Senior Software Engineer

Cars.com LLC; United States; Remote; USD 115,000 - 145,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a leading automotive technology company as a Senior Software Engineer, where you'll develop scalable and secure backend services for a platform that simplifies car buying and selling. Collaborate with cross-functional teams and implement best practices in a remote-first workplace. Enjoy a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package while contributing to a culture of innovation and growth.

Benefits

Medical, Dental & Vision Healthcare Plans

New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set-Up

Generous PTO

Paid Holidays

Recharge Day

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in backend development focusing on large-scale systems.
• Hands-on experience with AWS, Docker, and Kubernetes.
• Experience designing RESTful APIs and implementing observability solutions.

Responsibilities

• Develop high-performance, API-based backend services.
• Own the health and uptime of business-critical systems.
• Implement CI/CD pipelines and automated testing.

Skills

Collaboration

Communication

Problem Solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science

Tools

AWS

Docker

Kubernetes

DataDog

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Job description

Be essential at Cars Commerce

At Cars Commerce, we’re fanatical about simplifying everything about car buying and selling. We do right by our customers and consumers to better connect the industry with simplified and tierless technology to enhance, measure and drive local automotive retail. Whether through our No.1 most recognized marketplace, Cars.com, our industry-leading digital experience, Dealer Inspire, our trade and appraisal technology, AccuTrade, or our new Cars Commerce Media Network, Cars Commerce is essential for success in the automotive industry.

No one ever travels alone here: at its core, Cars Commerce is collaboration. In fact, it’s built into the very fabric of our shared values. We like to say we Rise Together – putting people at the center of what we do, from consumer to customer to community. Life at Cars Commerce makes it easy when we share the ethos to be Open to All, encouraging open-minded communication because we know diverse thinking yields better outcomes. But critical to our success is Caring to Challenge and Taking Ownership, fueling a competitive spirit in a respectful environment where we think about tomorrow but act today. At our foundation, we have integrity, Doing the Right Thing, even when it’s hard. It’s our shared commitment to these values that makes Cars Commerce a place where growth becomes not only possible, but downright unavoidable.

But don’t take our word for it. As a U.S. News & World Report Best Company to Work For in 2024, we're obsessive about the employee experience. We are among the top 20% being declared “Best” of our industry based on six critical factors that are important to employee wellbeing, like quality of pay, benefits, work life balance and more.

About the Role

Cars Commerce builds solutions for automotive dealerships, manufacturers, and consumers. Our driving force is to deliver one platform to simplify everything about buying and selling cars. Our platform enables dealerships and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with innovative technical solutions and data-driven intelligence to better reach and influence ready-to-buy shoppers, increase inventory turn, and gain market share. To support the growth and tighter integration of our existing brands like Cars.com, Dealer Inspire, and AccuTrade, we are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to build scalable, secure, and reliable API-based backend services that enable the Cars Commerce platform.

About You

You are an experienced, results-driven software engineer who thrives in building scalable and reliable backend systems. You have a strong foundation in designing and developing API-based services that can handle high traffic volumes while ensuring performance, security, and maintainability. You understand software architecture and engineering best practices and are comfortable making technical decisions that balance speed, quality, and long-term stability. You’re comfortable with both hands-on coding and designing backend services that meet evolving product requirements. You understand the importance of testing, observability, and CI /CD pipelines in delivering reliable systems. You are a systems thinker who can see commonalities and connections across multiple use cases and design solutions that can be utilized internally and externally. You are comfortable using tools like Datadog to triage issues and gain insight into the operations of platform services. Above all, you’re passionate about creating core capabilities and services that empower product teams to innovate quickly and reliably.

Responsibilities

Develop Scalable and Observable Systems: Collaborate with a lead engineer to design and develop high-performance, API-based backend services that meet service level objectives (SLOs) and scale to support growing business needs.

Own Production Systems: Own the health and uptime of business-critical systems you and your team builds. Participate in on-call rotations to quickly resolve incidents and conduct postmortems to drive continuous improvement in system reliability.

Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner with product managers, engineering teams, and infrastructure teams to define technical requirements and design scalable, maintainable systems that align with business goals and product roadmaps.

