Staff Backend Architect - Platform Modernization (Remote)

cars; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 154,200 - 192,750; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental & Vision plans

Home office stipend

Generous PTO

Paid Holidays

Job summary

Cars Commerce is seeking an experienced Backend Staff Engineer to reshape and scale our backend platform. You will lead architecture, design high-performance API services, and drive engineering excellence across teams. Remote options exist for candidates in or near Chicago, with onsite interviews possible.

You will mentor engineers, promote best practices, and contribute to observability, security, and full-stack collaboration as we modernize the Dealer Inspire and related services.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of backend software development, scalable systems.
• 3+ years of AWS cloud experience (EKS, RDS, MSK, S3, Lambda).
• Experience with Node.js and distributed systems.
• Strong design, documentation and leadership skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead backend architecture and scalable services across the platform.
• Design high-performance API-based services with SLAs.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering best practices.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams across product, design, and frontend.
• Contribute to observability and security practices.

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

API design

System scalability

Mentoring engineers

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

AWS

Node.js

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

Kafka

Redis

Job description

Cars Commerce is seeking an experienced Backend Staff Engineer to reshape and scale our backend platform. You will lead architecture, design high-performance API services, and drive engineering excellence across teams. Remote options exist for candidates in or near Chicago, with onsite interviews possible.

You will mentor engineers, promote best practices, and contribute to observability, security, and full-stack collaboration as we modernize the Dealer Inspire and related services.