Sr. Software Engineer

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-cr