Breaking into software engineering is easier when you’re in a city with a deep bench of tech employers. Chicago offers exactly that, with opportunities spanning public safety software, fintech, cloud computing, consulting, and quantitative trading. The following companies are actively hiring early-career software engineers from their Windy City offices to build production systems while learning on the job working alongside seasoned development teams.
Top Companies Hiring Early-Career Software Engineers in Chicago
Applied Systems
Industry: Insurance Technology
Applied Systems makes cloud software designed to process policy and claims workflows for the global insurance industry. Their associate software engineer program places new hires — with as little as zero-to-two years of experience — onto teams tasked with revamping core SaaS platforms using C#, .NET, React, and Google Cloud Platform.
Enova International
Industry: Financial Technology, Online Lending
Based in Chicago, Enova International builds data-driven financial platforms that provide online credit and financing. The company regularly hires software engineers into full-stack and backend roles, where early-career developers write production code using Java, Python, Go, and React while supporting microservices, API integrations, and analytics engines.
Old Mission Capital
Industry: Proprietary Trading
Old Mission Capital is a quantitative trading firm headquartered in Chicago that builds low-latency market-making software. The firm’s development program places junior software engineers into core infrastructure roles writing production C++ and Python for exchange connectivity, network hardware acceleration, and real-time data analysis.
Cisco (Meraki)
Industry: Cloud Networking, Cybersecurity
The Chicago office for Cisco focuses on its Meraki division, where engineers manage networking equipment on the cloud as well as security hardware. Early-career developers there write backend services, full-stack dashboard features, and network telemetry software in Scala, Ruby on Rails, C++, and Python.
PwC
Industry: Software Engineering, Technology Consulting
PwC helps many of the world’s largest organizations modernize their legacy systems. Its early-career software engineering associates write full-stack code using Java, Python, React, as well as cloud platforms AWS and Azure for custom SaaS applications, automated financial workflows, and AI integrations.
Motorola Solutions
Industry: Public Safety, Enterprise Software
Headquartered in Chicago, Motorola Solutions develops software for 911 dispatch platforms, emergency response routing, and public safety video management. Its entry-level software engineers help build cloud services and real-time mobile applications while improving edge video processing technology used by first responders.
IBM
Industry: Enterprise Software, Cloud Infrastructure
More than 90 percent of the Fortune 500 use IBM’s technology. Its team of Chicago-based software engineers contribute to products like Red Hat OpenShift and Watsonx, where entry-level hires help build the backend systems and developer tools behind those platforms.
Akuna Capital
Industry: Proprietary Trading
Akuna Capital operates its global options market-making business out of its Chicago headquarters. Founded in 2011, the firm recruits new graduates directly into dedicated C++ and Python tracks, where early-career engineers build low-latency trading engines, concurrent data ingestion pipelines, exchange connectivity systems, and algorithmic execution models.
Thoughtworks
Industry: Software Consulting
Chicago serves as a major U.S. base for Thoughtworks, a consulting firm specializing in custom software development. Before joining client-facing roles, entry-level developers must complete an intensive, one-year onboarding program covering test-driven development and continuous delivery across various tech stacks.
Morningstar
Industry: Financial Technology
Morninstar is headquartered in Chicago, where software engineers develop investment research platforms covering more than 40,000 public companies and five million privately-held ones. Associate software engineers build customer-facing applications and financial data pipelines using C#/.NET, TypeScript, and AWS.
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