Sr. Software Engineer (AI First)

Who We Are:

At OPENLANE we make wholesale easy so our customers can be more successful.

We’re a technology company building the world’s most advanced—and uncomplicated—digital marketplace for used vehicles.

We’re a data company helping customers buy and sell smarter with clear, actionable insights they can understand and use.

And we’re an innovation company accelerating the future of wholesale remarketing through curiosity, collaboration, and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Our Values:

Driven Waybuilders. We pursue challenges that inspire us to build, create, and innovate.

Relentless Curiosity. We seek to understand and improve our customers’ experience.

Smart Risk-Taking. We transform risk into progress through data, experience, and intuition.

Fearless Ownership. We deliver what we promise and learn along the way.
 

We’re hiring AI-first Sr. Software Engineers to build, evolve, and scale OPENLANE’s U.S. marketplace platforms. 

These roles are for engineers who already treat AI as a first-class development tool, not a novelty. You’ll use AI to move faster, ship higher-quality software, and reduce operational and development toil, while still applying strong engineering judgment, ownership, and systems thinking.

You’ll work on customer-facing marketplace experiences and core platform services, partnering closely with Product, Data, Infrastructure, and SRE teams to deliver resilient, scalable systems.

AI is an accelerator. Engineering ownership still matters.

Why OPENLANE:

• Work on real-time, high-value marketplace systems at scale

• Be part of a major platform modernization and AI transformation

• Use AI as a first-class development tool—not an experiment

• Collaborate with experienced engineers, product leaders, and platform teams

• Grow in an environment that values learning, ownership, and impact

You Are:

• AI-forward. You already use AI tools to enhance development speed, quality, and efficiency, and you continuously adapt as tooling evolves.

• Product-minded. You think beyond code and understand how technical decisions impact customers and business outcomes.

• Ownership-driven. You take responsibility for systems end-to-end, including reliability and operational health.

• Technically curious. You enjoy learning new technologies and thoughtfully evaluating emerging approaches.

• Quality-focused. You value clean, maintainable code, strong testing practices, and production-ready engineering standards.

You Bring:

Core Engineering Skills

• Experience building and supporting production software systems

• Strong understanding of APIs, distributed systems, and cloud-native architecture

• Comfort working in modern CI/CD environments

• Experience with observability, monitoring, and incident response

• Ability to own features and systems end-to-end

AI-First Mindset

• Actively uses AI development tools (code copilots, AI debuggers, test generators)

• Curious about applying AI to real customer and business problems

• Able to critically evaluate AI outputs instead of blindly accepting them

• Comfortable learning and adapting in a fast-changing tool landscape

Technical Experience (One or More)

• Backend development (Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, .NET, Ruby, or similar)

• Frontend experience (React, TypeScript) is a plus

• AWS or similar cloud platforms

• Microservices and event-driven architectures

• SQL and data-driven applications

You Will:

• Design, build, and operate scalable services that power U.S. marketplace workflows such as Buy Now, 45M, Simulcast, and DealerBlock

• Develop APIs and backend services on the modern, cloud-native, AI-enabled platform

• Embed AI-driven capabilities into marketplace features including pricing logic, negotiation flows, and workflow automation

• Use AI tools to accelerate coding, testing, debugging, and documentation while applying strong engineering judgment

• Partner with Product to translate business needs into durable, scalable technical solutions

• Participate in on-call rotations and support live production systems

• Improve system reliability, performance, security, and observability

• Contribute to technical direction, engineering standards, and long-term platform evolution
   

How You’ll Use AI in These Roles:

• AI-assisted coding and refactoring

• AI-generated test coverage and validation

• AI-supported debugging and root-cause analysis

• AI-assisted documentation and knowledge sharing

• Applying AI tools to reduce repetitive work and increase engineering leverage

 

Who You Will Work With:

Reporting to an Engineering Manager, this role collaborates closely with Product Managers, Data Engineers, Infrastructure, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams on a daily basis
 

Must Have’s:

• 5+ years of experience building and supporting production software systems

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience)

• Experience building and supporting production software systems

• Backend development (Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, .NET, Ruby, or similar)

• Strong understanding of APIs, distributed systems, and cloud-native architecture

• Comfort working in modern CI/CD environments

• Experience with observability, monitoring, and incident response

• Ability to own features and systems end-to-end

• Actively uses AI development tools (code copilots, AI debuggers, test generators)

• Curious about applying AI to real customer and business problems

• Able to critically evaluate AI outputs instead of blindly accepting them

• Comfortable learning and adapting in a fast-changing tool landscape

Nice to Have’s:

• Frontend experience (React, TypeScript) 

• AWS or similar cloud platforms

• Microservices and event-driven architectures

• SQL and data-driven applications

• Marketplace, e-commerce, or high-volume transaction systems

• Reliability engineering or SRE experience

• Experience modernizing or migrating legacy systems

What We Offer:

• Competitive pay

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits with employer HSA contributions (US) and FSA options (US)

• Immediately vested 401K (US) or RRSP (Canada) with company match

• Paid Vacation, Personal, and Sick Time

• Paid maternity and paternity leave (US)

• Employer-paid short-term disability, long-term disability, life insurance, and AD&D (US)

• Robust Employee Assistance Program

• Employer paid Leap into Service Day to volunteer

• Tuition Reimbursement for eligible programs

• Opportunities to expand your skill set and share your knowledge across a publicly traded, global organization

• Company culture of internal promotions, diverse career paths, and meaningful advancement

Sound like a match? Apply Now - We can't wait to hear from you!
 

Compensation Range of

Annual Salary: $125,000.00 - $175,000.00

(Depending on experience, skill set, qualifications, and other relevant factors.)