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About This Role
Date Posted:
2026\-08\-07Country:
United States of America
Location:
US\-IA\-CEDAR RAPIDS\-124 \~ 400 Collins Rd NE \~ BLDG 124
Position Role Type:
Onsite
U.S. Citizen, U.S. Person, or Immigration Status Requirements:
U.S. citizenship is required, as only U.S. citizens are authorized to access information under this program/contract.
Security Clearance Type:
None/Not Required
Security Clearance Status:
Not Required
At RTX, the world's largest aerospace and defense company, 185,000 great minds are united by purpose and inspired to make a difference solving the world’s most complex problems. With our three market leading businesses, world\-class operations and investments in research and development, we offer capabilities and opportunity no one else can. Together, we push the boundaries of known science and find new ways to connect and protect our world.
Collins Aerospace is a leader in technologically advanced, intelligent solutions that help redefine the aerospace and defense industry. With a comprehensive portfolio and deep technical expertise, we help customers meet the demands of the global market. Join us and help shape the future of aerospace and defense.
Collins Aerospace, a business unit of RTX Corporation, is seeking a talented and innovative Artificial Intelligence and Automation Engineer to drive engineering efficiency by leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and solution automation.
The Principal Software Engineer – Digital Engineering AI Enablement and Automation (AEA) will play a pivotal role in driving engineering efficiency across Collins Aerospace by leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and solution automation to deliver transformative solutions. This position will focus on enabling faster cycle times, reducing total lifecycle costs, minimizing technical debt, and enhancing reusability across all business units within Collins Aerospace and engineering disciplines. The role requires a forward\-thinking engineer who thrives on innovation, collaboration, and delivering impactful solutions at scale.
What You Will Do
- Lead initiatives to identify manual engineering tasks that can be optimized or replaced with AI\-driven solutions and automation.
- Develop, implement, and maintain AI and automation tools to enhance engineering workflows and processes.
- Collaborate with cross\-functional engineering teams to understand their requirements and provide impactful, scalable solutions.
- Analyze workflows and data to identify inefficiencies and deliver solutions that improve precision, speed, and productivity.
- Stay current with advancements in AI, machine learning, and automation technologies to ensure solutions remain cutting\-edge.
- Design and execute proof\-of\-concept projects to validate the effectiveness of proposed AI and automation strategies.
- Ensure all solutions comply with Collins Aerospace and RTX standards, including security and performance requirements.
- Provide training and documentation to teams to facilitate the adoption of new tools and workflows.
Continuously monitor and refine existing tools to improve their performance and effectiveness.
*
Qualifications You Must Have:
- Typically requires a degree in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) and minimum 8 years prior relevant experience oran Advanced Degree in a related field and minimum 5 years of experience
- Experience building internal AI developer tools or platforms — e.g., coding assistants, documentation summarizers, test\-case generators, or requirements\-traceability aids tailored to safety\-critical domains.
- Proficiency with GenAI implementation patterns — including retrieval\-augmented generation (RAG), prompt engineering, agentic workflows, and strategies to constrain non\-deterministic outputs for reliable use in regulated environments.
- Hands\-on LLMOps experience with evaluation metric platforms such as MLflow (or equivalent tools like Arize, Braintrust, Fiddler) for experiment tracking, model monitoring, tracing, and reproducible evaluation pipelines in regulated environments.
- Strong programming skills in languages such as Python or C/C\+\+
Qualifications We Prefer:
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills with ability to translate complex AI architectures into clear guidelines and training for engineering teams.
- Experience in integrating AI into safety\-critical workflows such as test automation, requirements analysis, code review assistance, or documentation generation with human\-in\-the\-loop controls.
- Familiarity with aerospace security and compliance constraints (e.g., ITAR/EAR, on\-prem/private cloud deployments).
- Evidence of measurable impact from AI initiatives (e.g., reduced cycle time, improved code quality, scaled best practices).
What We Offer
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Three weeks of vacation for newly hired employees
- Generous 401(k) plan that includes employer matching funds and separate employer retirement contribution, including a Lifetime Income Strategy option
- Tuition reimbursement program
- Student Loan Repayment Program
- Life insurance and disability coverage
- Optional coverages you can buy pet insurance, home and auto insurance, additional life and accident insurance, critical illness insurance, group legal, ID theft protection
- Birth, adoption, parental leave benefits
- Ovia Health, fertility, and family planning
- Adoption Assistance
- Autism Benefit
- Employee Assistance Plan, including up to 10 free counseling sessions
- Healthy You Incentives, wellness rewards program
- Doctor on Demand, virtual doctor visits
- Bright Horizons, child and elder care services
- Teladoc Medical Experts, second opinion program
- And more!
Eligible for relocation
Learn More \& Apply Now!
Do you want to be a part of something bigger? A team whose impact stretches across the world, and even beyond? At Collins Aerospace, our Mission Systems team helps civilian, military and government customers complete their most complex missions — whatever and wherever they may be. Our customers depend on us for intelligent and secure communications, missionized systems for specialized aircraft and spacecraft and collaborative space solutions. By joining our team, you’ll have your own critical part to play in ensuring our customer succeeds today while anticipating their needs for tomorrow. Are you up for the challenge? Join our mission today.
- Please ensure the role type (defined below) is appropriate for your needs before applying to this role.
Onsite: Employees who are working in Onsite roles will work primarily onsite. This includes all production and maintenance employees, as they are essential to the development of our products
At Collins, the paths we pave together lead to limitless possibility. And the bonds we form – with our customers and with each other \- propel us all higher, again and again.
Apply now and be part of the team that’s redefining aerospace, every day.
