Sr. Software Engineer

Cars Commerce•Chicago, IL

21d•$118,600 - $148,250•Remote

About The Position

Cars Commerce is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join their Websites Engineering Team, specifically focusing on the Dealer Inspire platform. This role involves enhancing existing backend services, troubleshooting and optimizing current systems, and building scalable, secure, and reliable API-based backend services. The Senior Software Engineer will also mentor junior engineers, guiding them on best practices, code quality, and system architecture. The position requires a strong foundation in designing and developing API-based services capable of handling high traffic volumes while ensuring performance, security, and maintainability. The ideal candidate will be adept at using architecture patterns and iterative approaches to improve legacy services, comfortable with both hands-on coding and designing backend services, and understand the importance of testing, observability, and CI/CD pipelines. Experience with Kubernetes and containerized services is also expected, along with the safe and efficient use of AI code generation tools.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or above in Computer Science or equivalent experience
5+ 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
Experience in the Node JS ecosystem and frameworks including NestJS
Experience with React JS and TypeScript
In-depth experience with RESTful APIs, with the ability to select the appropriate design pattern for different use cases and requirements
Experience at scale and solid understanding of PostgreSQL and MySQL, caching strategies with Redis, and messaging systems like Kafka
Experience with unit (Jest, phpunit), integration, and end to end testing frameworks such as Cypress or Playwright
Hands-on experience with AWS and containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes, including deploying, monitoring, and scaling applications in production
Experience with AI tools to improve code quality, speed etc
Willingness to participate in an on-call rotation, providing prompt incident resolution and conducting postmortems to improve system reliability
Proven experience designing and implementing observability solutions to ensure system reliability, performance, and uptime in production
Strong collaboration, communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively across cross-functional teams and adapt to changing requirements
Familiarity with DevSecOps practices, including implementing CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and integrating security throughout the development lifecycle
Proven track record of successfully delivering high-quality software

Nice To Haves

Experience with PHP and WordPress

Responsibilities

Enhance existing backend services
Troubleshoot and optimize current systems
Build scalable, secure, and reliable API-based backend services
Mentor junior engineers, providing guidance on best practices, code quality, and system architecture
Design and develop high-performance, API-based backend services that meet service level objectives (SLOs) and scale to support growing business needs
Own the health and uptime of business-critical systems
Participate in on-call rotations to quickly resolve incidents and conduct postmortems
Partner with product managers, engineering teams, and infrastructure teams to define technical requirements and design scalable, maintainable systems
Implement continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, automated testing, and security practices
Ensure comprehensive documentation of API designs, system architectures, and operational procedures