Senior Software Engineer

At Dealr, Inc., we’re reshaping the automotive industry with two dynamic offerings: dealr.cloud and Dealer Title Solutions (DTS). As a forward-thinking SaaS company, we provide dealr.cloud, an all-in-one management solution that’s helping independent dealerships streamline their operations and support their revenue growth. Meanwhile, DTS, born from our rich heritage of automotive expertise, is transforming Colorado’s title and registration processes with a sleek, electronic approach.

Why join us? Our Colorado-based team is passionate, talented, and customer-focused. We’re proud to offer innovative, user-friendly software solutions that revolutionize dealership operations—whether it’s through dealr.cloud’s comprehensive management capabilities or DTS’s seamless electronic title processing. We’re growing rapidly and expanding our reach, with a stable market share and a commitment to driving continuous improvement.

By joining our team, you’ll be an integral part of our journey toward innovation, directly shaping the future of the industry and enabling dealership success every day.

Check us out:

dealr.cloud: https://dealr.cloud

Dealer Title Solutions: https://dealertitlesolutions.com

Senior Software Engineer
As a Senior Software Engineer at Dealr, you will be a critical member of the newly formed engineering department, reporting to the Engineering Manager. Your role will focus primarily on maintaining and improving the codebase of our core platforms, dealr.cloud and Dealer Title Solutions, while also contributing to the development of new infrastructure. This full-stack position will require you to work across our front-end, back-end, databases, microservices, and AWS infrastructure. While you will have opportunities to work on new features, your primary responsibility is ensuring the stability, security, and performance of our existing systems.

The new Engineering department will consist of this role and an Engineering Manager, whom we plan to hire simultaneously. The Engineering Manager will report to the CEO who is solely responsible for the product design and development of the entire platform to date. You would be coming into an established company with over 30 employees and in a stable growth stage. We’re entirely self-funded through revenue and have been bootstrapped through the startup stage into our current stable position. As we set ourselves for further growth, it’s critical that we have further development capacity and the ability to move code responsibility off our CEO. The CEO will remain “head of technology” and “head of product,” however those roles will primarily consist of making strategic decisions for the codebase. This role will work closely with our Product Manager, who has been with the company for 4 years and is a technical leader in the organization; the Product Manager will communicate the majority of product requirements and bring an intense awareness of the how and the why the product currently operates.

What you’ll do:

• Be the primary code contributor: Take ownership of the codebase for dealr.cloud and Dealer Title Solutions, contributing high-quality, maintainable code that supports the platforms stability and growth.

• Facilitate code review and quality assurance: Participate in code reviews to maintain high standards of quality, consistency, and security.

• Implement and manage testing frameworks: Build and refine automated testing solutions to ensure the codebase is robust, maintainable, and free from critical bugs or vulnerabilities. Drive test coverage improvements and reduce regression issues across all layers of the stack.

• Identify and address technical debt: Conduct thorough code reviews and perform regular audits of the existing codebase to identify areas of technical debt. Develop and execute strategies to reduce this debt, optimizing code efficiency and long-term scalability.

• Ensure application security: Collaborate with security teams and perform regular security reviews to proactively find and address vulnerabilities, ensuring the software remains secure, compliant, and safe for users.

• Lead front-end rebuild initiative: Take ownership of modernizing the front-end architecture, utilizing industry best practices to improve user experience, performance, and responsiveness. Work closely with the product team to align on UI/UX goals.

• Fix software bugs and enhance user experience: Work in conjunction with the Product Manager to troubleshoot and resolve critical bugs in a timely manner. Focus on improving the user experience by continually refining and enhancing the platform’s functionality and performance.

• Collaborate on product development: Partner with the Product Manager and CEO to help translate product vision into technical execution. Ensure that new product features are built to scale and align with the overall product roadmap.

• Maintain AWS infrastructure: Manage cloud infrastructure, ensuring the platform remains reliable, scalable, and cost-efficient. Oversee deployment pipelines and ensure seamless delivery of updates and new features.

• Contribute to architectural decisions: Participate in strategic planning sessions to help shape the future architecture of our platform, ensuring scalability, performance, and ease of maintenance as the company grows.

• Mentor junior developers: As the engineering team grows, provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers, fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, and high-quality coding standards.

• Streamline CI/CD pipelines: Continuously improve our CI and CD processes to reduce development friction, ensure rapid iteration, and minimize downtime.

• Proactively suggest improvements: Be a voice for technical innovation and process improvement, regularly identifying opportunities to enhance our engineering workflows, tools, and technologies to increase efficiency and product quality.

Who you are:

• A Tech Titan: You have a wide range of experience across different technologies, including full-stack development, and you are comfortable with quickly mastering new tools and systems.

• A Creative Problem Solver: You can think on your feet, foresee potential issues, and come up with effective solutions to complex problems.

