability, and improve data interoperability.
- Developed verbal and written communication skills with a proven ability to clearly articulate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences through documentation, presentations, and cross-functional collaboration.
Conditions of Employment
All applicants must be able to meet the following Conditions of Employment with or without reasonable accommodation, to be considered for this position. The State of Illinois complies with federal and state disability laws and will make reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities.
- Requires the ability to verify identity.
- Requires employment authorization to accept permanent full-time position with the State of Illinois.
- Requires the ability to pass a position specific, agency required background check and requires self-disclosure of criminal history.
- Requires the ability to travel in performance of duties, with occasional overnight stays.
- Requires the ability to work outside of normal business hours to meet deadlines.
- Requires the ability to use agency supplied equipment such as laptop, personal computer, work cell phone and any other required equipment or devices.
- Requires the ability to lift and carry objects or equipment weighing up to 10 pounds. This is considered sedentary work as defined by the U.S. Department of Labor (20 CFR 404.1567(a)). Sedentary work involves lifting no more than 10 pounds at a time and requires occasional lifting, carrying, walking, and standing.
- Requires adherence to the revolving door restrictions outlined in 5 ILCS 430/5-45. Consequently, employees should be aware that in the event of receiving a non-State employment offer during state employment or within one year immediately following the termination of State employment, they are required to inform the Office of the Executive Inspector General for the Agencies (OEIG) of the Illinois Governor before accepting such non-State employment. Failure to notify the OEIG may result in the imposition of a fine.
- Requires compliance with the provisions outlined in section 4A-101 of the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act, necessitating the occupant of this position to file of a Statement of Economic Interest. Pursuant to the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act (5 ILCS 420/4A et seq.), specific state officials and employees are required to annually submit Statements of Economic Interest to the Office of the Secretary of State, which will be accessible to the public for examination and copying. Employees subject to this requirement must also file a Supplemental Statement of Economic Interest with the Executive Ethics Commission, as specified in Executive Order 15-09. Failure to submit these statements in a timely manner may result in fines and penalties.
- The conditions of employment listed are incorporated and/or related to any duties included in the position description.
This position DOES contain “Specialized Skills” (as that term is used in CBAs).
Revolving Door: Certain provisions of the revolving door restrictions contained in 5 ILCS 430/5-45 apply to this position. As a result, the employee should be aware that if offered non-State employment during State employment or within one year immediately after ending State employment, the employee shall, prior to accepting any such non-State employment offer, notify the Office of the Executive Inspector General for the Agencies of the Illinois Governor (“OEIG”) or may be subject to a fine.
Statement of Economic Interests: This position is subject to Statement of Economic Interests filing as required by the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act.
The Department of Innovation & Technology (DolT) is the state's IT agency delivering an enterprise approach to statewide technology, innovation, and telecommunication services, as well as policy and standards development, lifecycle investment planning, and cybersecurity services. With over 1,500 employees, DolT delivers IT services and innovative solutions to customer agencies to improve services provided to Illinois residents, DolT offers employees the opportunity to advance their careers, develop new skills and reach their potential, both personally and professionally. DoIT is committed to promoting and preserving a workplace culture that embraces diversity and inclusion. We welcome and value employees with different backgrounds, life experiences and talents. It is the collective sum of our individual differences that provides a broad perspective, leading to greater innovation and achievement. In recruiting for our team, we recognize the unique contributions of each applicant regardless of culture, ethnicity, race, national origin, sex, gender identity and expression, age, religion, disability, and sexual orientation.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
If you are not already signed in, you will be prompted to do so.
State employees should sign in to the career portal for State of Illinois employees – a link is available at the top left of the Illinois.jobs2web.com homepage in the blue ribbon.
Non-State employees should log in on the using the “View Profile” link in the top right of the Illinois.jobs2web.com homepage in the blue ribbon. If you have never before signed in, you will be prompted to create an account.
If you have questions about how to apply, please see the following resources:
State employees: Log in to the career portal for State employees and review the Internal Candidate Application Job Aid
Non-State employees: on Illinois.jobs2web.com – click “Application Procedures” in the footer of every page of the website.
The main form of communication will be through email. Please check your “junk mail”, “spam”, or “other” folder for communication(s) regarding any submitted application(s). You may receive emails from the following addresses:
- donotreply@SIL-P1.ns2cloud.com
- systems@SIL-P1.ns2cloud.com
See All 66 Systems Engineer Jobs in Chicago
Find roles in Chicago that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Systems Engineer JobsSystems Engineer Job Market in Chicago
Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software
- Cybersecurity
- Consulting & Professional Services
- Energy
- Accounting & Auditing
Systems Engineer Jobs in Chicago: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a systems engineer job in Chicago?
Focus your search on Chicago's strongest hiring sectors: defense and aerospace contractors near O'Hare, enterprise IT firms in the Loop, and telecommunications companies anchored in River North and Fulton Market. Candidates who combine systems integration experience with familiarity in cloud infrastructure or network architecture stand out locally. Attending Chicago-area tech meetups and targeting mid-size firms alongside large employers broadens your realistic options considerably.
Which companies hire systems engineers in Chicago?
Chicago systems engineer roles are posted by Sargent & Lundy, EY, and Anduril and others right now, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Chicago's mix of legacy defense contractors, large financial institutions, and fast-growing tech companies near Fulton Market means openings appear across a wide range of employer sizes and sectors.
Are there remote systems engineer jobs in Chicago?
Yes, though availability depends heavily on the role: hands-on infrastructure, lab, or hardware positions are almost always on-site, while systems architecture, integration planning, and analytical roles are far more remote-friendly. About 85% of systems engineer openings tied to Chicago are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, with the strongest remote options concentrated in software-defined systems and cloud architecture work.
How can I get a systems engineer job in Chicago with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path in Chicago is through junior IT analyst or systems administrator roles at mid-size firms in the Loop or O'Hare corridor, where employers often promote internally into systems engineering. Chicago's large defense contractors and telecom companies also hire associate-level engineers through structured programs. A CompTIA or Cisco certification and hands-on lab experience with virtualization or networking give entry-level candidates a concrete edge in local screening.
Which industries hire the most systems engineers in Chicago?
Most systems engineer openings in Chicago sit in Technology & Software, Cybersecurity, and Consulting & Professional Services, per current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Chicago's role as a major transportation hub, financial center, and home to several large defense contractors and hospital networks makes it a consistent market for systems engineers across both infrastructure and integration disciplines.
Related Jobs in Illinois
See All 66 Systems Engineer Jobs in Chicago
Find roles in Chicago that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Systems Engineer Jobs