AI First Software Engineer

AFC Automotive Finance Corporation; Carmel (IN); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay

Medical, dental, and vision benefits

401K matching

Paid vacation & sick time

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

OPENLANE is hiring AI-first Software Engineers to build, evolve, and scale OPENLANE’s internal tooling ecosystem. These roles are for engineers who already treat AI as a first-class development tool, not a novelty.

You’ll use AI to move faster, ship higher-quality software, and reduce operational toil, while applying strong engineering judgment. You’ll work on internal platforms and operational tooling including self-service portals, asset management systems, provisioning workflows, and core

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience building and supporting production software systems.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Experience with APIs, distributed systems, and cloud-native architecture.
• Experience with observability, monitoring, and incident response.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate scalable internal services/applications.
• Develop APIs and backend services on the modern, cloud-native, AI-enabled platform.
• Use AI tools to accelerate coding, testing debugging, and documentation while applying strong engineering judgment.
• Partner with Product and SMEs to translate business needs into durable, scalable technical solutions.
• Participate in on-call rotations and support live production systems.
• Improve system reliability, performance, security, and observability.
• Contribute to technical direction, engineering standards, and long‑term platform evolution.

Skills

AI-first mindset

Backend & API engineering

Frontend & UX

Cloud-native architecture

Observability

CI/CD

On-call rotations

Distributed systems

Reliability engineering

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

AWS

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Who We Are:
At OPENLANE we make wholesale easy so our customers can be more successful.

We’re a technology company building the world’s most advanced—and uncomplicated—digital marketplace for used vehicles.
We’re a data company helping customers buy and sell smarter with clear, actionable insights they can understand and use.
And we’re an innovation company accelerating the future of wholesale remarketing through curiosity, collaboration, and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Our Values:
Driven Waybuilders. We pursue challenges that inspire us to build, create, and innovate.
Relentless Curiosity. We seek to understand and improve our customers’ experience.
Smart Risk-Taking. We transform risk into progress through data, experience, and intuition.
Fearless Ownership. We deliver what we promise and learn along the way.

We’re Looking For:

We’re hiring AI-first Software Engineers to build, evolve, and scale OPENLANE’s internal tooling ecosystem.

These roles are for engineers who already treat AI as a first-class development tool, not a novelty. You’ll use AI to move faster, ship higher-quality software, and reduce operational and development toil, while still applying strong engineering judgment, ownership, and systems thinking.

You’ll work on internal platforms and operational tooling including self-service portals, asset management systems, provisioning workflows, and core platform services. You’ll partner closely with Product, Infrastructure, Data, Security, and SRE teams to deliver resilient, scalable systems that improve developer and employee productivity across the organization.

Why OPENLANE:

• Work on real-time, internal platforms systems at scale
• Be part of a major platform modernization and AI transformation
• Use AI as a first-class development tool—not an experiment
• Collaborate with experienced engineers, product leaders, and platform teams
• Grow in an environment that values learning, ownership, and impact

You Are:

• AI-forward. You already use AI tools to enhance development speed, quality, and efficiency, and you continuously adapt as tooling evolves.
• Product-minded. You think beyond code and understand how technical decisions impact customers and business outcomes.
• Ownership-driven. You take responsibility for systems end-to-end, including reliability and operational health.
• Technically curious. You enjoy learning new technologies and thoughtfully evaluating emerging approaches.
• Quality-focused. You value clean, maintainable code, strong testing practices, and production-ready engineering standards.

You Bring:

Core Engineering Skills

• Experience building and supporting production software systems
• Strong understanding of APIs, distributed systems, and cloud-native architecture
• Comfort working in modern CI/CD environments
• Experience with observability, monitoring, and incident response
• Ability to own features and systems end-to-end

AI-First Mindset

• Actively uses AI development tools (code copilots, AI debuggers, test generators)
• Curious about applying AI to real customer and business problems
• Able to critically evaluate AI outputs instead of blindly accepting them
• Comfortable learning and adapting in a fast-changing tool landscape

Technical Experience

• Backend & API Engineering: Designing scalable, secure services that power complex workflows and integrate across distributed systems.
• Frontend & User Experience: Building responsive, maintainable frontend applications that prioritize user needs and business outcomes.
• AWS or similar cloud platforms
• Microservices and event-driven architectures
• SQL and data-driven applications

You Will:

• Design, build, and operate scalable internal services/applications
• Develop APIs and backend services on the modern, cloud-native, AI-enabled platform
• Use AI tools to accelerate coding, testing debugging, and documentation while applying strong engineering judgment
• Partner with Product and SMEs to translate business needs into durable, scalable technical solutions
• Participate in on-call rotations and support live production systems
• Improve system reliability, performance, security, and observability
• Contribute to technical direction, engineering standards, and long‑term platform evolution

How You’ll Use AI in These Roles:

• AI-assisted coding and refactoring
• AI-generated test coverage and validation
• AI-supported debugging and root‑cause analysis
• AI-assisted documentation and knowledge sharing
• Applying AI tools to reduce repetitive work and increase engineering leverage

Who You Will Work With:

This role is part of OPENLANE IT, a support organization for all internal customers and applications. Reporting to the OPENLANE IT Sr. Manager, this role collaborates closely with Product Managers, Data Engineers, Infrastructure, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams on a daily basis

Must Have’s:

• 3+ years of experience building and supporting production software systems
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience)

• Experience building and supporting production software systems
• Strong understanding of APIs, distributed systems, and cloud-native architecture
• Comfort working in modern CI/CD environments
• Experience with observability, monitoring, and incident response
• Ability to own features and systems end-to-end

• Actively uses AI development tools (code copilots, AI debuggers, test generators)
• Curious about applying AI to real customer and business problems
• Able to critically evaluate AI outputs instead of blindly accepting them
• Comfortable learning and adapting in a fast-changing tool landscape

Nice to Have’s:

• AWS or similar cloud platforms
• Microservices and event-driven architectures
• SQL and data-driven applications
• Reliability engineering or SRE experience
• Experience modernizing or migrating legacy systems

What We Offer:

• Competitive pay
• Medical, dental, and vision benefits with employer HSA contributions (US) and FSA options (US)
• Immediately vested 401K (US) or RRSP (Canada) with company match
• Paid Vacation, Personal, and Sick Time
• Paid maternity and paternity leave (US)
• Employer-paid short-term disability, long-term disability, life insurance, and AD&D (US)
• Robust Employee Assistance Program
• Employer paid Leap into Service Day to volunteer
• Tuition Reimbursement for eligible programs
• Opportunities to expand your skill set and share your knowledge across a publicly traded, global organization
• Company culture of internal promotions, diverse career paths, and meaningful advancement