• Super Teachable and Flexible: You are open to feedback, quickly adapt to changes, and continuously look for ways to improve both yourself and the product.

• A Go-Getter: You are proactive, results-driven, and not afraid to get into the weeds to ensure a job well done.

• A Great Communicator: You’re comfortable working closely with others, explaining complex technical issues in simple terms, and you know how to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Tech Stack:

• VCS: Git through GitHub

• Company Computers: macOS and JetBrains IDEs

• Infrastructure: AWS, ECS, and RDS for computer and database

• Backend: PHP primarily (API only, no frontend templating), NodeJS for microservices

• Frontend: AngularJS (v1) primarily (pending frontend rebuild), various others like VueJS, vanilla HTML/Twig templating

• Database: MySQL primarily, Postgres for certain microservices 

This is a full-time position. Dealr, Inc. provides a 3-2 hybrid work model in which employees are given the opportunity to work from their dedicated home workspace for two days per week on Tuesdays and Fridays after the first month of in-office training. The typical work schedule will be from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm on weekdays with additional hours as necessary. This salaried position requires at least 40 hours per week and may require on-call time for infrequent issues.

Benefits:

• Medical Insurance

• Dental Insurance

• Vision Insurance

• Flex Spending Account

• Life Insurance

• Colorado Secure Savings (Retirement)

• Paid Holidays

• Paid Time Off (vacation/sick)

• Hybrid Work from Home Schedule (after initial 30 days)

  • We provide a 3-2 hybrid work model in which employees are given the opportunity to work from home for up to two designated days per week. (designated days are Tuesday & Friday)

• Years of Experience: 5+ years of full-stack development experience.

• Experience with VCS: Proficiency in Git and GitHub workflows.

• Development Environment: Familiarity with macOS and JetBrains IDEs.

• Cloud Infrastructure: Hands-on experience with AWS, specifically ECS and RDS.

• Backend Development:

  • Strong experience in PHP (backend-focused).

  • Familiarity with NodeJS for microservices.

• Frontend Development: Experience with AngularJS (v1) and basic knowledge of VueJS, HTML, and Twig.

• Database: Proficiency in MySQL, familiarity with PostgreSQL.

• CI/CD & Testing: Experience with automated testing and CI/CD pipelines.

• Security & Optimization: Knowledge of security practices and code optimization.
  
  
  

  Message from the CEO:

  Hello! Thanks for reviewing our job description, and reading this message. While a bit untraditional, I wanted to put a short note into the job descriptions for our new Engineering department because the stage of where we are as a company is unusual and you might be thinking “30 employees and only the CEO as the coder?” and I would love to answer that now!
  
  

  Up until this stage we really focused on growth, and I managed the full development stack from product, UI/UX design, graphics design, frontend/backend/database, infrastructure, strategy, etc. We had brought entry-level devs in early in the company, however their experience level was not at a level to be self-sufficient. Until now, we didn’t feel the need to allocate the substantive resources it would take to bring on an Engineering department with the right senior staff, and we wanted to ensure we did it right, which is where we are today!
  
  

  I’m incredibly excited about these positions and the ability to transition code ownership to other very talented people. Also, I’m ready for it! I love coding, innovating, and building amazing solutions for our clients, but I’m also pulled in a many different directions and we will serve both our team and our clients better through a well-designed Engineering department.
  
  

  Last thing: tech debt. I’m airing our (my) dirty laundry here as I would want transparency if I were applying for a position like this. I’m a self-taught developer (Graduate of StackOverflow University) who solved real business problems for myself at my family’s automobile dealership and converted those solutions into a software company. We have tech debt, like any company, and I’m committed to providing resources to pay it down and make incredible software that is easy to test, maintain, and work on. Right now, there’s work needed, but you also would have a CEO who won’t have to be convinced to fix tech debt - I’m ready! Biggest categories: 1) the front-end is built on AngularJS (v1) and needs a rebuild 2) unit and integration testing is nearly non-existent, and 3) low comment coverage, which is primarily due to our lack of an engineering team previously, but also something that I will be involved with to get the code-base up-to-snuff. A few things we’ve done a great job with: 1) CD pipeline with AWS and containers for consistent, replicable, and maintainable infrastructure, 2) SOC2 Type II certification, as we’ve worked heavily on security and good security fundamentals, and 3) user facing documentation describing how the product should work in various circumstances.
  
  

  What I will tell you is that we have an amazing product and customer experience, and have built incredibly innovative solutions over the years. Myself and our entire team are passionate about the product we provide, and the market we serve, and we truly believe we provide the best product on the market. I’m excited to take this company to the next level, and for you to be a part of doing it. I’m committed to the next stage of development - Are you up for the challenge?
  
  

  I look forward to meeting you!

  
  
  Forrest Middleton
  Founder + CEO