Implement DevSecOps Practices: Champion and implement continuous integration/continuous deployment ( CI /CD) pipelines, automated testing, and security practices throughout the development lifecycle to ensure the reliability and security of production systems.

Drive Documentation and Knowledge Sharing: Ensure comprehensive documentation of API designs, system architectures, and operational procedures to enable internal teams and external customers to easily build and integrate with the APIs in a self-service manner.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience

5+ years of experience in backend development with a strong focus on designing, building, and operating large-scale and highly available systems, including microservices architectures, APIs, and event-driven systems

Proven track record of successfully delivering high-quality software in a fast-paced Agile environment

Strong collaboration, communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively across cross-functional teams and adapt to changing requirements

Hands-on experience with AWS and containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes, including deploying, monitoring, and scaling applications in production

In-depth experience with RESTful APIs, with the ability to select the appropriate design pattern for different use cases and requirements

Solid understanding of relational and NoSQL databases, caching strategies, and messaging systems, ideally with hands-on experience in implementing these technologies at scale. Experience with PostgreSQL and MySQL are a plus.

Proven experience designing and implementing observability solutions (e.g., DataDog) to ensure system reliability, performance, and uptime in production

Familiarity with DevSecOps practices, including implementing CI /CD pipelines, automated testing, and integrating security throughout the development lifecycle

Willingness to participate in an on-call rotation, providing prompt incident resolution and conducting postmortems to improve system reliability

Experience with Elixir and Phoenix framework is a plus. Candidates without Elixir experience but with a strong background in distributed systems, services, APIs, and backend development who are willing to learn new technologies are encouraged to apply.

Be essential at Cars Commerce

At Cars Commerce, we’re fanatical about simplifying everything about car buying and selling. We do right by our customers and consumers to better connect the industry with simplified and tierless technology to enhance, measure and drive local automotive retail. Whether through our No.1 most recognized marketplace, Cars.com, our industry-leading digital experience, Dealer Inspire, our trade and appraisal technology, AccuTrade, or our new Cars Commerce Media Network, Cars Commerce is essential for success in the automotive industry.

No one ever travels alone here: at its core, Cars Commerce is collaboration. In fact, it’s built into the very fabric of our shared values. We like to say we Rise Together – putting people at the center of what we do, from consumer to customer to community. Life at Cars Commerce makes it easy when we share the ethos to be Open to All, encouraging open-minded communication because we know diverse thinking yields better outcomes. But critical to our success is Caring to Challenge and Taking Ownership, fueling a competitive spirit in a respectful environment where we think about tomorrow but act today. At our foundation, we have integrity, Doing the Right Thing, even when it’s hard. It’s our shared commitment to these values that makes Cars Commerce a place where growth becomes not only possible, but downright unavoidable.

But don’t take our word for it. As a U.S. News & World Report Best Company to Work For in 2024, we're obsessive about the employee experience. We are among the top 20% being declared “Best” of our industry based on six critical factors that are important to employee wellbeing, like quality of pay, benefits, work life balance and more.

About the Role

Cars Commerce builds solutions for automotive dealerships, manufacturers, and consumers. Our driving force is to deliver one platform to simplify everything about buying and selling cars. Our platform enables dealerships and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with innovative technical solutions and data-driven intelligence to better reach and influence ready-to-buy shoppers, increase inventory turn, and gain market share. To support the growth and tighter integration of our existing brands like Cars.com, Dealer Inspire, and AccuTrade, we are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to build scalable, secure, and reliable API-based backend services that enable the Cars Commerce platform.

About You

You are an experienced, results-driven software engineer who thrives in building scalable and reliable backend systems. You have a strong foundation in designing and developing API-based services that can handle high traffic volumes while ensuring performance, security, and maintainability. You understand software architecture and engineering best practices and are comfortable making technical decisions that balance speed, quality, and long-term stability. You’re comfortable with both hands-on coding and designing backend services that meet evolving product requirements. You understand the importance of testing, observability, and CI /CD pipelines in delivering reliable systems. You are a systems thinker who can see commonalities and connections across multiple use cases and design solutions that can be utilized internally and externally. You are comfortable using tools like Datadog to triage issues and gain insight into the operations of platform services. Above all, you’re passionate about creating core capabilities and services that empower product teams to innovate quickly and reliably.

