Staff Software Engineer

Cars.com LLC; Illinois; Hybrid; USD 154,000 - 193,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental & Vision

Home office stipend

Generous PTO

Holidays and Volunteer Day

Job summary

Cars Commerce is building a single platform to simplify car buying and selling for dealers, manufacturers, and consumers. As a Staff Software Engineer on the Websites Engineering Team, you will revitalize backend services, design scalable systems, and drive API-led solutions across RESTful, GraphQL, and gRPC interfaces.

You will mentor engineers, champion DevSecOps practices, and shape architectural standards while working in a remote-first environment based in Chicago with on-site interviews.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent.
• 10+ years of backend software development experience.
• 3+ years building cloud-native solutions on AWS.
• Experience with RESTful APIs, GraphQL, and gRPC.
• Strong knowledge of relational and NoSQL data stores.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive reusable, scalable back-end architectures across the Cars Commerce platform.
• Develop high-performance API-based services meeting SLAs and scale with demand.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering excellence.
• Collaborate with cross-team partners on back-end strategies and standards.
• Contribute to documentation and developer experience.

Skills

Backend design

System design

RESTful APIs

GraphQL

gRPC

Distributed systems

Cloud-native

Security best practices

Observability

Mentorship

On-call readiness

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

Node.js ecosystem

AWS (EKS, RDS, MSK, S3, Lambda)

REST, GraphQL, gRPC

PostgreSQL/MySQL

DynamoDB/MongoDB

Redis

Kafka

DataDog/OpenTelemetry

OAuth2/JWT

CI/CD / DevSecOps

Kubernetes (EKS)

Terraform / IaC

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, our reputation-based digital wholesale auction marketplace, Dealerclub, 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. We are proud to be named one of Built In’s 2026 Best Places to Work in Chicago and across the U.S. Ready to make your mark? Join a team that's driving real change in the automotive industry.

Exciting backend Staff Engineer role focused on platform modernization

About the Role

[Remote and must be based in Chicago area. May require onsite interviews]

Join us in shaping a future of Automotive Commerce. Cars Commerce builds solutions for automotive dealerships, manufacturers, and consumers. Our driving force is to deliver a single platform that simplifies everything about buying and selling cars. Our Websites Engineering Team drives our Dealer Inspire platform. We are embarking on a transformational journey, building innovative and integrated services that redefine how we deliver value to our customers.

As a Staff Software Engineer on our Websites Engineering Team, you will help revitalize our backend services and tooling across our platform with a comprehensive technical strategy to simplify and build scalable systems. This is an exceptional opportunity to shape the future of our platform and drive meaningful change at scale, making a lasting impact within the automotive industry. You’ll work across team boundaries to design and develop components as well as performance-optimized back-end systems that scale across Dealer Inspire - Websites Engineering Team.

About You

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent professional experience
• 10+ years of experience in backend software development with a strong focus on designing, building, and operating large-scale and highly available systems, including microservices architectures, APIs, and event-driven systems
• 3+ years of experience architecting and building cloud-native solutions on AWS, leveraging services such as EKS, RDS, MSK, S3, and Lambda, including deploying, monitoring, and scaling applications in production environments
• Experience with the Node ecosystem is preferred
• Candidates without Node 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
• Strong system design skills with the ability to evaluate trade-offs, drive consensus, and document design decisions effectively
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Proven experience mentoring engineers and supporting their growth in technical depth, architecture, and leadership
• Experience modernizing legacy systems and upgrading legacy technology stacks
• Strong experience designing and implementing RESTful APIs, GraphQL, and gRPC, with the ability to select the most appropriate interface for given technical and business requirements
• In-depth knowledge of relational (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL (e.g., DynamoDB, MongoDB) data stores, caching strategies (e.g., Redis), and messaging systems (e.g., Kafka), with demonstrated experience implementing these at scale
• Proven experience building observability into systems using tools like DataDog or OpenTelemetry to ensure performance, reliability, and uptime
• Understanding of modern application security principles, including secure API design, data encryption, authentication/authorization (OAuth2, JWT), and role-based access control
• Familiarity with DevSecOps practices, including CI/CD pipeline implementation, automated testing, infrastructure as code, and security integration throughout the software development lifecycle
• Willingness to participate in an on-call rotation, providing prompt incident resolution and conducting postmortems to improve system reliability

Why You’ll Be Excited About This Role

• Lead Backend Architecture: Define and drive reusable, reliable, and scalable back-end architectures across the Cars Commerce platform and integrations.
• Lead the design, work breakdown, and development of high-performance, API-based backend services that meet service-level objectives (SLOs) and scale with growing business demands.
• Champion technical excellence by promoting best practices in system design, operational maturity, and engineering quality across the team.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Work closely with engineering, design, and product partners across teams to align on back-end strategies and standards, elevate the use of back-end, API and integration consistency, and reduce duplication.
• Mentorship and Influence: Serve as a back-end thought leader and mentor, coaching other engineers and shaping team/department-wide best practices.
• Drive Documentation and DX: Treat components and libraries as products. Develop excellent documentation, innovative usage patterns, and internal developer experience.
• Contribute Full-Stack as Needed: Collaborate with backend developers to integrate UIs with APIs. While your focus is back-end, you’re comfortable navigating the full stack.

Salary Range

In the spirit of pay transparency, we are excited to share the base salary range for this position. In addition to base salary, some roles are eligible for our bonus and/or equity programs, depending on level and role. Regular full-time positions are eligible for our comprehensive benefits package. If you are hired at Cars Commerce, your final base salary compensation will be determined based on factors such as skills and/or experience. Salary Range $154,200.00-192,750.00

Benefits

• Medical, Dental & Vision Healthcare Plans
• New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set-Up
• Generous PTO
• Paid Holidays, Floating Holiday, Volunteer Day, Recharge Day
• Learn more about our Benefits, Perks, & Culture on our LinkedIn Life Pages!

Eligibility & Equal Opportunity

For US-based Positions: Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States. Please note that we are unable to sponsor employment visas at this time. 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.

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. 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.