Motion Recruitment

Lead AI Engineer / Cedar Rapids, IA / Contract / R&D Team

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States

Motion Recruitment is hiring a Lead AI Engineer / Cedar Rapids, IA / Contract / R&D Team in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. Posted October 12, 2026.

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Job at a glance

Company: Motion Recruitment
Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States
Pay: $50 – $80
Workplace: On-site
Sector: Engineering & Technology
Posted: October 12, 2026
First scanned: October 12, 2026
Apply by: December 16, 2026

About the job

A global leader in aerospace and defense technology is hiring for a Contract Lead AI Engineer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The company is developing advanced avionics, communications, and mission critical systems used across commercial and military aviation. They’re known for innovation, long product lifecycles, and solving highly complex technical challenges where reliability and certification requirements are critical.

In this role, you will lead a small team of approximately 4-7 engineers within a larger organization of roughly 50-60 technical professionals. They're looking for a mentor and technical leader who can guide engineers while remaining deeply involved in architecture, experimentation, development, and deployment. You'd be focused on designing, building, and scaling enterprise AI solutions. The role requires someone who understands AI beyond simple API integrations and has experience evaluating models, optimizing prompts and token usage, building production-grade workflows, and making technical decisions around AI architecture.

Required Skills & Experience

Experience mentoring or leading teams of 4-7
Python FS Engineering experience LLMs, prompt engineering, RAG token optimization, and AI architecture
Experience building and deploying production AI systems
Builder mentality with a desire to stay hands-on technically

Desired Skills & Experience

Go/Golang experience
C/C++
LangChain, LangGraph, or similar AI frameworks
Agentic workflow development
Enterprise AI deployment experience
Computer vision experience
Aerospace, defense, robotics, or highly regulated industry experience
Technical leadership within agile software development teams

What You Will Be Doing

Tech Breakdown

40% AI Engineering & LLM Development
30% Python Software Engineering
15% Architecture & Technical Leadership
10% Agentic Workflows & Automation
5% Documentation & Testing

Daily Responsibilities

60% Hands-On Development
20% Management & Mentorship

The Offer

5 days on-site in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Competitive pay depending on experience

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the US on a full-time basis now and in the future.