Associate Software Engineer

CDK Global•Austin, TX

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

CDK Global is hiring early-career engineers to build automotive retail software used by dealerships to sell, finance, and service vehicles and by consumers to shop for and buy cars. Engineers develop and ship production software using AI-based development workflows, starting with AI-accelerated coding and progressing toward directing advanced AI systems on substantial, well-scoped tasks. The engineer remains responsible for the correctness, security, and maintainability of all shipped work. The role emphasizes precise specifications and acceptance criteria, disciplined verification of AI-generated code, lean implementation, security, and cost-effective use of AI tools. The engineer will develop knowledge of automotive retail, solve moderately scoped problems with increasing independence, experiment with AI development techniques, and collaborate with engineering, product, and design. Structured mentorship, a defined progression path, and early production ownership are part of the role. This is a hybrid position based in Austin, Texas, requiring a mix of office and remote days; candidates must live within commuting distance of the office. The base salary range is $85,000 to $95,000, with possible annual performance bonus, benefits, and/or other applicable incentive compensation.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
0–2 years of professional experience.
Experience with NodeJS, ReactJS, and AWS Cloud.
Strong command of at least one programming language and core computer science fundamentals.
Ability to read and reason about code written by others, identifying bugs, edge cases, security issues, and design problems.
Excellent written communication skills, including the ability to describe problems and designs precisely.
Genuine curiosity about AI-based development, demonstrated through coursework, projects, hackathons, or independent experimentation.
A verification mindset, including rigorous testing and skepticism toward unvalidated output; understanding that more code is not necessarily better and security must be designed in.
Self-motivation and ability to learn quickly and adapt as tools change.
Collaborative problem-solving skills, effectiveness both independently and in teams, and ability to drive issues to timely resolution.
Legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future employment-based visa sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

Substantive personal or academic projects using AI development tools, with the ability to explain what worked, what failed, and what was learned.
Experience with Spec-Driven Development (SDD), Kafka, and Mongo.
Exposure to version control, code review, automated testing, and CI/CD.
Experience anywhere in a modern full stack, including mobile or web front ends, backend APIs, databases, or cloud.
Interest in building software that business operators and consumers depend on.

Responsibilities

Build and ship production software using modern AI-based development workflows, progressing from AI-accelerated coding to delegating well-scoped tasks to advanced AI systems.
Write precise specifications, technical plans, and acceptance criteria that humans and AI systems can execute against.
Own the correctness, security, and maintainability of shipped work by reviewing, testing, and validating AI-generated code; protect credentials, customer data, and proprietary code from unapproved tools.
Keep codebases lean and avoid unnecessary AI-generated code, dependencies, and over-engineering.
Use AI development resources cost-effectively, optimizing compute and tooling spend.
Develop expertise in automotive retail, including dealership operations and how consumers buy vehicles.
Solve problems of moderate scope with increasing independence and sound technical judgment.
Experiment with and share AI development techniques and workflow improvements with the team.
Plan and prioritize work with decreasing need for day-to-day direction, and build relationships across engineering, product, and design.
Participate in on-call rotations and emergency response to maintain platform reliability.
Follow CDK Global policies and procedures, including responsible AI usage guidelines, and complete mandatory compliance tasks.
Meet or exceed performance expectations.