Sr. Software Engineer (AI First)

BLC BACKLOTCARS Inc; Carmel (IN); On-site; USD 125,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision benefits

401K with company match

Paid vacation and sick time

Paternity/maternity leave

Disability and life insurance

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

OPENLANE is hiring AI-first Sr. Software Engineers to build, evolve, and scale our U.S. marketplace platforms. You’ll use AI as a first-class development tool while delivering resilient, scalable systems with strong ownership and judgment.

You will partner with Product, Data, Infrastructure, and SRE teams to move fast, ship high‑quality software, and reduce toil, applying pragmatic engineering decisions and end‑to‑end ownership.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of 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.
• Actively uses AI development tools (code copilots, AI debuggers, test generators).

Responsibilities

• Build, evolve, and scale OPENLANE’s U.S. marketplace platforms.
• Collaborate with Product, Data, Infrastructure, and SRE teams to deliver resilient systems.
• Own features and end-to-end systems from design through production.

Skills

Backend development

APIs

Distributed systems

Cloud-native

CI/CD

AI development tools

Observability

Frontend (React)

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

AWS

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.

Why OPENLANE

Work on real‑time, high‑value marketplace 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

Roles

We’re hiring AI‑first Sr. Software Engineers to build, evolve, and scale OPENLANE’s U.S. marketplace platforms. 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 customer‑facing marketplace experiences and core platform services, partnering closely with Product, Data, Infrastructure, and SRE teams to deliver resilient, scalable systems. AI is an accelerator. Engineering ownership still matters.

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

• 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
• Technical Experience (One or More): Backend development (Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, .NET, Ruby, or similar)
• Front‑end experience (React, TypeScript) is a plus
• AWS or similar cloud platforms
• Microservices and event‑driven architectures
• SQL and data‑driven applications

Must Have’s

• 5+ 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
• Backend development (Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, .NET, Ruby, or similar)
• 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

• Frontend experience (React, TypeScript)
• AWS or similar cloud platforms
• Microservices and event‑driven architectures
• SQL and data‑driven applications
• Marketplace, e‑commerce, or high‑volume transaction systems
• 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

Compensation

Compensation Range of Annual Salary: $125,000.00 - $175,000.00 (Depending on experience, skill set, qualifications, and other relevant factors.)

Other Company Information

OPENLANE makes wholesale easy so our customers can be more successful. Our end‑to‑end platform serves the remarketing needs of the world’s largest OEMs, dealers, fleet operators, rental companies and financial institutions. We’re a technology company delivering next generation tools to accelerate and simplify remarketing. We’re an analytics company leveraging data to inform and empower our customers with clear, actionable insights. And we’re an auction company powering the world’s most advanced digital used vehicle marketplaces. In 2021, OPENLANE sold nearly 2.6 million vehicles valued at over $40 billion through our auctions and generated approximately $2.3 billion in revenue. Our integrated digital marketplaces and vehicle logistics centers reduce risk, improve transparency and streamline the experience for customers in about 75 countries. OPENLANE continues to make investments in innovation, strategic acquisitions and integrations to better serve our customers. Headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, OPENLANE has about 5,000 employees and maintains business units across North America, Europe, the Philippines and Uruguay. Together, the OPENLANE brands provide a complete remarketing solution for our customers.

Equal Opportunity

OPENLANE is an equal opportunity employer and a drug‑free workplace.