VP, Marketplace Engineering

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, 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. 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.

VP, Marketplace Engineering

Here at CARS, we are constantly developing technology that innovates how customers and dealers buy and sell their vehicles. In 1998, we invented the car search with Cars.com and revolutionized the way the industry does business. Now, we bring that same boldness, energy, and drive to optimizing solutions across our brands every single day. We are constantly creating new possibilities, traversing uncharted routes and welcoming challenges along the way.

No one ever travels alone here: at its core, CARS is collaboration. Whether it is within individual teams, across departments, or the company at large, our employees support one another across every dimension of life at CARS. We operate as a collective, utilizing all of our diverse strengths to approach problems from every single angle, united by our award-winning company culture and our mission to make car shopping the best experience possible.

CARS includes the following brands: Cars.com, Dealer Inspire, DealerRater, FUEL, CreditIQ & Accu-Trade. Learn more here!

VP, Marketplace Engineering

We are looking for an accomplished Engineering leader for our Cars.com Marketplace at Cars Commerce. In this role, you will lead the Product Engineering teams that create the Car Shopping experience for millions of consumers using our Website and Mobile Apps.  The Marketplace Engineering team leverages a set of products, services, and tools from our Cars Commerce platform that enable them to leverage a common set of capabilities to create experiences with speed and that push our innovations forward.  The successful candidate will combine strategic vision, relevant expertise, excellent communication skills, and the ability to manage cross-functionally to develop business cases, get internal and external buy-in, and orchestrate execution with customers and partners.

As a leader of the Marketplace Engineering Team, you will partner with the VP, Product, Marketplace to ideate, build, and execute a best-in-class Product roadmap that drives key business outcomes while accounting for Technology, Marketing, and Analytics concerns.  You will thrive at Cars Commerce, because you are a creative problem solver, people leader, and executor driven by creating Product Innovations for massive audiences, while maintaining an efficient, operationally excellent set of technologies, systems, and services.

Responsibilities

Reporting directly to the CTO, this position offers executive-level exposure and cross-departmental experience.

• Create and maintain a Vision for Marketplace Engineering, in partnership with Marketplace Product leadership

  • Growing our Consumer Shopping Audience

  • Enabling Innovation and Speed to Market

  • A Mobile First Approach to Product Development

  • Operate Excellently as our Product Engineering teams run what they build

  • Build and Maintain Technology Standards, Best Practices, “Paved Roads”, Technology Maturity Assessment and Mitigation Planning

• Be the expert at communicating the Marketplace Vision and strategies to both internal and external audiences by helping to translate technical roadmaps to meaningful business outcomes 

  • Build executive relationships and enabling executive leadership to understand the benefits Marketplace contributes to, and receives from, the platform strategy

• Drive execution of that Marketplace Vision, including creating and managing KPIs, OKRs, SLOs and SLAs

• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders across the organization, including product, marketing, sales, and operations.

• Develop and maintain high-performing software development teams by attracting, recruiting, and retaining top talent

• Manage the Marketplace Engineering budget, ensuring efficient allocation of resources and cost optimization

• Manage and prioritize multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring on-time and on-budget delivery

• Create and present clear and concise reports on the status of software development projects to executive management

• Stay abreast of the latest trends and technologies in the software development industry

Qualifications

• At least 15 years of Technology leadership experience

• Has lead teams that have built Web and Mobile products with large audiences

• Comfortable meeting with high profile Customers, guiding them through Product and Technology possibilities and constraints

• Experience leading Software Development teams – understands the SDLC process, knows how to build from scratch

• Experience delivering software to multiple channels like Mobile – understands core concepts around iOS/Android development, Mobile Design Systems, choosing when to leverage Native

• Experience partnering with Cloud teams – has strong technical, operational, and governance depth with at least one Cloud provider and service from Azure, GCP, or AWS

• Experience with partnering with Architecture teams – understands core architecture principles, appreciates the benefits and pitfalls of how architecture impacts Product and Technology teams

• Experience with partnering with QA Engineering – experiences with various tools and frameworks, supports a hub & spoke model with centralized expertise, best practices, and tool administration complimented by localized implementations

• Strong understanding of software development best practices, including code quality, testing, and deployment

• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills

• Ability to build and maintain strong relationships with cross-functional teams

• Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills

• Proven ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects simultaneously

• Passion for technology and a commitment to innovation

Our Comprehensive Benefits Package includes:

• 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

Learn more about our Benefits, Perks, & Culture on our LinkedIn Life Pages!

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. California Applicants: Click here to review our California Privacy Policy for Applicants. For current employees, please click here to review our California Privacy Policy for Employees.