Responsibilities

• Develop Scalable and Observable Systems: Collaborate with a lead engineer to design and develop high-performance, API-based backend services that meet service level objectives (SLOs) and scale to support growing business needs.

• Own Production Systems: Own the health and uptime of business-critical systems you and your team builds. Participate in on-call rotations to quickly resolve incidents and conduct postmortems to drive continuous improvement in system reliability.

• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner with product managers, engineering teams, and infrastructure teams to define technical requirements and design scalable, maintainable systems that align with business goals and product roadmaps.

• Implement DevSecOps Practices: Champion and implement continuous integration/continuous deployment ( CI /CD) pipelines, automated testing, and security practices throughout the development lifecycle to ensure the reliability and security of production systems.

• Drive Documentation and Knowledge Sharing: Ensure comprehensive documentation of API designs, system architectures, and operational procedures to enable internal teams and external customers to easily build and integrate with the APIs in a self-service manner.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience

• 5+ years of experience in backend development with a strong focus on designing, building, and operating large-scale and highly available systems, including microservices architectures, APIs, and event-driven systems

• Proven track record of successfully delivering high-quality software in a fast-paced Agile environment

• Strong collaboration, communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively across cross-functional teams and adapt to changing requirements

• Hands-on experience with AWS and containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes, including deploying, monitoring, and scaling applications in production

• In-depth experience with RESTful APIs, with the ability to select the appropriate design pattern for different use cases and requirements

• Solid understanding of relational and NoSQL databases, caching strategies, and messaging systems, ideally with hands-on experience in implementing these technologies at scale. Experience with PostgreSQL and MySQL are a plus.

• Proven experience designing and implementing observability solutions (e.g., DataDog) to ensure system reliability, performance, and uptime in production

• Familiarity with DevSecOps practices, including implementing CI /CD pipelines, automated testing, and integrating security throughout the development lifecycle

• Willingness to participate in an on-call rotation, providing prompt incident resolution and conducting postmortems to improve system reliability

• Experience with Elixir and Phoenix framework is a plus. Candidates without Elixir experience but with a strong background in distributed systems, services, APIs, and backend development who are willing to learn new technologies are encouraged to apply.

Salary Range $115,300.00-144,150.00

Our Comprehensive Benefits Package includes:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Healthcare Plans
• New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set-Up
• Generous PTO
• Refuel - a service based recognition program where employees receive additional paid time away to learn grow and reset
• Paid Holidays, Floating Holiday, Volunteer Day, Recharge Day

Learn more about our Benefits, Perks, & Culture on our LinkedIn Life Pages !

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. California Applicants: Clickhere to review our California Privacy Policy for Applicants. For current employees, pleaseclickhere to review our California Privacy Policy for Employees.

Welcome!
At Cars Commerce, we think big, push boundaries, and rise together as a team. It’s all the challenge and energy of a job in the tech industry, backed by 25 years of proven resilience and growth as a leading consumer brand.

Imagine getting to work on a team with a bold mission to simplify everything about buying and selling cars. A culture that’s a unique mix of innovation and collaboration. Exciting training and development opportunities that empower you to take ownership of your career. For our employees, every day is an opportunity.

We’re a remote-first workplace that embraces diversity at every level. Inspired by our values, we intentionally create opportunities for our employees to grow and make an impact in our industry and local communities. Let’s move your career forward together.

About Us

Cars Commerce is an audience-driven technology company empowering automotive that simplifies everything about buying and selling cars. The Cars Commerce platform includes the flagship automotive marketplace and dealer reputation site Cars.com, innovative digital marketing technology and services from Dealer Inspire, industry-leading trade-in and appraisal technology from AccuTrade, an exclusive in-market media network, and powerful and predictive AI technologies that enable more efficient and profitable retail operations. Cars Commerce is the essential partner to stay one step ahead in automotive.