Principal Software Engineer
CarMaxAbout the role
About this job
At CarMax, we are industry disruptors. At the heart of our innovation is new digital products. Working on many different aspects of the customer experience, our Principal Engineers research and discover new opportunities and shape products to fulfill them. From inception to completion, you will develop tools and technology, learning quickly from our spirit of experimentation. You will have a direct impact on improving the performance of our business and ensuring customers can buy the vehicles they want in a way that is right for them!
About the Team
The Developer Experience team is the internal platform and enablement engine for CarMax Technology. Our mission is to make every engineer at CarMax faster, more confident, and better equipped — through the tools, platforms, and practices they use every day. We own the developer portal, golden path frameworks, CI/CD infrastructure, and the AI-assisted development tooling that is reshaping how software gets built here. We sit at the intersection of platform engineering and developer advocacy, and we treat the developer as our customer.
What You Will Do – Essential Responsibilities
Design, build, and evolve the developer platform — including the developer portal, golden path templates, and onboarding frameworks — that serve as the foundation for how CarMax engineers build, run, and ship software.
Lead the engineering implementation of AI-enabled development tooling, including GitHub Copilot and agentic AI workflows, translating emerging capabilities into practical, measurable productivity improvements for engineering teams.
Architect and maintain CI/CD pipeline infrastructure and delivery automation tooling, ensuring that CarMax’s software delivery systems are fast, reliable, and observable end to end.
Collaborate with product management, systems architecture, and platform teams to develop experimental solutions and drive them from concept to production within an agile environment.
Establish and champion engineering best practices — coding standards, reusable libraries, API patterns, and infrastructure as code — across the Developer Experience portfolio.
Mentor engineers across the team and across the broader organization, providing hands-on guidance on architecture decisions, implementation approaches, and AI tool adoption.
Continuously evaluate emerging trends in AI, developer tooling, and platform engineering to ensure CarMax’s developer practices remain at the forefront of industry innovation.
Market your innovative ideas internally and evolve them through feedback, driving adoption across engineering communities of practice.
Purpose of the Role
Principal Engineers within the Developer Experience team sit at the heart of how CarMax builds software. They are hands-on technical leaders who don’t just write excellent code — they shape the platforms and practices that multiply the effectiveness of every engineer in the organization. Recognized as technical authorities and platform advocates, they are responsible for building and evolving the systems that underpin developer productivity: the CI/CD infrastructure, developer portals, golden path frameworks, and AI-enabled tooling that define how CarMax engineers work every day.
It takes a genuine passion for developer experience to build the tools that make other engineers faster. Working collaboratively as part of the Engineering Experience group, you will engage in the full development lifecycle: understanding the real challenges developers face, designing platform solutions at scale, integrating emerging AI capabilities into the SDLC, and delivering outcomes that are measurable and durable. You balance developer needs with platform reliability and know how to ship technical solutions that compound in value over time. Creative, curious, and technically deep — you never stop learning and thrive in the space where platform engineering meets AI innovation.
Qualifications and Requirements
Basic Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent alternative education, skills, and/or practical experience is required.
7+ years of experience with .NET Core/C#/Microsoft Azure offerings.
Strong teamwork and leadership skills, ability to learn quickly, excellent written and spoken communication required.
Demonstrated ability or strong interest in technical leadership and mentoring engineers.
Experience working within a product or platform organization using Agile and DevOps m
Apply for this role
Generate a tailored application kit with a matched cover letter, interview prep, and CV highlights — in under 60 seconds.
Apply Now →Generate Application KitFree account required — sign up in 30s