*As part of our commitment to maintaining a secure hiring process, candidates may be asked to attend select steps of the interview process in\-person at one of our office locations, regardless of whether the role is designated as on\-site, hybrid or remote.*
The salary range for this role is 107,500 USD \- 204,500 USD. The salary range provided is a good faith estimate representative of all experience levels. RTX considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the role, function and associated responsibilities, a candidate’s work experience, location, education/training, and key skills.
Hired applicants may be eligible for benefits, including but not limited to, medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short\-term disability, long\-term disability, 401(k) match, flexible spending accounts, flexible work schedules, employee assistance program, Employee Scholar Program, parental leave, paid time off, and holidays. Specific benefits are dependent upon the specific business unit as well as whether or not the position is covered by a collective\-bargaining agreement.
Hired applicants may be eligible for annual short\-term and/or long\-term incentive compensation programs depending on the level of the position and whether or not it is covered by a collective\-bargaining agreement. Payments under these annual programs are not guaranteed and are dependent upon a variety of factors including, but not limited to, individual performance, business unit performance, and/or the company’s performance.
This role is a U.S.\-based role. If the successful candidate resides in a U.S. territory, the appropriate pay structure and benefits will apply.
RTX anticipates the application window closing approximately 40 days from the date the notice was posted. However, factors such as candidate flow and business necessity may require RTX to shorten or extend the application window.*RTX is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or veteran status, or any other applicable state or federal protected class. RTX provides affirmative action in employment for qualified Individuals with a Disability and Protected Veterans in compliance with Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act.*
Privacy Policy and Terms:
Salary Context
This $107K-$204K range is in the lower quartile for AI Software Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $185K across 231 roles with salary data).
Role Details
About This Role
AI Software Engineers build the applications and systems that AI models run inside. They own the API layers, data pipelines, frontend integrations, and infrastructure that turn a model into a product users interact with. Every AI company needs engineers who can build the software around the AI.
The challenge is building reliable systems around inherently unreliable components. Models are probabilistic. They'll give different answers to the same question. They hallucinate. They're slow. They're expensive. Your job is to build an application layer that handles all of this gracefully while delivering a product that users trust and enjoy.
Across the 4,317 AI roles we're tracking, AI Software Engineer positions make up 7% of the market. At Collins Aerospace, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: building API endpoints that serve model inference with caching and fallback logic, designing the data pipeline that feeds context to a RAG system, implementing streaming responses in the frontend, debugging a race condition in the async inference pipeline, and optimizing database queries for the vector search layer. It's full-stack engineering with AI at the center.
AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.
Skills Required
Full-stack engineering skills with AI integration experience. Python and TypeScript are the most common requirements. You'll need to understand API design, database architecture, and how to build reliable systems around probabilistic outputs. Experience with streaming, async processing, and caching patterns is increasingly important as real-time AI applications proliferate.
Knowledge of vector databases, embedding APIs, and LLM integration patterns (function calling, structured outputs, retry logic) differentiates AI software engineers from general software engineers. Understanding cost optimization (caching strategies, model routing, batched inference) is valuable since inference costs can dominate application economics.
Strong postings describe the product you'll be building, the AI integration patterns you'll work with, and the scale requirements. Look for companies that have existing AI features and need engineers to improve and expand them, not companies that are 'planning to add AI' someday.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI Software Engineer roles pay a median of $218,500 based on 729 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($156K) sits 29% below the category median. Disclosed range: $107K to $204K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($287,500) and Research Engineer ($272,100). By seniority level: Entry: $110,000; Mid: $194,400; Senior: $227,400; Director: $274,554; VP: $241,000.
Collins Aerospace AI Hiring
Collins Aerospace has 3 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI Architect, AI Software Engineer, AI/ML Engineer. Positions span Charlotte, NC, US, Cedar Rapids, IA, US. Compensation range: $204K - $298K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 15% (635 positions) offer remote work, while 3,657 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,650 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (1,335 roles, $265,000 median); Los Angeles (708 roles, $214,112 median).
Career Path
Common paths into AI Software Engineer roles include Software Engineer, Full-Stack Developer, Backend Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Staff Engineer, AI Architect, Engineering Manager.
If you're a software engineer, you're already 80% there. Learn the AI integration patterns: RAG, streaming inference, function calling, structured outputs. Build a project that demonstrates you can wrap an AI model in a production-quality application with proper error handling, caching, and user experience. That's the portfolio piece that gets you hired.
What to Expect in Interviews
Technical screens look like standard software engineering interviews with an AI twist. Expect system design questions about building reliable applications around probabilistic models: handling streaming responses, implementing retry logic for API failures, and designing caching strategies for LLM outputs. Coding rounds test standard algorithms plus practical integration patterns like async processing and rate limiting.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings describe the product you'll be building, the AI integration patterns you'll work with, and the scale requirements. Look for companies that have existing AI features and need engineers to improve and expand them, not companies that are 'planning to add AI' someday.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 4,317 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 138 entry-level, 2,071 mid-level, 1,655 senior, and 453 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (635 positions). The remaining 3,657 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($287,500 median, 34 roles); Research Engineer ($272,100 median, 227 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($244,000 median, 23 roles).
AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 4,317 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (3,004), Data Scientist (345), AI Software Engineer (309). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (138) are outnumbered by mid-level (2,071) and senior (1,655) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 453 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (635 positions), with 3,657 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $215,000. Top-quartile roles start at $266,300, and the 90th percentile reaches $320,790. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $287,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $145,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (2,249 postings), Aws (1,224 postings), Azure (938 postings), Rag (915 postings), Gcp (660 postings), Pytorch (640 postings), Prompt Engineering (624 postings), Kubernetes (559 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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