Junior Backend Developer Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

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 Challenge and 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. We are proud to be named one of Built In's 2026 Best Places to Work in Chicago and across the U.S. Ready to make your mark? Join a team that's driving real change in the automotive industry.
ABOUT THE ROLE [Remote , must be located in Chicago area. May require onsite interviews]
Join us in shaping a future of Automotive Commerce. Cars Commerce builds solutions for automotive dealerships, manufacturers, and consumers. Our driving force is to deliver a single platform that simplifies everything about buying and selling cars. Our Websites Engineering Team drives our Dealer Inspire platform. We are embarking on a transformational journey, building innovative and integrated services that redefine how we deliver value to our customers.
Dealer Inspire provides innovative websites and digital marketing solutions for thousands of car dealerships. 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.
Our Websites Vehicle Inventory team is the foundation of our Dealer Inspire website platform and powers the data for all our products. We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to enhance existing backend services, troubleshoot and optimize current systems, and build scalable, secure, and reliable API-based backend services that power our platform. In this Senior Software Engineer role, you will also mentor junior engineers, providing guidance on best practices, code quality, and system architecture to foster a collaborative and high-performing development team.
ABOUT YOU
You are an experienced, results-driven software engineer who thrives in building scalable and reliable backend systems. You have a strong foundation in designing and developing API-based services that can handle high traffic volumes while ensuring performance, security, and maintainability. You understand software architecture and engineering best practices and are comfortable making technical decisions that balance speed, quality, and long-term stability.
You are also adept at using architecture patterns and iterative approaches to improve legacy services. You're comfortable with both hands-on coding and designing backend services that meet evolving product requirements. You understand the importance of testing, observability, and CI/CD pipelines in delivering reliable systems. You have experience working with Kubernetes and containerized services, leveraging orchestration and automation to optimize deployment, scalability, and resilience. You safely and efficiently leverage company-approved AI code generation tools to design, build, and review systems.
WHY YOU'LL BE EXCITED ABOUT THIS ROLE
This opportunity enables you to...

• Develop Scalable and Observable Systems: Collaborate with a lead engineer to design and develop 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 builds. 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 systems 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.

WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT YOU BECAUSE...

• 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

Bonus:

• Experience with PHP and WordPress

In the spirit of pay transparency, we are excited to share the base salary range for this position. In addition to base salary, some roles are eligible for our bonus and/or equity programs, depending on level and role. Regular full-time positions are eligible for our comprehensive benefits package. If you are hired at Cars Commerce, your final base salary compensation will be determined based on factors such as skills and/or experience. If the salary range is close to what you're seeking, then we encourage you to apply and learn more about the total compensation package for this position.
Salary Range
$118,600.00-148,250.00
Our Comprehensive Benefits Package includes:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Healthcare Plans
• New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set-Up
• Generous PTO
• Paid Holidays, Floating Holiday, Volunteer Day, Recharge Day

Learn more about our Benefits, Perks, & Culture on our LinkedIn Life Pages!
For US-based Positions: Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States. Please note that we are unable to sponsor employment visas at this time.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Applicants: Click here to review our Privacy Policy for Applicants. For current employees, please click here to review our California Privacy Policy for Employees.