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.

Dealer Inspire, a Cars.com company, is a leading automotive technology provider that builds innovative websites and digital marketing solutions for dealerships.  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.
We are seeking a Software Engineer to enhance existing services, troubleshoot and optimize current systems, and build scalable, secure, and reliable services that power our platform. 

You are an experienced, results-driven software engineer who thrives in building scalable and reliable systems. You have a strong foundation in designing and developing services that can handle high traffic volumes while ensuring performance, security, and maintainability. You understand software architecture and engineering best practices and are comfortable following and suggesting technical decisions that balance speed, quality, and long-term stability. 

You understand the importance of testing, observability, and CI/CD pipelines in delivering reliable systems. You have experience working with Kubernetes and containerized services, leveraging orchestration and automation to optimize deployment, scalability, and resilience. 

Above all, you’re passionate about creating core capabilities and services that empower product teams to innovate quickly and reliably.

• Develop Scalable and Observable Systems: Collaborate with other engineers to develop high-performance services that meet service level objectives (SLOs) and scale to support growing business needs.

• Own Production Systems: Own the quality and maintenance of business-critical systems you and your team builds. Participate in on-call rotations to quickly resolve incidents and postmortems to drive continuous improvement in system reliability.

• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner with product managers, engineering teams, and infrastructure teams to fulfill technical requirements and build scalable, maintainable systems that align with business goals and product roadmaps.

• Drive Documentation and Knowledge Sharing: Ensure comprehensive documentation of API designs, system architectures, and operational procedures to enable internal teams and external customers to easily build and integrate with the APIs in a self-service manner.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience

• 3+ years of experience in development with a strong focus on designing, building, and operating large-scale and highly available systems, including microservices architectures, APIs, and event-driven systems

• Experience with PHP and web frameworks like Symfony or Laravel

• Experience in the node ecosystem and frameworks including Express, NextJS and other API frameworks

• Advanced knowledge of SQL, demonstrated proficiency in database design and optimization

• Proven track record of successfully delivering high-quality software

• Strong collaboration, communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively across cross-functional teams and adapt to changing requirements

• Experience with front-end technologies like HTML5, SASS, and JavaScript

• Possesses comprehensive understanding of secure software development practice

• Solid understanding of build processes/test automation

• Familiarity with end to end testing frameworks such as Cypress or Playwright

• Ability to solve or triage issues across multiple components and systems

• Ability to produce or maintain comprehensive and well organized documentation, diagrams, and user guides

• Foundational understanding of Agile methodologies and concepts

• Willingness to participate in an on-call rotation, providing prompt incident resolution and conducting postmortems to improve system reliability

Our Comprehensive Benefits Package includes:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Healthcare Plans
• New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set-Up
• Generous PTO
• Refuel - a service based recognition program where employees receive additional paid time away to learn grow and reset
• Paid Holidays, Floating Holiday, Volunteer Day, Recharge Day

Learn more about our Benefits, Perks, & Culture on our LinkedIn Life Pages!
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. California Applicants: Click here to review our California Privacy Policy for Applicants. For current employees, please click here to review our California Privacy Policy for Employees.