Associate Software Engineer

About the Role

We're hiring early-career engineers to build the next generation of automotive retail software. You'll develop software by partnering with advanced AI systems to design, build, test, and ship production code, with you as the engineer of record. You will start with AI-accelerated coding and progress toward delegating substantial development tasks to AI under your direction.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and ship production software using modern AI-based development workflows, progressing from AI-accelerated coding to delegating well-scoped tasks to advanced AI systems.
• Write precise specifications, technical plans, and acceptance criteria that humans and AI systems can execute against.
• Own the correctness, security, and maintainability of all shipped code.
• Rigorously review, test, and validate all AI-generated code.
• Never expose credentials, customer data, or proprietary code to unapproved tools.
• Keep codebases lean: resist AI-generated bloat, unnecessary dependencies, and over-engineering.
• Use AI development resources cost-effectively, treating compute and tooling spend as an engineering constraint.
• Develop deep expertise in automotive retail operations and consumer purchasing behavior.
• Solve problems of moderate scope with increasing independence and sound technical judgment.
• Experiment with and share new AI development techniques and workflow improvements.
• Plan and prioritize your own work with decreasing need for day-to-day direction.
• Build strong relationships across engineering, product, and design.
• Participate in on-call rotations and emergency response to maintain platform reliability.
• Follow all CDK Global policies and procedures, including responsible AI usage guidelines.
• Complete all mandatory compliance tasks.
• Meet or exceed all performance expectations.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• NodeJS
• ReactJS
• AWS Cloud
• Core CS fundamentals
• Modern AI-based development workflows
• AI-accelerated coding
• AI development techniques
• Version control
• Code review
• Automated testing
• CI/CD
• Modern full stack (mobile/web front ends, backend APIs, databases, cloud)

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• 0–2 years of professional experience.
• Experience with NodeJS, ReactJS, and AWS Cloud.
• Strong command of at least one programming language.
• Ability to read and reason about code you didn't write: spotting bugs, edge cases, security issues, and design problems.
• Excellent written communication skills.
• Genuine curiosity about AI-based development, shown through coursework, projects, hackathons, or independent experimentation.
• A verification mindset: skepticism of unvalidated output, rigor in testing before trusting.
• Self-motivated fast learner.
• Collaborative problem-solver, effective independently and in teams.
• Ability to drive issues to timely resolution.
• Preferred: Substantive personal or academic projects using AI development tools and the ability to articulate learnings.
• Preferred: Experience with Spec-Driven Development (SDD), Kafka, and Mongo.
• Preferred: Exposure to version control, code review, automated testing, and CI/CD.
• Preferred: Experience in a modern full stack.
• Preferred: Interest in building software that business operators and consumers depend on.