Applied AI Architect

CarNow builds the digital retail platform that powers automotive dealerships across North America. We move fast, ship often, and are actively building with AI-first engineering practices.

We’re looking for an Applied AI Architect to design and drive AI-native systems across our platform. This is a hands-on architecture role for a builder who can create strong technical foundations, stay close to the code, and help teams ship reliable AI capabilities with real business impact.

This is not a policy-only or governance-only role. We need someone who can turn ideas into working systems, reduce ambiguity with practical technical decisions, and establish lightweight patterns that help teams move faster without creating process overhead.

You’ll work across LLM-powered features, scoring and decisioning systems, orchestration layers, and the backend services that support them.

• Design the architecture for AI-native systems, including orchestration, model integration, retrieval, evaluation, and production guardrails.
• Build practical patterns for where AI should be used, where deterministic systems should stay in control, and how both work together in production.
• Design backend services and APIs for AI-powered product capabilities and internal automation.
• Shape AI features from concept through rollout, turning ambiguous goals into practical technical plans.
• Make build-vs-buy decisions across models, tooling, infrastructure, and vendors.
• Stay close to implementation by prototyping, reviewing architecture and code, and unblocking complex technical issues.
• Jump into coding when needed to prove patterns, unblock delivery, or help teams move faster on high-impact work.
• Define lightweight best practices for testing, monitoring, rollout, and safe operation of AI systems.
• Mentor engineers on AI system design, backend architecture, and responsible use of LLMs.
  

• Backend: Typescript (NestJS), Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, microservices
• Frontend: TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node/BFF
• Cloud & Data: AWS, SQL, event-driven systems, observability tooling
• Dev Workflow: GitHub, Jira, Confluence, AI-assisted development tools
  

• 8 years of software engineering experience, including senior-level ownership of architecture for production systems.
• Strong backend and distributed systems experience, ideally with Java or Kotlin, Spring Boot, APIs, and microservices.
• Proven experience designing scalable, high-performance systems and leading complex technical initiatives.
• Strong hands-on experience with AWS, cloud infrastructure, and observability practices.
• Experience building or integrating AI-powered systems such as LLM-based features, retrieval systems, scoring, decisioning, or intelligent automation.
• Strong judgment around reliability, security, and operational excellence.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

• Experience with event-driven systems, messaging, and data-intensive backend services.
• Familiarity with workflow automation, scoring systems, or intelligence-heavy SaaS products.
• Experience evaluating external AI vendors, models, vector databases, or orchestration frameworks.
• Experience helping teams adopt AI-assisted development workflows.
• Comfortable working across backend, platform, and product boundaries when the work requires it.
  

In the first 6–12 months, you will:

• Define a clear architecture for AI-native systems at CarNow.
• Help teams ship production AI capabilities on a stronger backend foundation.
• Improve the reliability, observability, and reuse of AI-enabled services.
• Raise the bar for how we design and build AI systems across engineering.
  

• Real ownership and high impact across platform and product architecture.
• An AI-first engineering culture with room to build, not just advise.
• The opportunity to shape production systems used by real dealers and shoppers.
• A collaborative engineering organization that values clarity, speed, and strong technical judgment.
• Flexible remote work and competitive compensation.
• Range: 250k-300k options