Principal Software Engineer (hands-on)

About the role

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, our reputation-based digital wholesale auction marketplace, Dealerclub, 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 Challengeand 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. ABOUT THE ROLE [May require onsite interviews] Join us in shaping the future of Automotive Commerce. We are undergoing a transformational and exciting shift to deliver a single platform that simplifies everything about buying and selling cars. We are unifying an ecosystem of automotive brands into a single, high-throughput, service-oriented platform. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will be the technical north star for the Platform Core Services team. This team owns the high-concurrency engines-Identity, Inventory, and Leads-that power a multi-billion dollar marketplace. We're looking for a technical architect and "lead-from-the-front" builder to drive this transformation. This is a role for an engineer who wants end-to-end sovereignty over both backend systems and the product surfaces that transform data into actionable insights-from complex RBAC systems to sophisticated self-service UIs. We are an AI-first organization. We leverage Claude Code to bypass the "boilerplate tax," allowing our engineers to spend the majority of their time on high-order systems design rather than routine implementation. This is a rare opportunity: the scale of an industry leader with the velocity and intellectual freedom of a high-growth startup. ABOUT YOU As a Principal Software Engineer, you are a highly skilled, hands-on technical leader who can shape high-level technology strategy one hour and roll up your sleeves to solve a complex concurrency bug the next. You believe that the best code is written by humans empowered by world-class AI, and you thrive on solving the most challenging problems at the heart of a massive platform. You are a lifelong student of systems who uses data-not dogma-to improve, influence, and lead impactful change at scale. WHY YOU'LL BE EXCITED ABOUT THIS ROLE This opportunity enables you to... Architectural Stewardship : Define the evolution of our services to support sub-second latency and massive concurrency. You will bridge the gap between heavy-lift backend systems and modern, intuitive UI products. AI Orchestration : Redefine the SDLC by integrating LLM-based orchestration into the development workflow, significantly increasing the organization's velocity. Influence via Data : Lead the RFC process by driving consensus across engineering and product boundaries. You don't rely on "title power"-you use data, benchmarks, and clear trade-off analysis to align stakeholders. Operational Excellence at Scale : Own the "Four Nines" (99.99%) for services handling tens of thousands of requests per second. You will treat observability and developer experience as first-class products. Force Multiplier : Act as a sponsor for Staff and Senior engineers. You are responsible for raising the technical "ceiling" of the entire engineering organization. WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT YOU BECAUSE... Education: Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science or equivalent industry experience. Track Record : 12+ years of software engineering excellence, including significant time at the Staff or Principal level Backend Mastery : Deep expertise in designing high-concurrency distributed systems. You are comfortable navigating complex data