Lead Sr. Elixir Software Engineer

Cars.Com

306d • $131,400 - $164,250 • Remote

About The Position

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 Lead Senior Software Engineer to build scalable, secure, and reliable API-based backend services that enable the Cars Commerce platform.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience
• 8+ years of experience in backend development with a strong focus on designing, building, and operating large-scale and highly available systems, including microservices architectures, APIs, and event-driven systems
• Proven track record of successfully delivering high-quality software in a fast-paced Agile environment
• Strong collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across cross-functional teams and adapt to changing requirements
• Extensive hands-on experience with AWS and containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes, including deploying, monitoring, and scaling applications in production
• In-depth experience with RESTful APIs, GraphQL, and gRPC, with the ability to select the appropriate design pattern for different use cases and requirements
• Solid understanding of relational and NoSQL databases, caching strategies, and messaging systems, with hands-on experience in implementing these technologies at scale
• Proven experience designing and implementing observability solutions (e.g., DataDog) to ensure system reliability, performance, and uptime in production
• A solid understanding of security principles, including data encryption, access control, and secure API design
• Familiarity with DevSecOps practices, including implementing CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and integrating security throughout the development lifecycle
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Willingness to participate in an on-call rotation, providing prompt incident resolution and conducting postmortems to improve system reliability

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Elixir and Phoenix framework is preferred. Candidates without Elixir 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.

Responsibilities

• Design and Develop Scalable and Observable Systems: Lead the architecture, design, and development of 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-critical systems you and your team build. Participate in on-call rotations to quickly resolve incidents and conduct postmortems to drive continuous improvement in system reliability.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner with product managers, engineering teams, and infrastructure teams to define technical requirements and design scalable, maintainable system architectures that align with business goals and product roadmaps.
• Implement DevSecOps Practices: Champion and implement continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, automated testing, and security practices throughout the development lifecycle to ensure the reliability and security of production systems.
• 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.

Benefits

• 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

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Industry: Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree